There is a funny thing about the tech world – better tech always prevails! No matter how much efficient or great a tech is newer generation tech will replace it sooner or later. Blockchains and cryptocurrencies might be relatively new technology but then again, it is ten years old. Considering the flaws of the blockchain, it was quite certain that new tech will soon crush it down. Thus came the story of Hashgraph – the contender who is challenging the king! Today’s topic – what is Hashgraph?
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The story of Hashgraph: The Beginning
Back in 2008, the world was fighting off one the history’s one of biggest economic crashes. People went bankrupt, business empires broke down, and jobs became scarcer every day. The world was struggling. People started questioning the system – the very economic system. Bitcoin took a stand against the banking overlords and proposed a world without banks and financial organizations.
Bitcoin soon became the new dream. The blockchain technology upon which this system works raised eyebrows at first. But the idea came out to be solid every time. Then came Ethereum with their second generation crypto-ecosystem. The world is still trying to digest Decentralized Apps (DApps) and DAOs.
But deep down everybody knew there were some serious flaws in the system. They just didn’t admit it as the charm of blockchain technology was making their judgment biased.
Image Credits: Swirlds
Something had to be done! Probably the CTO and co-founder of Swirlds, Leemon Baird thought exactly the same way. Swirlds holds the honor of being the founder of Hashgraph. Hashgraph is everything that a blockchain is but better, way better!
What is Hashgraph?
In a single phrase, Hashgraph is a directed acrylic graph. Sounds too much gibberish? You could call it a digital ledger technology that adopts the concept of gossip about gossip and virtual voting.
Hashgraph solves lots of problems that a blockchain has. Compared to the blockchain, Hashgraph is
- Faster
- More secured
- Fairer
You could call Hashgraph the new generation blockchain. It Hashgraph can prove its value and authenticity to the common, it might overtake the blockchain technology entirely!
But people have reported a consensus timing vulnerability on June 2nd, 2018. So, people should still how the Journey of Hashgraph goes on.
How the Hashgraph Technology Works?
So, now you know what is Hashgraph. But how the technology is better? The Hashgraph technology depends on the gossip protocol. Well, getting the tech, you must feel the true impact of a gossip in real life.
Have ever been in a situation where your friend has told you a rumor about someone? It is a pretty common scenario. There is a funny thing about these scenarios, these rumors even spread quicker than any sort of communication medium. It’s a nature of human communication.
Similarly, in the Hashgraph network, nodes receive messages from other nodes. The nodes then create an event and record the hash of the event. While a block in a blockchain has 2 identifiers – the hash number of the block and the hash number of the previous block. In the Hashgraph nodes, there are 4 identifiers – the hash number of the node and the previous nodes, hash number of the last event the node created and the hash number of the last event it received.
So, with these two additional hash numbers, it can easily spread away from the information throughout the network just like gossips. Because of having such characteristics, Hashgraph can handle 250,000 transactions per seconds. Even the fastest blockchains can perform 10,000 transactions max.
Why is Hashgraph a Better Blockchain Technology?
I have said a lot of times that Hashgraph is a better tech than the blockchains. But why? Well, there are 3 basic reasons
1. Scalability
The number one problem with the blockchains is they are extremely volatile and you cannot scale them. So, it loses the appeal. Hashgraph, on the other hand, is scalable and reduces the risk of forking.
2. Security is the Priority
The Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance (ABFT) is the strongest of the fault tolerances. The Hashgraph consensus is built on this technology. It makes the system more robust against the cyber-attacks.
3. Power Saver
You don’t have to waste your power to gain a tiny amount of bitcoins here. As there is no consensus algorithm for mining, you don’t have to waste powers now.
Conclusion
So, I hope you got your answer of – what is Hashgraph? What do you think? Will Hashgraph be the next big buzz? We cannot be sure. The tech sounds really great. It’s time to see if it as good as it claims it to be!
