Hedera Launches Hashgraph - A High-Speed Blockchain Alternative

Hedera’s long-awaited project – the Hashgraph, is finally open for anyone who wants to use the distributed ledger technology. The enterprise and commerce-oriented public network announced on 16^th September that the ledger is in the state of Open Acces (OA). Open Access also gives DApp developers the chance to build their applications on the Hashgraph platform. Twenty-six DApps are now live on the Hedera’s network.

Hedera received support from Certara and Chainlink, providing data for transactions, connectivity, and off-chain information to Hedera-based apps.

Hedera’s co-founder and CEO Mance Harmon stated that since the network is in Open Access mode, he expects more and more developers and users to join the network.

“We are thrilled to observe how the Internet technologies are slowly transform it into a fairer, more distributed, and more secure place,” Harmon added.

For now, Hedera is offering three services through its Hashgraph platform – the native HBAR cryptocurrency token, smart contracts availability, and file transfer services over the network.

Hedera’s native token – the HBAR – is scheduled for distribution over a period of 15 years. The first 379 million coins would go to investors, who participated in the three crowdfunding rounds between March 2018 and August 2018. Close to two million HBAR tokens would go to other participants, vendors, and advisors.

Fourteen exchanges have confirmed support for Hedera’s HBAR tokens, including Liquid, Bittrex, OKcoin, OKEx, Upbit, and AlgoZ

Initially, the network would be throttled to 10 transactions-per-second, with plans to reveal the full 10,000 transactions-per-second potential of the Hashgraph consequently.

However, despite the good news, Hedera’s project received criticism too. Eric Wall, former leader of the fintech vendor Cinnober, stated that the speed of Hedera’s network does not make it any different or dominating over the Ethereum blockchain. Wall also noted that the consensus system of Hedera is far from being new.

For now, Hedera will stay in open beta, until services like Hedera’s Consensus Service (HSC) would be implemented in version 1.0. The consensus service will act as a bridge between Hedera and private networks. For example, Certara’s plans include utilizing Hedera’s network to record “tamper-proof” records of health data, with cooperation with a private network, such as Hyperledger’s Fabric.