About Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR)

Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) is a decentralised public network seeking to put an end to the long-standing tradeoff between speed and security. 

While decentralised in terms of its consensus-reaching protocol, there are at present over 17 companies involved in the Hedera Governing Council, the body that is charged with overseeing governance of the platform, which include Boeing, Deutsche Telekom, Google, IBM, LG Electronics, and Tata Communications.

HBAR is the network’s native coin. It serves as “fuel” (used to pay traction fees incurred by users) and as means for securing the network. HBAR holders can stake their tokens to the network in order to partake in the transaction validation process. As a reward, these “stakers” receive a cut of transaction fees. 

Building trust amongst node operators lies at the center of Hedera’s mission. It’s not a traditional blockchain in the same vein as, say, the Bitcoin network; rather, it is a distributed ledger that reaches consensus through complex Hashgraph cryptography, viewed as able to provide the security of a proof-of-work (PoW) system without sacrificing on transaction speed.   

Current blockchain technologies operate sort of like a vigilant landscaper constantly trimming branches of blocks so the network appears as one continuous chain. In more technical terms, if two blocks of transactions are created at the same time, legacy blockchain networks, such as Bitcoin, must pick one and run with it, while “chopping off” the branch containing the discarded block. Hence, there is the appearance of a lone, continuous chain of blocks.