Sphere is a smart contract platform and peer-to-peer payment network. The network has a hybrid PoW and PoS consensus mechanism and is powered by the native SPHR token, which can be swapped for an ERC20 token over the Ubiq smart contract platform.

Lightning Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency protocol with a DPoS consensus mechanism. It is a hard fork of Bitcoin that was created with the goal of improving transaction speeds and scalabilty. Lightning Bitcoin's on-chain governance system enables LBTC holders to vote for the blockchain improvement proposals and the delegates who maintain the network as Lightning Nodes. Lightning Bitcoin is not related to the Lighting Network, which is an off-chain protocol built on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Mindexcoin is developing a universal payment platform powered by the Ethereum based token, MIC. Their marketing materials do not clearly outline any unique selling points, or advantages, that it will provide compared to other blokchain-based payment platforms.