The Internet is a big world; every country represents a digital ledger. Most of these ledgers are blockchains but most have ‘slow economies’. Here is where the global leader Hedera Hashgraph comes into the picture. It is a distributed ledger technology that replaces the old blockchain system, making the ‘economy’ fast, fair, and secure.

In this article, we will discuss what is hedera hashgraph, how it works, its key features, the challenges it faces, and the future of Hedera (HBAR).

What is HBAR?

The Hedera (HBAR) token is the native token of the Hedera ecosystem. The entire network’s transactions are fueled by HBAR, which guarantees their speed and security. 

In simpler words, you can consider Hedera’s HBAR as the rocket fuel, allowing users to pay for network services like file storage, smart contracts, and token production. Through staking, HBAR contributes significantly to preserving the integrity of the network in addition to serving as a transactional tool for users to take advantage of the key features offered by Hedera’s infrastructure.

At the time of writing, the HBAR token is trading at around $0.313 and has experienced around 800% price surge in the past 2 months.

How does Hedera Hashgraph work?

A decentralized network of nodes makes up the Hedera Hashgraph ecosystem, which verifies transactions and adds them to the common ledger. The Public Hedera Network’s Hashgraph consensus method is built for fast transaction speeds and low latency, guaranteeing quick and effective transaction processing. 

Fundamentally, Hedera Hashgraph relies on a novel consensus process known as “gossip about gossip.” Until everyone agrees, nodes exchange information about who they spoke with and what transactions they are aware of. 

Byzantine Fault Tolerance and fairness are maintained while the inefficiencies of blockchain’s proof-of-work are eliminated. The network is very quick and impenetrable since transactions are timestamped and arranged according to when the majority of the network gets them. 

The Hedera platform allows developers to create smart contracts that facilitate the execution of transactions and the operation of decentralized apps.

The platform’s native cryptocurrency, HBAR, is utilized for handling and safeguarding network transactions. A technical board and a council oversee the platform, and HBAR holders have the power to shape significant choices about the project’s future.

Now let’s discuss what is Hedera Hashgraph used for.

How to use Hedera Hashgraph and HBAR?

Using Hedera is a straightforward process. It offers APIs that let developers manage smart contracts, create tokens, and build decentralized apps. 

The Hedera ecosystem is made up of several components that cooperate to form the network as a whole. It consists of nodes that record transactions, developers who use the Hedera SDK to create dApps and smart contracts, businesses, and organizations like IBM and LG that play around with the technology. 

For more efficient operations, businesses can use Hedera’s token services and file storage. HBAR can also be used by regular users to make payments, stake, or communicate with dApps. To enter this quick and safe ecosystem, all you need is some HBAR and a wallet that works with Hedera.

Hedera’s cryptocurrency holders use the cryptocurrency for platform oversight and operations, and dApp users take advantage of the quick and safe transactions made possible by Hashgraph technology.

Key features and benefits of Hedera Hashgraph and HBAR

Speed is one of the key features of Hedera Hashgraph as it is designed to handle thousands of transactions per second with very low latency. It is environmentally beneficial thanks to its energy-efficient consensus method. 

It also offers key benefits including its Hedera services which include Consensus-as-a-service (CaaS), file storage, identity management, and cryptocurrency payments. These services use hashgraph technology, which offers lightning-fast speeds, safety, and flexibility.

The Hedera platform’s native cryptocurrency is called HBAR Token. In addition to voting on important platform decisions, it is utilized to process and secure network transactions.

Furthermore, the Hedera SDK gives developers the resources and tools they need to create smart contracts and dApps on the Hedera platform. It provides a large selection of languages of programming as well as the ability to integrate with other platforms and programming tools.

The usefulness of HBAR extends to network transaction fuelling, governance, and staking. It is a solid option for both developers and businesses because of its fairness, decentralization, and regulatory compliance features.

How to buy, store, and use HBAR

Buying, selling, and storing Hedera’s cryptocurrency i.e. the HBAR token is a straightforward process.

The easy way is to create an account on any major centralized exchange like Binance, Coinbase, or Bybit. Then you can deposit fiat currency and buy a stable coin in which HBAR is traded on that exchange. In this case, it can be USDT or USDC. 

Then you can buy the HBAR token at its current price or set a buy limit on which you want to buy the HBAR token. After buying the tokens will show in your exchange wallet after which you can sell them by using market or limit order.

The other option is to use decentralized exchanges like Uniswap or Pancakeswap to buy HBAR tokens which can be done after creating a digital crypto wallet like Metamask. After buying the token you can secure it in your digital crypto wallet and sell it by going to any decentralized exchange. 

If you don’t want to store HBAR tokens in your digital wallet or any centralized exchange you can also stake HBAR by following the official guide here.

Challenges and criticisms

Hedera Hashgraph offers impressive technology that solves a lot of problems that normal blockchains don’t, however, despite its excellent technology, its governance mechanism comes under criticism now and then. This is because, despite the diversity of its governance council, the authorities on the governance panel are centralized which points questions to the core concept of decentralization on which every cryptocurrency stands on. 

Additionally, the coding behind Hedera Hashgraph isn’t open-source which can be a security issue as public audit of code is often a better alternative than keeping it private. While Hedera does claim to be highly scalable this claim hasn’t been tested in the real world, however, as crypto gets wider acceptance, a large number of users can be onboarded to Hedera’s platform and it may pose a challenge to it in the future.

Future of HBAR and Hedera Hashgraph

The roadmap outlined by Hedera’s team is impressive. The network’s potential for use in the gaming, supply chain, and financial industries increases as it shifts to a more decentralized governance and consensus architecture. The usefulness of HBAR will increase with further improvements, such as mirror nodes for increased transparency and sharding for scalability. 

Collaborations with significant corporations such as Google and IBM show faith in Hedera’s goal. A promising future is indicated by the growing usage of Hedera for identity management, tokenization, and safe micropayments. Hedera has the potential to be a key component of Web3 infrastructure if it can successfully negotiate regulatory environments and keep coming up with new ideas.

Nate Geraci, President of the ETF store, shared that major players are interested in new crypto index funds.

In a recent X post, Nate Geraci shared that established asset managers like Grayscale and Bitwise are open to new crypto index funds with a focus on Solana (SOL), Ripple (XRP) and Hedera (HBAR). This is a step in the right direction, as believed by the crypto community, as asset managers are beginning to look beyond just Bitcoin and Ethereum. Geraci noted that asset managers are looking to expand their portfolios to include other popular digital currencies in the exchange-traded funds market. 

The move toward altcoin ETFs indicates a growing interest among institutional investors seeking more diverse exposure to cryptocurrencies. SOL has gained attention due to its scalability and lower transaction fees. VanEck recently filed a spot ETF to capitalize on its growing ecosystem.

On the other hand, XRP has been in the headlines after attaining clarity regarding legality over its status as a security, which led to Bitwise asset management filing for an XRP spot ETF, showing their confidence in the prospect of the asset going long-term. Moreover, earlier this month, HBAR, powered by a robust distributed ledger, is one of the assets attracting ETF filing, in which Canary Capital submitted an S-1 registration statement, typically used during initial public offerings.

Geraci also surmised that issuers might soon begin filing for other well-known cryptocurrencies, such as Cardano (ADA) and Avalanche (AVAX). Both assets come with robust blockchain ecosystems. ADA emphasizes the security and scalability involved in its proof-of-stake consensus. At the same time, AVAX stands out for sub-second finality and a multi-chain architecture.

Still, as the need for crypto exposure increases and regulatory clarity improves, market participants remain optimistic that 2024 could witness a breakthrough for more altcoin ETFs.