Hedera Hashgraph sacrifices decentralization for high throughput, says developer 🚨 This article is 5 years old...
Hedera Hashgraph sacrifices decentralization for high throughput, says developer
3 min read
Updated: Oct. 29, 2019 at 7:41 am UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Hedera Hashgraph could be making fundamental tradeoffs to achieve its touted 10,000+ transactions per second. These tradeoffs make it one of the most centralized networks on the market, argues well-known crypto developer Eric Wall.
A buzzword-powered blockchain that wants to change the world
Less than a year old, the Hedera Hashgraph network has been marketed as a game-changer for blockchain. The network, which has been locked in a testing environment since December 2018, was backed by some of the largest corporations in the world after promising incredibly fast transactions and unprecedented scalability.
After 9 months of testing, the mainnet beta was opened to the public on Sept. 17, allowing anyone to open an account or build a decentralized app on the blockchain. The beta version offers users unprecedented speed—up to 10,000 transactions per second, whereas Bitcoin currently processes around 4 tps. For reference, Visa has a theoretical capacity of 65,000 tps.
To achieve high throughput, Hedera Hashgraph completely removed blocks and the process of validating transactions. All network participants are directly connected to each other and confirm the transactions in the form of messages.
And while the innovative proposition managed to attract the backing of some of the largest corporations in the world, including Boeing, IBM, and Deutsche Telekom, the network has been heavily criticized by crypto developers.
Eric Wall, a crypto writer and developer, explained that the tradeoffs Hedera Hashgraph made in order to achieve the incredible 10,000 tps throughput should scare off both investors and traders.
Hedera Hasgraph is now the #7 largest cryptocurrency in terms of valuation (Y2050 fully diluted market cap).
Most investors are of the impression that HH is a paradigm shift in DLT tech when in reality it's just doing the classic trick of trading off validation for throughput. https://t.co/DaZzTpVKXN
— Eric Wall IS RIGHT (@ercwl) September 17, 2019
In a lengthy Twitter thread, Wall explained that Hashgraph, which is now valued at $6 billion, is leveraging “top-shelf tricks” such as touting corporate partnerships and focusing on buzzwords to achieve such a high valuation.
It's also leveraging some other real top-shelf tricks which we've seen before:
– Partnerships! (Boeing, IBM, Nomura)
– DAG!It added some new ones too though:
– Coq proof by Carnegie Mellon Professor of it's BFT algo (theorem prover)
– Closed source
– Patents— Eric Wall IS RIGHT (@ercwl) September 17, 2019
Centralized, permissioned, and slow
Wall believes that the only way hashgraph can be capable of going more than 10,000 transactions per second is by removing the ability to validate the system.
But no, that's not it. It had nothing to do with it. They just traded off your ability to validate the system so they could run a smaller network with high TPS.
This is the super-classic trick, I'm surprised it worked in 2019. But it worked because of those few tweaks above.
— Eric Wall IS RIGHT (@ercwl) September 17, 2019
While some argued that transactions on the hashgraph could be validated at a later stage when Hedera introduces “state proofs,” Wall said that this type of validation is no guarantee that the rules and monetary policy of the network will be enacted.
"Eric, this is false, everyone can validate the consensus via 'state proofs' when Hedera enables them later!"
Eh, no. Validating "state proofs" doesn't guarantee that the *rules* and the *monetary policy* hasn't been broken. It's just Hedera saying "this is legit we promise".
— Eric Wall IS RIGHT (@ercwl) September 17, 2019
Basically if bitcoin worked like this, miners could agree to change the rules, steal coins, print money, or do whatever they like. You receive a "state proof" that says "yeah the miners really agrees that this should happen". You accept it.
So basically, the whole point ruined.
— Eric Wall IS RIGHT (@ercwl) September 17, 2019
However, one of the most interesting things Wall found was the fact that Hedera’s 10,000 tps number doesn’t actually apply to all transactions. He pointed out that the network could, in theory, handle more than 10,000 account to account token transfers.
Actually, citing that 10,000+ TPS number to mean "account-to-account token transfers" (tested in a closed network without any client-side validation possible, by the way) is another innovation that Hedera Hashgraph did in their marketing materials. Forgot about that. pic.twitter.com/CLV8siEQPx
— Eric Wall IS RIGHT (@ercwl) September 17, 2019
To get a clear picture of the number of transactions per second the Hedera can handle, it’s best to look at the decentralized applications built on the network. Wall said that dapps that use smart contracts can handle around 10 tps, which is less than the often-congested Ethereum.
Oh, and by the way, if you don't care about my "ideological criticism", look up how many TPS a dapp in Hedera can do that uses smart contract logic (Hint: it's 10 TPS, less than Ethereum). 10,000+ TPS is just a figure they gave for account-to-account transfers.
— Eric Wall IS RIGHT (@ercwl) September 17, 2019
But, it’s worth noting that the sacrifices Hedera made could be acceptable to many. The company’s partnerships with multi-billion dollar corporations must have gone through at least some due diligence, especially when it comes to safety.
Wall acknowledged this but raised an interesting question. Even if the tradeoffs were worth it, was there a need for a native Hedera cryptocurrency? He believes that the network could have had more success as a sidechain for a more liquid network, such as Bitcoin.
Even if you do think that the tradeoffs Hedera are doing are worth it, why does it needs its own native currency? Why don't you just set up Hedera as a sidechain to e.g. bitcoin like Liquid and gain all the monetary benefits from using the most liquid cryptocurrency out there?
— Eric Wall IS RIGHT (@ercwl) September 17, 2019
All of this will render HBAR, Hedera’s native coin, obsolete, he argues.
Wake up. It's 2019 and you bought into a 2017-style shitcoin project because someone threw new fancy words at you. Enterprises aren't going to adopt your $HBAR token, sorry. If anything, they care so little about actual decentralization they'll just use a stablecoin on Hedera.
— Eric Wall IS RIGHT (@ercwl) September 17, 2019
A deep-dive into Hedera showed that the young network still has a lot to show for. Its inability to deliver on the ambitious promises made last year could have been what caused the price of HBAR to drop more than 80 percent just two days after it began trading.
Hedera Market Data
At the time of press 7:41 am UTC on Oct. 29, 2019, Hedera is ranked #153 by market cap and the price is up 7.35% over the past 24 hours. Hedera has a market capitalization of $20.78 million with a 24-hour trading volume of $5.07 million. Learn more about Hedera ›
Crypto Market Summary
At the time of press 7:41 am UTC on Oct. 29, 2019, the total crypto market is valued at at $250.26 billion with a 24-hour volume of $97.17 billion. Bitcoin dominance is currently at 67.73%. Learn more about the crypto market ›
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In this article
The Hedera hashgraph platform provides a new form of distributed consensus; a way for people who don’t know or trust each other to securely collaborate and transact online without the need for a trusted intermediary.