Cryptocurrency is an industry that has managed to make a name for itself over the years since it was first introduced to the world. crypto can often be seen referred to as online money which is not false actually. Virtual currencies are somewhat similar to physical money and can be used for a variety of purposes including trade, exchange as well as buying and selling of goods and services but over the internet of course, as the currency can securely be stored in digital wallets, all thanks to cryptography.Â
Since the industry was first launched, it has gained support from people all around the world and has managed to become a way for people to invest and earn quick money as it acts as a source for passive income for people wanting somewhere to invest without facing such hassle of going around and finding the right investment choice. Crypto is a one-stop solution to that as there are several digital currencies that you can choose from and invest in.Â
For having a thorough understanding of cryptocurrency, it is vital for you to know that crypto is a decentralized platform that works using blockchain technology. This means that it can easily step outside and operate without any government interference or that of any other central authority as well.
Some other features of virtual currencies often include the fact that they are portable, intuitive to use, extremely secured, as well as can be used for some unlawful activities too, but you should never indulge in such activities as it is an offense under cybercrime.
For some of you who are following cryptocurrency from its initial years, you might agree with me that when the industry was first heard of, not many people were seen lining up to invest in their money and, that is understandable as nobody would invest in something that they don’t know much about and don’t have the proper understanding of its operations.
But looking around, one thing is for sure that, this is not the case anymore as it can clearly be seen from the past few years, the industry has been booming and there is a rapid increase in its growth and popularity.Â
The reason for this might also be the support it received from global potential investors as well as huge business tycoons and people having celebrity status, with one such example being Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla. Having talked about a lot of currencies available today in the marketplace, it is worth mentioning that some popular currencies that you can invest in right now include Ethereum, Bitcoin, Binance, Dogecoin, Baby Doge, and a lot more.Â
Some global experts on the field also say that the cryptocurrency industry can be seen as the future of payment systems all around the globe and looking at it from where I stand, I say it is gradually progressing in that very direction.Â
Now that you have a basic understanding of what digital currencies are all about, let’s talk about a budding cryptocurrency, Harmony. To know more, I suggest you read further!
Everything to know about Harmony(ONE)
Harmony is nothing but a blockchain platform that is designed in order to support the development and use of various decentralized applications(DApps), founded by Stephen Tse who is also the chief executive officer of the platform. The platform can very well be used by developers that leverage to create decentralized applications.
The Harmony blockchain solves the problems with bottlenecks that are often faced by the Etereum network with the help of a new sharding mechanism-based blockchain that functions using a consensus algorithm that is unique in its own way. The network focuses on the working of decentralized applications by looking at random state sharding, allowing building blocks in just a matter of a few seconds. Basically, the entire system is designed in order to open doors for interoperability as well as ultra-fast transactions.Â
In simpler words, Harmony is just a next-generation blockchain-based on sharding mechanism which is highly secure, fully scalable as well as very energy efficient. Apart from that, the platform is known to address the issues faced by current blockchains, joining the best engineering practice as well as research results in a minimally tuned system.
As some of you might already be aware, community development and protocol initiatives have become a popular trend in the crypto marketplace after several projects have introduced multi-million dollar fundings focused on enticing investors as well as builders to make cross-chain movement into a layer-two ecosystem.Â
Harmony (ONE) is by far the latest project to capitalize on this trend. In addition to this, Harmony is a protocol that assures two-second processing of the transaction and is known to offer cross-chain bridges to a few protocols on layer-one as well including Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin(BTC), Binance Smart chain(BSC), and lastly Polkadot(DOT). Â
This makes the platform an open and extremely fast blockchain. On the platform’s website, they claim that their mainnet runs Ethereum applications with finality of two seconds per transaction and over a hundred times lower fees as compared to the competition. Not just that, Harmony is said to be an open platform for collectibles, assets, governance as well as identity and their security bridges provide cross-chain asset transfers with Binance, Ethereum, and three other blockchains.Â
Also, the Sharding mechanism that we talked about earlier is extremely secure due to the distributed randomness generation(DRG) process that is said to be verifiable, unpredictable, unbiased as well as scalable. Harmony is known to re-shard the network using an approach that is non-interruptive.
In other words, Sharding makes Harmony Protocol a much more powerful blockchain platform altogether. However, the application of harmony bridge can cater to both non-fungible tokens(NFTs) as well as decentralized finance(DeFi)
Furthermore, Harmony provides a platform for developers to connect with their own community, and apart from that, its novel Proof-of-Stake(PoS) mechanism is majorly responsible for the security of the entire network. Harmony bridges that I previously mentioned are very well capable of connecting any Proof-of-Stake chains and it is worth mentioning that as of today, Harmony bridges secure tens of millions of assets based on cross-chains.Â
The Harmony platform can scale to fulfill the requirements of a growing ecosystem in the best possible way with its immensely low fees. Some of you might be thinking, what is the significance of ONE? Let me help you with that. ONE is the native token of the platform and Harmon tokens are meant to have a symbol ‘ONE’ and in order to interact with the platform’s blockchain, you should use Harmony tokens. Other than this, these tokens also provide you with voting rights and just so you know, the maximum lifetime supply of Harmony(ONE) is nearly 12.6 billion tokens.Â
It is worth mentioning that, Harmony in 2018 managed to raise over twenty million dollars in order to develop the Harmony Protocol. Also, Harmony’s native token, ONE was launched using Binance’s initial-coin-offering (ICO) around two years ago, in May 2019.Â
How does it Work?
The platform’s mainnet supports four pieces of a thousand nodes, as a real one block is produced in just two seconds, which indeed makes it really fast. In Harmony, these small pieces are known as shards and the process of dividing bigger nodes into shards is called sharding. Whereas, the process of nodes being rearranged among the shards is known as sharding. I believe this would make it much easier for you to understand what we talked about earlier. Â
The aim of the platform is to develop an open network for nodes and the entire layout and design of the platform is such that it can be governed and operated by a large community, which as per Harmony’s terminology is referred to as Pangaea. Apart from this, it is worth mentioning that, so far nearly 800 nodes are run by Harmmonny’s community and Pangaea comprises of validators and volunteers from more than a hundred different countries, which for assurety, Harmony officially states in its documents.Â
What makes Harmony special?
As we know by now that the platform focuses primarily on validation and speed, the Harmony mainnet focuses on completely revolutionizing block creation. Not just that, by introducing the sharding mechanism, it is able to significantly reduce node validation time. In order to secure the validation process as well as ensure the protection of nodes, the platform introduced something known as the Verifiable Random function(VRF).Â
For those of you wondering what is the purpose of Verifiable Random Function? Allow me a chance to explain. VRF is simply needed for two major purposes including unpredictable as well as unbiased shared membership. As a result, the validators and nodes on the blockchain are assigned and often reassigned in a completely randomized manner. In addition to this, the project also has introduced something commonly known as the Harmony Grant program, which is nothing but an initiative that focuses on attracting customers and support innovation on the Harmony mainnet.Â
Investing in Harmony
As of today, the price of Harmony is nearly 0.136180 US dollars with a twenty-four-hour trading volume of about 171,191,782 dollars. Apart from that, in just the past twenty-four hours, the value of the platform has gone uphill by 2.20 percent and with a market cap of 1,438,257,761 US dollars.
Harmony is currently placed at 69th position as per the CoinMarketCap rankings. Also, it is worth mentioning that the current circulating supply of the currency is about 10,561,462,411 ONE coins but unfortunately, the maximum lifetime supply of the currency is not yet available. In just the past week alone, the price of Harmony has dropped by 28.37 percent.
As far as investing in the platform goes, reading so far, you might have gotten a fair understanding of the currency and by now you should be able to decide on your own whether or not investing in Harmony is the right thing for you to do or not. Seeing what the currency has to offer and its future plans, I believe that, if you are looking for a currency in the crypto marketplace to gain good returns, ONE can definitely be a profitable investment for you, if not now then in the near future for sure.Â
If still not convinced, let me explain it this way that, if for instance, you invest nearly a hundred dollars in Harmony today, you will be getting about 734.684 ONE coins. On the basis of the predictions and analysis done by experts on the field, in the next five years or so, the expected income is about +429.41 percent, which makes it much clearer and easier for you to decide.Â
It is extremely important for you to understand the fact that just like any other currency in the crypto marketplace, Harmony does have its own risks as well and you should invest only if you are willing to take those risks and bear any and all losses if at all necessary.Â
If you are wondering, where can you buy Harmony? Let me help you with that. Currently, Harmony is available on all major crypto exchanges but some of the popular exchanges that have ONE listed on them include Mandala Exchange, Binance, Huobi Global, as well as HitBTC. Â
In conclusion, What are your thoughts on Harmony(ONE)? Do let us know in the comments below. To know more about various cryptocurrencies, do check out other articles we have on our website. Thank you for your time & if you found our content informative, do share it with your investor friends!
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