Cryptocurrencies are a highly correlated market that can make great moves upwards as well as downwards, therefore a savvy trader in this environment looks for ways to quickly reduce his risks by using assets such as Ampleforth and stablecoins. All it takes is a lot of skill...
For those of us who aren't inclined to face the stress of potential short term gains the prospect of long term headaches is what remains. But when doing so you still look for assets to help mitigate risks. So instead of trading I try to keep a sensible portfolio but it is hard to get a sense of true diversification when all the cryptocurrencies always move in unison as a school of fish.
This is why I started researching Hedera Hashgraph. It has 2 major attributes that makes it stand out in the crowd, that can prove to be safeguards should the rest of the market face bearish times. I've gathered some basic resources that paints a broad picture of the project in this article.
The HBAR token is for gas fees and staking, by staking you lock funds that allows you to validate transactions on the network. It's a proof-of-stake cryptocurrency, but it isn't a blockchain! That's right, this is the first major thing to note about the project. It uses encrypted messaging called “gossip” between staking nodes, not adding data to a blockchain shared by all nodes. The idea is to make the network more lightweight and therefore easier to run nodes on. Since it is a fundamentally different technology than all the other projects, at least all those that I'm aware of, this offers potential of finding effective solutions to problems that other cryptocurencies struggle with. Blockchains are bound to grow over time since all cryptographic calculations are based on the earlier block, down to the genesis block. This is a perhaps nothing to worry about right now but over time they will all become big and unwieldy if this issue isn't solved in a smart way. Furthermore you are apparently able to create your own tokens on top of HBAR without using smart contracts, something that is a weakness in the Ethereum network. Ethereum tokens require constant executions of smart contracts just to exist which tend to cost a lot of gas fees, a serious challenge to the scaling of Ethereum.
Read from their site about the token:
https://hedera.com/hbar
The companies on the picture above aren't just investors, they form a council that governs the project. This is the second major thing Hedera's got going for it. Yes I admit that it sounds boring and not in line with the spirit in general of the crypto sphere. Hedera isn't as much a new and exciting entity as it is the latest attempt from big tech to create a low cost database and security solution. But if Hedera actually becomes useful as infrastructure for companies such as Google one would expect it to be quite valuable.
Here is a statement about Distributed Ledger Technology from one year ago from Google, as they explain why they are partnering up with Hedera:
“DLT can increase security and decrease the friction and costs associated with the secure exchange of information, from family photos to international remittances.”
Read the Google blog:
https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gcp/working-with-hedera-hashgraph-to-support-the-next-generation-of-distributed-ledger-technology
Guy at Coin Bureau made a video yesterday with some important warnings. It's a solid channel to get the basics explained in a straight forward way. Just remember that he isn't a financial adviser, that seems to be the most important aspect of his personality. After watching some videos of him I've become convinced that he has recurring nightmares about people confusing him for being a financial adviser. There just has to be some psychological trauma at work here. Poor Guy:
I find it hard to be enthusiastic about Hedera but still it does seem to hold a lot of potential for value increase. A of today it is ranked with the 55th highest market cap according to coingecko and as I understand it they have been relying completely on crypto exchanges for price evaluation. But imagine once large financial institutions get more involved with cryptocurrencies and finally gets a easy way to invest in a new and promising project that is partnered with Google. I'd say that is quite an interesting scenario indeed.