This table is based on research at SEDA Protocol for assessing which cryptographic primitives are most widely used by blockchain protocols.
The following table includes the chains with the most-wide adoption or significant TVL (Total Value Locked). Items are displayed in alphabetical order (market cap or TVL metrics change abruptly with time).
The main conclusions are:
- Most platforms use the same cryptographic primitives as Ethereum and Bitcoin.
- The most widely-used signing algorithm is ECDSA with the curve
secp256k1. - Relatively newer protocols use EdDSA with
curve25519. - Hashing algorithms vary depending on the desired chain interoperability.
- Most widely-used hashing algorithm is
keccak256. - Aggregate signature schemes are only supported by EVM-compatible chains with the curve
bn256(akaalt-bn128). - Support for newer aggregate signature schemes based is almost non-existent (e.g.,
bls12-381).
| Name | Symbol | Type | Signing Algorithm | Signing Default Curve | Signing Supported Curves | Hash Default Alg. | Supported Hash Alg. | Aggregate Signatures | Address Encoding | Address Hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acala | ACA | account | ECDSA, Schnorr, EdDSA | curve25519, ristretto25519, secp256k1 | blake2b | sha2-256, ripemd-160 | bn256 | SS58 (~base58) | none | |
| Algorand | ALGO | account | EdDSA | curve25519 | secp256k1 | sha-256 | sha3-256, keccak-256*, sha-512/256 | base32 | none | |
| Avalanche | AVAX | utxo | ECDSA | secp256k1 | keccak-256* | bn256 | bech32 + none (just hex) | sha-256, ripemd-160 + last 20 bytes of Keccak-256* (C-CHAIN) | ||
| Bitcoin | BTC | utxo | ECDSA | secp256k1 | sha-256, ripemd-160 | n/a | base58, bech32 | sha-256, ripemd-160 | ||
| Cardano | ADA | utxo | EdDSA | curve25519 | blake2b | base58, bech32 | none | |||
| Cosmos | ATOM | account | ECDSA | secp256k1 | (ed25519 consensus) | keccak-256* | n/a | bech32 (or hex) | last 20 bytes of Keccak-256* | |
| EOS | EOS | account | ECDSA | secp256k1 | sha-256 | none | none | |||
| Ethereum | ETH | account | ECDSA | secp256k1 | keccak-256* | sha2-256, ripemd-160, blake2b | bn256 | none (just hex) | last 20 bytes of Keccak-256* | |
| Filecoin | FIL | account | ECDSA, BLS | secp256k1, bls12-381 | blake2b | sha2-256 | none (just hex), base32 | blake2b-160, none | ||
| Mixin | XIN | utxo | EdDSA | curve25519 | sha-512 | n/a | n/a | n/a | ||
| Monero | XMR | utxo | EdDSA, Bulletproofs | curve25519 | keccak-256* | base58 | keccak-256* | |||
| NEAR | NEAR | account | EdDSA, ECDSA | curve25519, secp256k1 | sha-256 | keccak-256, keccak-512, ripemd-160 | bn256 | base58 | none | |
| NEO | NEO | account | ECDSA | secp256r1 | sha-256 | base58 | sha-256, ripemd-160 | |||
| Ontology | ONT | account | ECDSA | secp256r1 | 3x sha-256 | base58 | sha-256, ripemd-160 | |||
| Polkadot | DOT | account | ECDSA, Schnorr, EdDSA | curve25519, ristretto25519, secp256k1 | blake2b | n/a | SS58 (~base58) | none | ||
| Solana | SOL | account | EdDSA | curve25519 | secp256k1 | sha-256 | blake3, keccak-256 | bn256 | none | none |
| Stellar | XLM | account | EdDSA | curve25519 | sha-256, sha-512 | base32 | none | |||
| Tezos | XTZ | account | ECDSA, EdDSA | ed25519, secp256k1, secp256r1 | blake2, sha-512 in EdDSA | base58 | blake2 | |||
| Tron | TRON | utxo | ECDSA | secp256k1 | sha-256 | sha2-256, ripemd-160, blake2b | bn256 | base58 | last 20 bytes of Keccak-256* | |
| Waves | WAVES | account | EdDSA | curve25519 | blake2b256, keccak256* | bn256, bls12-381 | base58 | none | ||
| XRP | XRP | account | ECDSA, EdDSA | secp256k1, curve25519 | sha-512Half | base58 | first half of sha512 | |||
| Zcash | ZEC | utxo | ECDSA, zk-SNARKs, BLS | secp256k1, Jubjub, bls12-381 | sha-256 | base58, bech32 | sha-256, ripemd-160 |
Notes:
keccak256*: Ethereum uses KECCAK-256. It should be noted that it does not follow the FIPS-202 based standard (a.k.a SHA-3), which was finalized in August 2015. Many blockchain protocols use the same modified version as Ethereum.
Other protocols share the same characteristics as the main L1 chains:
| Name | Symbol | Same algorithms as... | Aggregate Signature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acala | ACA | Polkadot | bn256 |
| Arbitrum | - | Ethereum | bn256 |
| Bitcoin Cash | BCH | Bitcoin | n/a |
| Bitcoin SV | BSV | Bitcoin | n/a |
| Boba Network | BOBA | Ethereum | bn256 |
| BSC | BNB | Ethereum | bn256 |
| Celo | CELO | Ethereum | bn256 |
| Cronos | CRO | Cosmos | ? |
| Dash | DASH | Bitcoin | n/a |
| DefiChain | DFI | Bitcoin | n/a |
| Ethereum Classic | ETC | Ethereum | bn256 |
| Fantom | FTM | Ethereum | bn256 |
| Fusion | SN | Ethereum | bn256 |
| Gnosis | GNO | Ethereum | bn256 |
| Harmony | ONE | Ethereum | bn256 |
| Kava | KAVA | Cosmos | ? |
| Klaytn | KLAY | Ethereum | bn256 |
| Kusama | KSM | Polkadot | n/a |
| Litecoin | LTC | Bitcoin | n/a |
| Metis | METIS | Ethereum | bn256 |
| Moonbeam | GLMR | Ethereum | bn256 |
| Optimism | OP | Ethereum | bn256 |
| Osmosis | OSMO | Cosmos | n/a |
| Parallel | PARA | Polkadot | n/a |
| Polygon | MATIC | Ethereum | bn256 |
| Theta Network | THETA | Ethereum | bn256 |
| VeChain | VET | Ethereum | bn256 |