Sharding is a scaling technique used by some blockchains to increase transaction throughput by allowing the blockchain to be processed by multiple nodes in parallel. ‘Shard’ is an abbreviation for ‘System for Highly Available Replicated Data’ - the name of an 1980s database product.
Some blockchains that use sharding include Near Protocol (NEAR), Zilliqa (ZIL), and MultiversX, ex-Elrond (EGLD). Sharding will be implemented on Ethereum (ETH) as part of ‘The Surge’, phase 2 of the Ethereum 2.0 project, on a date to be confirmed.
It is worth noting that sharding is a relatively new technology and is still being developed and improved upon, so it's difficult to say definitively which sharding blockchains are the "best." That being said, the three existing blockchains are among those that have been designed with sharding in mind and have made significant progress in implementing it.
According to coinexams.com, the best sharding blockchains regarding 'utility' would currently be ZIL and NEAR, whereas it should be EGLD and NEAR in the future:
It is also worth noting that among these three blockchains, NEAR would be the one currently having the highest number of active developers, according to tokenterminal.com:
In summary, although EGLD might be a good option in the future, NEAR seems to be the most active sharding blockchain currently.
Disclaimer: this article does not contain any financial advice. The information is provided for general informational and educational purposes only.
