Benchmarking Decentralized Identifier Performance Across Ethereum, Hedera, and XRP Ledger

Global: Benchmarking Decentralized Identifier Performance Across Ethereum, Hedera, and XRP Ledger

Researchers have conducted an empirical benchmarking study of decentralized identifier (DID) implementations on three major distributed ledger platforms—Ethereum, Hedera Hashgraph, and the XRP Ledger—using the official software development kits (SDKs) in a unified experimental environment. The study, posted to arXiv in January 2026, measures transaction latency, on‑chain cost, and metadata exposure, and introduces a Metadata‑Leakage Score (MLS) to quantify privacy risk in bits per operation.

Methodology

The authors configured identical DID creation, update, and revocation workflows across the three ledgers, normalizing latency by each platform’s block or consensus interval and cost by the native fee structure. All experiments were executed on test networks to isolate performance characteristics from market volatility. The MLS, an entropy‑based metric, evaluates the amount of on‑chain metadata disclosed per operation.

Ethereum Findings

Ethereum’s off‑chain DID creation delivers near‑instant response times, but on‑chain lifecycle operations exhibit the longest latency and highest transaction fees among the three platforms. The MLS for Ethereum indicates moderate metadata exposure, reflecting the relatively concise transaction payloads used by its SDK.

Hedera Findings

Hedera Hashgraph demonstrates the lowest on‑chain latency and low transaction costs, while maintaining minimal metadata leakage. Occasional variance in latency is attributed to SDK‑side processing and the platform’s asynchronous confirmation pipeline.

XRP Ledger Findings

The XRP Ledger provides deterministic and stable latency with fixed, low transaction fees. However, its transaction format results in higher metadata leakage compared with the other platforms, as reflected by a higher MLS value.

Privacy Leakage Assessment

Across all three ledgers, the study shows that ledger architecture and SDK workflow design significantly influence the amount of metadata exposed on‑chain. Hedera’s design yields the smallest MLS, whereas the XRP Ledger’s verbose payloads increase the bits of information disclosed per operation.

Implications

The authors conclude that selection of a DID method should consider not only consensus mechanisms but also the underlying ledger’s transaction model and SDK implementation. Their findings provide evidence‑based guidance for developers and organizations seeking to balance performance, cost, and privacy when deploying decentralized identifiers.

This report is based on information from arXiv, licensed under Academic Preprint / Open Access. Based on the abstract of the research paper. Full text available via ArXiv.