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What Does HBAR Mean?

Last Updated on February 27, 2024

James Headshot
Written by
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Disclaimer: This is not a validation of cryptocurrency or any particular provider, service, or product. It should not be taken as advice to engage in trading or use any services. Please check our terms and conditions.

Quick Answer:

HBAR is the native cryptocurrency of the Hedera Hashgraph network, which is a public distributed ledger technology different from a typical blockchain. It’s designed to support high-speed transactions and secure applications.

HBAR serves multiple roles within the Hedera network: it’s used to power decentralized applications, secure the network through staking, and implement a system of fair transaction ordering. The Hedera Hashgraph technology aims to provide a more efficient alternative to blockchain with quicker transaction times and lower fees.

The cryptocurrency market is home to thousands of ambitious crypto projects that aim to provide users with innovative services that will launch those same projects to the moon in terms of token value and market cap. However, only a selected few really manage to achieve a high adoption rate and become popular.

A simple and reliable method to check whether a certain cryptocurrency is really worth its hype is to look at its ranking on websites such as Coinmarketcap or Coingecko. If a project is ranked within the top 100 cryptos, then it’s definitely worth your while.

One such digital project is Hedera, with its innovative Hedera Hashgraph network and HBAR crypto token.

Let’s take a detailed look at Hedera and find out why this project is worth your attention.

Compass, colored wooden cube and wooden board written with text HBAR

The Hedera Hashgraph Project

Hedera.com was launched in 2017 and managed to rank in the top 50 digital currencies on Coinmarketcap very quickly. Hedera was launched by Swirlds, a company founded by Dr Leemon Baird, the inventor of the innovative Hedera Hashgraph consensus algorithm, which introduced a new type of blockchain technology to the world of cryptocurrencies.

The rest of the team behind Hedera is composed of scientists and blockchain experts, headed by the project’s co-founder and CEO, Mance Harmon, a veteran tech industry entrepreneur.

Some of the key crypto issues that Hedera aims to solve are related to blockchain security, its processing speed, and the platform’s capacity and stability. Unlike many cryptos that can only process a few transactions every couple of minutes, Hedera promised to provide users with the means for instant processing of information and funds.

The network delivered on its promise by introducing a transaction throughput of 10,000 transactions per second, which is way above the industry average. This is made possible thanks to the new blockchain type called Hedera Hashgraph.

binary code blue screen

Hashgraph – A Blockchain Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum

While Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and many other popular digital currencies use a classic Proof of Work (PoW) based blockchain to process transactions, Hedera is built on an entirely different model.

Instead of requiring miners to spend huge amounts of computing power to validate transactions, the hashgraph uses Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) technology to instantaneously confirm a transaction by distributing pieces of transaction data to the entire Hedera public network. 

This type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) delegates transaction verification authority to the whole network. Thanks to the participation of numerous network nodes, a transaction is verified within a single second because there is no need for a single node to do all the work.

Such a network model is quite a step up compared to Bitcoin or Ethereum where miners need to search for appropriate transaction hashes by trial and error, instead of utilizing the whole network to achieve a full consensus on the validity of a transfer.

With this network model, even if a node gets shut down, there wouldn’t be any negative effect on the data that was transferred or stored on the node, because the rest of the network is able to pool together information and continue operating.

Fast transactions facilitated by the HBAR crypto-token, smart contract capabilities based on the Solidity programming language, and a decentralized network for reliable file storage are some of the key functionalities that Hedera offers its users.

Hedera Features

Hedera was developed as a platform focused on enterprises that could base their whole business network on the Hedera Hashgraph.

In order to convince companies to use the Hashgraph for their daily operations, Hedera focused on providing several key features that make the project ideal for enterprise users.

Tight Security

Blockchain security is a key issue for all types of users and that’s exactly why Hedera uses an asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerant (aBFT) consensus mechanism that makes it impossible for transaction data to get altered once it’s already approved and processed through the network.

When a transaction is verified, the information is disseminated to the entire network immediately so there’s no time window for eventual manipulations or double-spending scam attempts. Also, the consensus service uses unique timestamps for each transaction as an additional transaction identification mechanism.

male hands using laptop with 3D security icon

No Forking

Apart from stablecoins like Tether (USDT), cryptocurrencies are not only unstable in terms of price volatility, but also regarding their future development, as they’re frequently subjected to hard forks.

Hard forks happen when a large part of the community wants to implement some type of radical change in the programming code of a crypto project, but they can’t reach a consensus with the whole community. In these cases, the blockchain incurs a hard fork and a new cryptocurrency is created right alongside the original one, like in the case of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

Hedera guarantees stability by eliminating any chance of a potential hard fork. This is done by implementing technical boundaries that don’t allow network forking.

Each time a software update is initiated by the Hedera developer team, it is automatically distributed and implemented on all network nodes. Hedera is open-source in its core, but developers can’t just change the code unless the Hedera Governing Council approves an update.

Distributed Project Governance

Hedera runs on a fully decentralized network, but the project itself has a Governing Council with distributed governance authority among more than 30 organizations that each have a single vote. The list of organizations that are part of the council includes IBM, Boeing, Deutsche Telekom, Swirlds, Tata Communications and other reputable companies.

The Hedera Governing Council ensures that no organization has too much power through the one vote mechanism and each council member can be a part of the governing body for two consecutive three-year terms.

The Consensus Model is another part of the Hedera governance and it enables anyone to run a network node and participate in the functioning of the network through verifying transactions and providing platform liquidity.

High Performance

We already mentioned that Hedera is a high-performance network. The developers initially promised a speed of at least 10,000 transactions per second when the Hedera main net was launched back in 2019, but the transaction capacity is actually far greater than this number.

In fact, some Hedera testnets have achieved 50,000 TPS and there was also a massive experiment with transactions across five continents that even surpassed the 500,000 transfers per the second threshold.

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The HBAR Cryptocurrency

HBAR is the native token of the Hedera network that’s used as a utility token that powers the platform.

All transactions on the Hedera Hashgraph are done with HBAR coins. These tokens can be used for a variety of operations on the Hedera network such as facilitating micropayments, operating smart contracts, and powering decentralized apps (dApps)

The number of HBAR tokens a user holds in their wallet directly contributes to their voting power on Hedera updates and protocol changes. This is similar to many Proof of Stake cryptos such as Cardano (ADA).

HBAR Price

Hedera is a constantly developing crypto project with regular updates and new business partnerships across different industries.

It has a relatively positive market chart so if you decide to invest in HBAR, you might make a considerable profit if the project continues to evolve and implement thorough ecosystem upgrades.

For information on HBAR token prices across various crypto exchanges, it’s best to visit the Coinmarketcap page of HBAR, which is regularly updated in real-time.

Binance is one of the most popular markets for buying HBAR, especially if you’re looking for an exchange with low fees.

Colortext HEDERA HASHGRAPH on black background

A Few Final Words…

Usually, crypto beginners generally stick to the top ten or twenty digital currencies, thinking that those projects are the only ones worth investing in, but actually there are some quite interesting crypto gems further down the top 100 list of crypto assets.

Hedera is exactly one such project that brings authentic innovation and useful services to users in a very crowded crypto market.

About The Author

James Headshot
Written by

Crypto Technical Writer

James Page, previously the lead writer at Crypto Head and a registered psychologist, brings a unique perspective to the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

His extensive experience in the industry and ability to present complex concepts in an understandable manner make his articles a valuable resource for readers seeking to navigate the ever-evolving crypto landscape.

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