Brainboard: Hedera Hashgraph Distributed Registry Platform

Algorithm of consensus, asynchronous tolerance to inexplicable errors, oriented acyclic graph, distributed registry - about what unites these concepts, and how not to dislocate your brain - in the article on Hedera Hashgraph.

Swirlds Inc. presents:
Hedera Hashgraph Distributed Registry Platform.

Starring:
Lemon Baird, Mathematician, Hashgraph Algorithm Creator, Co-Founder, CTO and Principal Researcher, Swirlds Inc .;
Mance Harmon, mathematician, co-founder and CEO of Swirlds Inc .;
Tom Trowbridge, president of Hedera Hashgraph, an evangelist of Hashgraph technology.

The project involved:
Financial holding Nomura Holding;
Telecommunication company Deutsche Telekom;
International law firm DLA Piper;
Brazilian retailer Magazine Luiza;
Swiss corporation Swisscom AG.
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I still do not understand why all the information about the Hedera Hashgraph is given how confusing it is, whether it is a consequence of a conscious developer policy or it happened so by chance. But in any case, writing a coherent text about the Hedera Hashgraph was very difficult. Every time it seemed that this was it, I finally understood everything, almost immediately and again it became clear that this is a profound error. In the end, it seemed to be something meaningful, but still - read carefully, the danger of dislocating the brain has not gone away.

Part 1. The task of the Byzantine generals and gossip

At the heart of this story is the so-called “The task of the Byzantine generals” (Byzantine Fault Tolerance, BTF) - a thought experiment designed to illustrate the problem of synchronizing the state of systems when communications are considered reliable and nodes are not. Anyone who is interested can study the question here or here in more detail.

Hedera Hashgraph platform algorithms are based on the special case of Byzantine Fault Tolerance - the asynchronous task of the Byzantine generals, or aBFT. In 2016, the first time a solution for him was proposed by mathematician Lemon Baird and, do not be a fool, he immediately patented it.

The Hedera Hashgraph platform is characterized by sharing and synchronization of digital data according to a consensus algorithm, physical decentralization of storage nodes and the absence of a single control center. However, the Hashgraph protocol (in this case, Hedera is an ecological environment, Hashgraph is a protocol) does not refer to blockchains, but is a digraph devoid of consecutive cycles and consisting of parallel sequences starting at the same node and reaching the end node in different ways.

Roughly speaking, if a classic blockchain can be visually depicted as a strict sequence of links (which, strictly speaking, is its main property), then the Hashgraph visually resembles a bonsai with a huge number of branches. Since the number of simultaneous cycles is practically unlimited, Hashgraph allows you to simultaneously perform a huge number of transactions (developers say about 250 thousand per second, which is five times more than even Visa, not to mention the Bitcoin network), and there is usually no transaction fee. .

The next fundamental difference between Hashgraph and the classic blockchain is the gossip subprotocol (gossip protocol). Within a distributed registry, each transaction does not mean the transfer of all data, but only information about the details (Gossip about Gossip). A transaction is reported by a node to two other arbitrary nodes, each of which, in turn, transmits messages to the other two until the number of notified nodes is sufficient to reach consensus, and this happens when most of the nodes are informed (and achieved the declared number of transactions per unit of time).

Part 2. Blockchain killer or not

Hedera Hashgraph is currently under development. In particular, we are testing our own cryptocurrency with support for micropayments, distributed network storage of files and scripts that allow us to create smart contracts based on the languages ​​of the Ethereum environment.

Opinions about this project differ rare polarization. Some sources simply call Hashgraph a “blockchain killer”, others rightly point out that there are no examples of running decentralized applications in Hedera, others are embarrassed that the platform is patented, and its development is controlled by a supervisory board, which includes representatives of a number of companies from the Fortune 500 list (although the latter just means that the project has non-illusory potential, and absolutely not a scam). By the way, some time ago the project was singled out as a separate company, Hedera Hashgraph, which also indicates its priority for developers.

The developers, without much noise, first collected $ 18 million for operational needs at a closed token sale and, after a while, another 100. No specific information about the ICO is also reported, and in general, the Hedera Hashgraph roadmap is rarely unclear, which does not prevent the company from conducting the most active activities aimed at popularizing this algorithm of consensus, the company is actively working on the formation of various professional communities - from programmers to lawyers, the project representatives have already done more More than 80 meetings with interested citizens around the world, even reached Russia - on March 6, Moscow hosted a meeting with Hedera Hashgraph President Tom Trowbridge, who is said to have gathered many representatives of our IT and financial circles.

Mr. Trowbridge told that in the near future no less than 40 decentralized applications based on the Hedera Hashgraph are expected, and in general there are more than 100 of them in operation, therefore in the foreseeable future everyone will have a chance to see live how this economy works.

Total

In general, we can say a few things with confidence. Firstly, the project is not trivial and has already aroused the most serious interest of representatives of large corporations. Secondly, for a non-expert, he is frankly obscure, which, apparently, explains the lack of data about him in the public domain (and, judging from the video with Mr. Lemon, and the fact that this clever uncle never orator). Thirdly, it is unlikely that he will become a “bitcoin killer” or something equally pathetic, but his stated advantages look weighty enough to follow the project very closely.

Moreover, there are rumors that soon the organizers are going to attract the next tranche of investments, it is quite possible that it makes sense to take part in it.