ARK, which is a fork of Lisk, is developing an interconnected blockchain ecosystem that will make it easier for users to develop their own blockchains. Ark emphasizes interoperability and usability. Their moto is “Point.Click.Blockchain” and their goal is to allow for easy deployment of DApps. Ark's "push button blockchains" can be easily created with minimal programming knowledge. Ark also hopes to encourage adoption by developers by accommodating 18 different programming languages.
Ark has a delegated Proof-of-Stake (dPoS) consensus mechanism. Their governance model allows users to vote for delegates that secure the network. The top 51 delegates voluntarily share there tokens with their voters.
Ark contract execution service (ACES) connects ARK with other blockchains and will enable exchanges of value between them.

ChainLink is developing the LINK Network, which will enable connected smart contracts. LINK will provide smart contracts with a variety of external data and access to APIs. ChainLink's goal is to solve the connectivity problem that plagues smart contract based systems, and discourages mass adoption. Many decentralized applications are unable to connect with important external data sources due to limitations involving their consensus protocols. The LINK network wants to connect their smart contracts with external systems and APIs by using secure middleware.

ProximaX is developing a NEM-based platform with several on-chain and off-chain protocols. At its core, ProximaX is based on the NEM blockchain, and is designed to be an all-in-one platform for developing DApps. The platform has several parallel layers that are intended to provide decentralized storage, messaging, streaming, and content delivery services. The network is powered by the NEM-based XPX token. ProximaX intends on using a hybrid consensus mechanism for validating value transfers on these layers. Consensus will be driven with a combination of Proof-of-Importance (PoI), Proof-of-Storage (PoSt), and Proof-of-Bandwidth (PoB).