Blockstream is a private, for profit, blockchain technology company, that has played a key role in helping to develop, and fund, many of the key features of the Bitcoin Core platform. Blockstream is focused on developing bitcoin applications and has raised significant funding from several large investment funds. The company also employs several developers that are very influential within the Bitcoin Core development project. This, as well as being of Bitcoin's largest donors, has led to some criticism about conflicts of interest.
Blockstream is developing a number of Bitcoin applications that are intended to encourage adoption and improve transaction times on the bitcoin network. Their primary focus is on Sidechains, which are are extensions to existing blockchains that improve their functionality. The company is also working closely with industry leaders to create the Bitcoin Lightning system that will support higher trading volume and faster transactions on the bitcoin network. Blockstream is also developing a data feed, satellite network, and other applications that they hope will make blockchain more accessible.

Ubiq is an Ethereum fork that aims to create a more stable smart contract platform for building DApps. Ubiq's protocol currently uses a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, but will switch to Proof-of-Stake in 2019. The network is powered by the UBQ coin.
Ubiq's goal is to create a reliable and stable platform for developing DApps by modifying Ethereum's code base with important changes that will make it more secure and reduce instability. Consensus is based on their Flux Difficulty Algorithm, which is designed to constantly adjust the hash rate to protect against network attacks.

Aeternity is a smart contract driven blockchain platform that aims to integrate real world data and improve the overall performance of smart contracts. Aeternity has a hybrid consensus algorithm that combines PoW for verifying transactions, and PoS for governance purposes. The platform is based on a system of state channels that allow users to interact privately with each other and record this information off-chain.