Hedera doesn’t use a traditional blockchain at all — it’s built on ‘hashgraph,’ a distributed ledger technology using a different consensus approach designed to achieve high transaction throughput and fast finality, governed by a council of established global organizations rather than a purely decentralized validator set.
Key Takeaways
- Hashgraph is a distinct distributed ledger technology from blockchain, using a ‘gossip about gossip’ protocol and virtual voting to reach consensus.
- Hedera is designed for high throughput and fast, low-cost transaction finality compared to many traditional blockchain networks.
- Its governance is managed by the Hedera Governing Council, made up of large global organizations across different industries, rather than a fully permissionless validator set.
- This governance model trades some decentralization for institutional accountability and stability, a genuinely different design philosophy than most public blockchains.
- HBAR is Hedera’s native token, used for network fees and, for council members, staking-related participation.
Our Take
Hedera’s governance model is arguably its most distinctive and most debated feature — having an established council of named global organizations manage network governance is a meaningfully different trust model than a permissionless validator set, trading some of crypto’s traditional decentralization ideals for institutional accountability, and it’s worth being explicit that this is a genuine trade-off rather than a strictly superior design.
Evaluating whether that trade-off is worthwhile depends heavily on the specific use case: enterprises and institutions weighing blockchain adoption may value the accountability and predictability a known governing council provides, while users prioritizing censorship resistance and permissionless participation may find that same governance structure to be a meaningful compromise. There’s no universally correct answer — only different priorities.
FAQs
Is hashgraph the same as blockchain?
No — hashgraph is a distinct distributed ledger technology using a different consensus mechanism (‘gossip about gossip’ and virtual voting) than traditional blockchain.
Who governs the Hedera network?
The Hedera Governing Council, composed of large global organizations across different industries, rather than a fully permissionless validator set.
📎 Source: Learning Heroes — ¿Qué es la criptomoneda Hedera (HBAR) y cómo funciona?
