How to interact with the Hashgraph network
Utilizing different mechanisms in verifying end to end transactions, the Hedera Hashgraph platform is poised to break free from such limitations brought upon the PoW protocols. Being byzantine fault tolerance ready, it’s a cheaper, and potentially better alternative to the PoW blockchains.
Developed by Swirlds Inc. co-founder, Dr. Leemon Baird the Hashgraph distributed consensus algorithm has undeniable value. Enabling transactions to occur without the need of a trusted intermediary, users and developers everywhere are asking how do you connect to Hashgraph and unleash its potential?
Developers & Dapps
From the public release of the Hedera software development kit (SDK) in Java, developers attention has been drawn to the platform as it allows them to build their application on the public distributed ledger with ease.
Currently, Hedera SDK’s are supported in Java, C, GO, RUST, and Python. These are all open source under an Apache 2 license. Connecting and interacting with HH is a bit hands of as of now. It will take you longer to build something since there aren’t a lot of tutorials revolving around implementations yet. This is where Hashing Systems comes in. We want to make this process more simple.
With both maker and market benefiting from the technology, crypto developers are building applications that are upending industries and vertical markets for the better.
A reflection of this can be seen in the decentralized applications that will be built on top of Hedera:
Armada Chain
Armada Chain is a collaboration hub that supports supply chain partnerships by providing interoperability of data. By integrating existing workflows and data onto a singular channel, the Armada platform creates seamless, transparent and trusted collaboration, opening opportunities in sharing logistics, warehousing and other infrastructure.
The Armada platform utilizes Hashgraph in its certification layer, to verify the authenticity of oracles and transmitted data.
Hearo.fm
Hearo is building the JAM token on top of hashgraph to enable micropayments between artists and fans. The goal is to create a music economy with gamified microincentives and instant payments for every second of streaming. When the music gets played, the artist gets paid.
Functionalities
While the three services that Hedera Hashgraph supports are staples of similar blockchain platforms, you can use them to create decentralized applications unlike anything before. These are:
Cryptocurrency
The value transfer protocol is denominated in HBAR. Without it you wouldn’t be able to pay the fees required to make requests on the network. Credit card transaction cost on average ~2% + 30c and a bitcoin transaction costs ~30 cents per. If you’re paying 30 cents for every transaction you may only process transactions of over 2 dollars. In comparison, HBAR transactions cost under 1 cent which makes it possible to charge for any kind of event (Even someone reading an article!).
File storage on a distributed ledger
This is where data can be stored and is agreed by both parties. For example passport issuing governmental departments and passport holders could use file storage to ensure the passport in question is valid.
Smart Contracts Featuring the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
The Hedera network will be ready for Solidity (the object-oriented programming language for writing smart contracts) programming and will be able to interact directly with the File System. So if an agency wanted to revoke the passport due to say the owner being a flight risk after a court hearing, the hash on the issuing side could be canceled, which in turn would render said passport useless to prevent the registered owner from absconding.
What are some architectures you can build?
With the SDK developers can easily set up their applications to be native to the platform. The usual structures connect to the server that in turn connects to the node that communicates to the network. You have a website or mobile application which makes API calls to a server. The server manages the keys and the transactions within the network. This method abstracts a lot of the work that goes into managing keys as a user. Coinbase is a good example of this set up.
The other architecture is having its application connect directly to a node. Connecting directly to a node requires your client to be capable of signing network-ready transactions. This means it is in possession of the private keys and does the cryptographic functions locally (no easy feat when libraries aren’t available). EOS implements a good example of this. Using the EOS.js library one can build a simple application that connects directly to a trusted node. There’s an API endpoint available that makes this possible.
Supported Clients
Ultimately the clients supported vary with the SDK’s that will be provided during mainnet. The Hedera Hashgraph development team advised us that they will provide support for both major mobile development platforms, Android and IOS, as well as Google Chrome. This would allow users to interact directly with the Hashgraph platform from these clients.
Currently, the Java SDK supports limited options for Android users. The cryptographic libraries have yet to be optimized to run so your mileage may vary. Though looking at the Hedera Browser Extension you are currently able to make transactions to a website (that supports relaying transactions via a Micropayments WebSocket API). By all means, this isn’t all the features that will be available.
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