
Hedera is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) public decentralized public ledger that can support enterprise-grade applications in a highly efficient manner. Its technology offers high-speed transactions at low costs while consuming low bandwidth and energy, making it ideal for supporting commercial and scalable applications.
The HBAR is the native token of the Hedera Hashgraph ecosystem. It serves two key purposes within the network - it powers applications as it is used to pay transaction fees and improve the overall resilience and security of the Hedera network.
The Hedera Hashgraph network boasts a throughput of over 10,000 TPS (transactions per second) and average transaction fees of around $0.0001. It also has an extremely low transaction finality time, between three and five seconds, and consumes about 0.00017 kWh energy for each transaction.
The Hedera Consensus Service (HCS) decentralizes trust and brings public trust to permissioned blockchain networks. In addition, the network also allows developers to mint and operate their own tokenized assets on Hedera, offering extremely versatile use cases for the public ledger’s technology.
The distributed consensus Hashgraph Consortium was established in March 2018, following which its Hashgraph technology was showcased during the TechCrunch Disrupt event. In August 2018, Hedera’s mainnet launch took place along with the minting of 50 billion HBAR tokens.
The Hedera Consensus Service (HCS) for public ledgers was launched in February 2020, providing a trust layer for any dApp or permissioned blockchain network. A year later, in February 2021, the developers released the native tokenization framework Hedera Token Service (HTS). This service lets developers conveniently create and manage their own NFTs and fungible tokens on the Hedera network.
Through the remainder of 2021, several established names joined the Hedera Governing Council, including Shinhan Bank, Chainlink Labs, London School of Economics (LSE), Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), DBS Bank, and ServiceNow. The council oversees the Hedera Treasury consisting of pre-minted HBAR coins.
Additional technical developments followed in 2002, including support for ECDSA cryptography, auto account creation on Hedera using a public key, and scalable smart contracts. A significant development introduced by the Hedera team was the integration of HTS into the EVM.
The Hedera public network utilizes Proof-of-Stake principles coupled with hashgraph consensus to achieve ABFT (asynchronous Byzantine fault tolerance) to provide high security to data and assets against malicious actors within its network. Unlike conventional blockchain technology with networks having their own programming language for smart contracts, the Hedera network can support applications designed using JavaScript and Java in addition to Solidity and Vyper.
Its technology and design allow Hedera to support transactions with low latency, high transaction finality times, and low costs. In addition, Hedera offers higher levels of stability thanks to being governed by term-limited enterprises, preventing any possibility of forks. It is also equipped to meet global data regulations and can support commercial applications across even the most regulated industries and markets.
Developers and users can mint and manage fungible and non-fungible tokens on Hedera to offer an even more engaging experience. Be it for governance, enabling digital payments, or unique collectibles in the form of NFTs, Hedera can support them all.
Hedera’s Consensus Service can also be used for a wide range of enterprise-grade applications, including increasing transparency and accuracy within the supply chain and managing IP rights and identities in a decentralized, immutable, and cryptographically secure manner.
The Hedera crypto HBAR has multiple uses, including:
All transactions within the Hedera network are paid for using HBAR tokens. Be it for using the network to transfer payment or managing fungible tokens or NFTs, HBAR functions as the native currency in which users and developers offer compensation for resources.
You can stake HBAR tokens on the Hedera network to contribute toward validating transactions and improving the overall security of the ecosystem. In addition, you are also eligible to vote on key decisions about future upgrades and development of Hedera Hashgraph.
As one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, Hedera’s HBAR is an attractive digital asset to trade against other cryptos. Several crypto investors buy or sell HBAR or hold it long-term within their portfolios, believing in a bright future for the Hedera Hashgraph ecosystem. Review the latest Hedera Hashgraph price, HBAR market cap, and current circulating supply, and perform technical, sentiment, and fundamental analysis on the HBAR price chart before placing a new trade in the market.
Holding HBAR can be an attractive way to generate passive income. You can offer your Hedera tokens for staking via exchanges and DeFi platforms that provide the service.
KuCoin offers a convenient and risk-free way to grow your HBAR holdings via crypto lending. Head to this section to lend liquidity in HBAR to the platform. You can earn lucrative interest daily over seven days, 14 days, or 28 days, depending on the number of days you wish to lock up your Hedera crypto for lending liquidity.
Hedera Hashgraph is one of the newest entrants in the crypto industry, having launched in 2019. However, in a short span since its launch, it managed to make quite the splash and capture the market’s attention when the HBAR token catapulted into the cryptos’ list by market cap due to its low fees and superior distributed ledger technology.
The number of decentralized applications (dApps) operating in its ecosystem has increased rapidly, and such strong growth in the future could support the Hedera price statistics. As long as dApp developers and users adopt its network continues to rise, the HBAR price could head higher, making it a valuable investment to consider.
An uptick in interest in Web 3.0 technologies can lend strong support to the Hedera price as its network is one of the most robust Web3 platforms in the market at present. Its highly scalable and secure infrastructure can host numerous dApps across several key categories, including DeFi, NFTs, gaming, and more.
In addition, the Hedera price could also enjoy an uptrend when the crypto market trades with a bullish sentiment. A positive mood among investors could increase buying interest in HBAR and its value, making it an excellent investment.
Bitcoin is still the most dominant crypto which we will not see a potential challenger to replace it in terms of market cap and mass adoption level. However, Hedera Hashgraph has several advantages over Bitcoin - the king of cryptocurrencies. Let’s take a look at some of them:
The Bitcoin network can handle less than ten transactions per second (TPS). On the other hand, Hedera has a throughput of over 10,000 TPS.
While a Bitcoin transaction consumes as much as 885 kWh of energy, the Hedera Hashgraph network requires a mere 0.00017 kWh of energy to conduct one transaction. This makes it a far greener DLT to use and scale.
A transaction could take between 10 minutes and 1 hour for confirmation on the Bitcoin blockchain. In contrast, Hedera Hashgraph boasts a transaction confirmation time of 3-5 seconds.
As of August 2022, the average transaction fee on Bitcoin varies between $1 and $1.50. Meanwhile, the Hedera Hashgraph network charges a transaction fee of only $0.0001.
Bitcoin employs a proof of work consensus mechanism that requires significant energy and computing resources to validate transactions, produce new blocks, and secure the network. The Hedera Consensus Service utilizes proof of stake powered by hashgraph for consensus, consuming far lower bandwidth.
As a PoS network, you can stake HBAR to participate in the consensus mechanism of the Hedera network and generate more HBAR rewards for your efforts. Hedera offers weighted staking, giving holders higher weightage if they stake more tokens.
You can also stake HBAR coins without operating network nodes using the option of proxy staking. Similar to the delegated proof of stake (DPoS) consensus, this option lets you earn rewards that are split between you and the node operator who functions as your proxy within the network. As of July 2022, the proxy staking feature remains under development and could be launched in the future.
You can stake HBAR through DeFi protocols and exchanges that offer this service. Perform your research to find the best-suited platform for staking HBAR and create your account to get started.
Buy Hedera on KuCoin or other platforms and transfer your HBAR tokens into the account from where you can stake them. Use the staking option to compare the best returns, select the lock-in period, and stake your HBAR to generate a stream of passive revenue.
One option to stake HBAR is via the HashPack wallet, a digital wallet powered by the Hedera network. Send your HBAR from KuCoin or any other platform from which you have bought the crypto into your HashPack wallet and use them to interact with Hedera-based decentralized applications (dApps).
The Hedera Hashgraph crypto has a total supply of 50 billion HBAR tokens. This means that only 50 billion HBARs would ever exist.
As of August 2022, the circulating supply of HBAR stands at a little over 21 billion. The HBAR circulating supply varies based on adopting the Hedera Hashgraph ecosystem and staking activities on the network.
Unlike blockchain technology, which has been around for over a decade, hashgraph is yet to undergo rigorous testing on a public network and real-world use cases. It could take years for this to happen, and we could only find out if the hashgraph could effectively replace present-day blockchain networks.
However, some highlights also make it unique. First, Hedera Hashgraph is a distributed ledger technology like blockchain, except that the nodes communicate with each other using an efficient, graph-like structure. Also, the Hashgraph consensus mechanism could be more secure, energy-efficient, and stable than those used by blockchain networks. This gives a hashgraph faster throughput. In addition, transactions on the hashgraph are cheaper, have a shorter confirmation time, and consume far lower energy levels than conventional blockchains.
As a PoS network, you can stake HBAR to participate in the consensus mechanism of the Hedera network and generate more HBAR rewards for your efforts. Hedera offers weighted staking, giving holders higher weightage if they stake more tokens.
You can also stake HBAR coins without operating network nodes using the option of proxy staking. Similar to the delegated proof of stake (DPoS) consensus, this option lets you earn rewards that are split between you and the node operator who functions as your proxy within the network. As of July 2022, the proxy staking feature remains under development and could be launched in the future.
You can stake HBAR through DeFi protocols and exchanges that offer this service. Perform your research to find the best-suited platform for staking HBAR and create your account to get started.
Buy Hedera on KuCoin or other platforms and transfer your HBAR tokens into the account from where you can stake them. Use the staking option to compare the best returns, select the lock-in period, and stake your HBAR to generate a stream of passive revenue.
One option to stake HBAR is via the HashPack wallet, a digital wallet powered by the Hedera network. Send your HBAR from KuCoin or any other platform from which you have bought the crypto into your HashPack wallet and use them to interact with Hedera-based decentralized applications (dApps).
Here’s how you can store your Hedera (HBAR) crypto on your Ledger wallet:
1. Download and install the Ledger Live application on your computer. Configure the app by connecting your Ledger device to the Manager option and ensure that your wallet’s firmware is updated.
2. Ensure that your Ledger device is connected to the app from the Manager tab.
3. Head to the app catalog and find the Hedera (HBAR) app.
4. Install this app on your Ledger device.
5. Create your Hedera account using HashPack and add HBAR tokens to it.
6. Connect your HashPack wallet to the Hedera (HBAR) app on Ledger Live to add your HBAR holdings into Ledger and store them safely.