US-based blockchain firm Hedera Hashgraph started to build its own mainnet. Despite being supported by some major companies, sceptics say its blockchain version lacks key features that ensure decentralization.

Hedera claims to process about 10,000 transactions per second. This speed is incredible, considering that Bitcoin handles 2.8 transactions per second and Ethereum can process about 15. How does Hedera manage to achieve such performance?  For example, Ripple claims to be capable of processing up to 50,000 transactions per second, but it uses a certain type of centralized network.

Hedera uses a proprietary algorithm called Hashgraph, invented by Hedera’s co-founder and chief scientist Leemon Baird. The Hashgraph algorithm does not require miners to validate blockchain transactions since it uses the so-called directed acyclic graphs (DAG). As for the consensus mechanism, Hedera relies on the so-called asynchronous Byzantine-Fault Tolerance (aBFT).

Hedera claims that its DAG technology and aBFT consensus guarantee the high speed of transactions. However, according to Eric Wall, former cryptocurrency head at Cinnobe, Hedera’s performance comes at the expense of true decentralization.

Hedera’s total supply of tokens (HBAR) will be limited to 50 billion. A dozen of cryptocurrency servers are ready to add HBAR to their platform, including Bittrex, Upbit, OKEx, OKCoin, and Galaxy Digital.