Buy Harmony (ONE)

What is Harmony?

Harmony is a decentralised blockchain platform designed to achieve scalability alongside decentralisation. It utilises sharding to increase transaction speed and reduce latency, aiming to support high-throughput, low-latency, and low-fee transactions. Harmony's main goal is to provide a fast, secure, and reliable payment processing platform that supports high-throughput transactions and ensures interoperability with other blockchains.

How does Harmony work?

Harmony operates using a combination of sharding and an Effective Proof of Stake (EPoS) consensus mechanism. Sharding divides the network into smaller parts, known as shards, which can process transactions simultaneously. This results in increased scalability and reduced congestion. Additionally, Harmony uses a consensus protocol called Fast Byzantine Fault Tolerance (FBFT), which processes transactions quickly and ensures low fees. The platform also supports Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility, allowing developers to port Ethereum-based applications to Harmony with ease.

What are the potential use cases for Harmony?

Harmony has a wide range of potential use cases:

1. Decentralised Finance (DeFi): Supporting projects like Curve and Sushiswap, Harmony’s high transaction speeds and low fees make it suitable for trading and lending applications.
2. E-commerce: Enabling merchants to accept ONE token payments via plugins and crypto invoices on platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce.
3. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs): Supporting NFT marketplaces with its low gas fees and high scalability.
4. Cross-Border Payments: Facilitating fast, low-cost international transactions.
5. Gaming: Allowing for the development of gaming applications that require rapid and low-cost transactions.

What is the history of Harmony?

Harmony was founded in 2018 by Stephen Tse and a team with backgrounds from major tech companies such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft. The platform raised $18 million in funding in April 2019 and launched its mainnet in June 2019. Harmony has since introduced various technological advancements, including deep sharding and the Horizon Bridge for cross-chain interoperability with Ethereum. It has rolled out several initiatives, like grant programs to support developers, and continues to expand its market presence with a focus on developing scalable and secure decentralised solutions.