HARMONY - A PLATFORM THAT SCALES BLOCKCHAIN WITHOUT SACRIFICING DECENTRALISATION.
INTRODUCTION
Blockchain technology was launched in 2008 to Peer-to-Peer transactions, free from interference from third parties, governmental authorities and financial institutions.
10 years down the line blockchain technology has been incorporated into many facets of life from banks to schools to stadiums.
What was one despised years ago, when it was first launched is now being taught as a course in graduate programs and as a professional course.
Crypto-experts are now largely sought to discuss the possibility of integrating blockchain technology to various industries around the world.
However, despite this sudden rush to tap into the vast potentials that blockchain technology offers, one major problem has hampered the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology.
THE PROBLEM.
One of the most severe setback of blockchain technology is SCALABILITY- The number of transactions a blockchain can process per unit time. This especially and a few others, has made mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies a fairytale.
Despite sustaining the blueprint to totally replace the traditional banking system the speed of transaction processes falls way below standard when it pitted against the conventional banking system.
For Example:
Visa- 24,000 transactions per second
Ethereum-15 transactions per second
Bitcoin- 7 transactions per second
This inability to complete multiple transactions at a fast pace has hindered blockchain technology being employed at a large scale.
The Solution: HARMONY.
Harmony is a high-level blockchain based on sharding technology with a sophisticated consensus mechanism that affords the blockchain ecosystem a template for actualising truly efficient decentralised apps.
Harmony is a secure and efficient Proof-of-Stake blockchain capable of linear scaling and initiating transactions per second whilst scaling the network when it is under intense operation.
Harmony Blockchain differentiates itself from other blockchains which employs PoW and PoS systems by employing a protocol layer which adopts a shard-based consensus to power decentralised economies of the future.
Harmony Protocol
Harmony protocol employs the unique innovation of scaling blockchain without necessarily sacrificing decentralisation.
This is a huge bail out plan to the blockchain ecosystem, because prior to Harmony blockchain, it was virtually impossible to solve scaling without sacrificing decentralisation.
This is made possible by:
(1) Optimised Network.
With Harmony blockchain network communications are divided into small fragments and distributed, which leads to faster consensus and reduced networking load for nodes in the network.
(2) Proof-of-Stake
Harmony blockchain runs a Proof-of-Stake consensus cryptocurrency network that is built on a scalable BFT Algorithm which makes it faster than the conventional algorithm used by other blockchain.
Here holders participate in the network consensus and ensure improved network security.
(3) Deep-Sharding
Harmony blockchain employs state sharing in order to aid network scale at the protocol layer. This involves the splitting of network into subset of shards that complement one another to increase transaction efficiency.
These group of shards only hold a portion of the state, compared to holding the whole portion of the state in other blockchains.
Harmony Vs Other blockchains
Rival projects such as Multivac, EOS, Zilliqa and Quarkchain all boast of providing scalability, however Harmony sets itself in a class of its own by providing an innovative proof-of-stake system with state sharding rather than transactional sharding.
State sharding divides the network into smaller units that function as a whole, thus allowing faster network growth as new nodes are constantly added rather than remaining stagnant.
Compared to others, Harmony offers: Speed, Reduced Cost and an Interface that support enormous user bases, which is perfect for decentralized apps and companies wishing to integrate blockchain technology to their processes.
Harmony Effective Proof-of-Stake (EPoS)
Most recent Blockchains run on Proof-of-Stake mechanism, however problems like:
(1) Validators Election
(2) Block rewards allocation remains unchecked.
Therefore, Harmony introduces Effective Proof-of-Stake (EPoS) mechanism: The first of its kind.
Addressing Validators Election
Blockchains that employ PoS system have a group of limited individuals known as "COMMITEE or VALIDATORS" vested with the responsibility to produce and validate blocks.
However, the concept of electing Validators across this blockchain have too many pitfalls.
Some of the methods are:
(1) Selection of high asset holding stakeholders at random
(2) Selection based on reputation of Validators (accrued from votes of token holders in the ecosystem)
(3) Selection based on how long stake holders posses tokens.
All these methods are not totally efficient and as such, Harmony chooses to elect validators based on the amount of stakes tokens.
This is simple, secure, economical and provides a guarantee that Validators believe wholly in the project.
Addressing Block Rewards Allocation
Most PoS blockchain distribute block rewards based on the amount of stakes placed by Validators during a consensus.
This is totally biased as it doesn't provide a fair ground for all participating Validators.
Those with higher token stakes get the giant allocation of rewards.
Harmony Technical Structure.
(1) Cross-Sharding and Scalable Network Infrastructure.
Cross-Sharding communication is a major setback that must be addressed for a securely sharded network to be achieved.
In view of this, Harmony employs innovation to achieve Scaling and Decentralisation which is impossible on other blockchains because one must be done away for the other.
This ensures that fewer overheads are required and messages can go between shorter distances, leading to leaner communication, faster consensus and reduced network loads.
(2) Secure and Adaptive Threshold PoS
Another setback of sharded blockchains is the problem of complementing cross-shard communications, such that messages can be sent across shards without necessarily exposing the security and integrity of the state of the network.
Harmony employs a shard-driven model, which adjusts staking requirements to accommodate participation by small stakeholders and also allows each node to function as a single unit, broadcasting messages to the network, this making communication between shards independent and making it difficult for fraudulent stakeholders to concentrate on a single shard.
Why you should use Harmony
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Fully Scalable
Secure State Sharding
Effective and Fast Consensus
Quick Synchronization
Adaptive-threshold PoS that checks malicious Validators
Fair Validators Block Rewards
RoadMap
The Team
INVESTORS
PARTNERS
Use Case 1
Godwin owns a mall and He is also a crypto-enthusiasts. Godwin believes cryptocurrencies sustain the capacity to totally replace the conventional banking systems and has tried to accept cryptocurrency payments over the counter in exchange for goods.
However, he has been let down because it takes almost forever to confirm a transaction on the blockchain, leading him to revert to traditional banking Point of sale terminals.
Soon enough, Godwin stumbles across Harmony, and how fast it takes to confirm transactions. Now he accepts cryptocurrency as a form of payment and educates his customers about adopting cryptocurrency payment methods.
Use Case 2
Xaya is a global gaming platform, it hosts a gaming DApp, over the years Xaya has gained popularity and more people are now part of its platform.
But Xaya has a problem, it require a blockchain that can accommodate DApps and provides high-throughput as well as fast connectivity for its numerous users.
Xaya hears about Harmony and incorporates it to their platform, which suits perfectly to what they need.
Conclusion
Total adoption of blockchain technology is still a long way off, owning to the many pitfalls that remains unaddressed.
However, projects like Harmony does well to reduce the length of that journey with timely innovations that edges the crypto-sphere closer to the cusp of mainstream adoption.