Hedera Hashgraph is an enterprise-grade distributed ledger platform. After years of development, Hedera came out of stealth mode and launched the public beta of its mainnet in September. The Hedera team describes the Hashgraph as a 3rd generation public ledger (they refer to Bitcoin as 1st generation and Ethereum as 2nd generation). Hedera claims the Hashgraph can process up to 10,000 transactions per second, an order of magnitude faster than current blockchains.

Rather than use a blockchain platform, the Hedera Hashgraph is based on a DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph). This form of DLT doesn’t rely on a proof-of-work or proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Instead, Hedera network participants act as nodes that validate each other’s transactions which leads to faster consensus. However, the hashgraph is not decentralized. Instead, it has a governing council with members including corporate heavyweights such as IBM and Boeing.

Mance Harmon co-founder and CEO of Hedera Hashgraph talks about his early years at the Missile Defense Agency where he met Leemon Baird, the inventor of the Hashgraph algorithm. The two tech entrepreneurs say they’ve solved blockchain’s scalability problem. Have they? Let’s try and find out...

Key takeaway:

Hedera is no threat to Bitcoin. But when compared to platform blockchains like Ethereum, Hedera appears to offer a compelling feature set and faster transaction times. 

Why you should listen:

Mance explains why he thinks Hedera is a generation ahead of current blockchains, why the team has been consciously controversial, and why existing within legal and regulatory frameworks is a feature, not a bug.

Supporting Links

Hedera.com

Hedera Hashgraph - Time for Some Fud by Eric Wall

Counter Fud by Hedera’s Paul Madsen

Counter Counter Fud by Eric Wall

Fair Access v. Fair Ordering, & Transactions Per Second Examined & Explained

Twitter.com/hashgraph

Twitter.com/ManceHarmon