The 3rd-generation distributed ledger is looking to become the protocol of choice for business and individual transactions
Blockchain is quickly becoming a centerpiece to the future state of technology. But it’s not alone in designing a decentralized future. In this complete beginner’s guide to Hedera Hashgraph, we will look at Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR), a proof-of-stake public and decentralized network protocol that sees itself as the next generation of distributed ledger technology.
What is Hedera Hashgraph?
Hedera calls itself the 3rd-generation public ledger. Bitcoin and Ethereum are considered to be the 1st- and 2nd-generation public ledgers. According to Hedera, the vision of Hedera is “to build a trusted, secure, and empowered digital future for all.”
Hedera Hashgraph is a distributed ledger protocol described as a successor to blockchain technology. But where the image of blockchain technology is of a series of blocks linked together, Hedera is more like a graph.
Hedera Hashgraph technology
Directed Acyclic Graph or DAG is the technology that unpins Hedera and is designed to process transactions (6.5 million) much faster than its competitors, in this case, Bitcoin (300,000) and Ethereum (1.2 million).
Related: Proof of Work vs Proof of Stake
As a decentralized public network, developers can use Hedera to build secure decentralized applications (dAPPS). According to Hedera, by being built on Hedera, dAPPS achieve a consensus in almost real-time.
Who created Hedera Hashgraph?
Hedera Hashgraph was launched in July 2017 by Dr. Leemon Baird and Mance Harmon, who acts as Chief Scientist and CEO, respectively. With Hedera, the speed that transactions are verified goes up as more transactions are added to the network.
A group of companies govern Hedera and make up the Hedera Governing Council, including Avery Dennison, Boeing, Chainlink Labs, IBM, Google, LG, and more.
Hedera Hashgraph’s NFT platform
In May 2021, SUKU partnered with Hedera to create an environmentally-friendly NFT platform called INFINITE. INFINITE, says it is a carbon-negative NFT platform as it uses the Hashgraph proof-of-stake consensus mechanism instead of one based on a proof-of-work (POW) consensus mechanism like Ethereum.
Hedera Hashgraph Token
Hedera uses HBAR for use in staking on a network node, and to vote on transactions during consensus.
Where is HBAR listed?
HBAR is listed on several cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Binance.us, Bittrex, Okcoin, OKEx, HitBTC, and more. Wallets that support HBAR include BitGo, Exodus, Guarda, Atomic Wallet, Ledger, BRD, and Coinomi.
Hedera Social Media
To learn more about Hedera Hashgraph, go to the official Hedera website. The Hedera team is active on various social media platforms, including Telegram, Reddit, Medium, Discord, and Twitter.
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Hedera Hashgraph shows that the push for adoption is not just amongst currencies but also the underlying technology. And with the push to make cryptocurrency more environmentally friendly, starting off as a proof-of-stake consensus may just give Hedera the edge.