What is cryptocurrency Harmony (ONE) and how does it work?

What is Harmony (ONE)?

Harmony (ONE) is a decentralized blockchain-based platform that offers tools and functionalities for creating, hosting, managing, and using Dapps with maximum scalability and interoperability. Harmony is hosted on Ethereum, which is why the project offers solutions to resolve Ethereum’s current limitations.

The ultimate vision of the blockchain project is to create a self-sustainable environment that enables users to create markets for fungible and non-fungible tokens with the use of available tools, while benefiting from interoperability and scalability through sharding. With future updates that should go live by the end of 2021, Harmony plans to become one of the main contributors to the decentralized finance space.

Harmony also offers block generation time that takes no more than a second, facilitating near-instant transactions with the ability to process higher transition throughputs than Ethereum or similar networks.

ONE is the native crypto of the Harmony network, and it is a multi-purpose token. ONE can be used to pay for various services and operations on the network, including paying for storage. ONE holders can also participate in network governance as holding ONE grants them voting rights.

How Does Harmony Work?

Harmony achieves scalability and increases the speed of transactions and block generation through the use of random state sharding. Random state sharding allows the network to split the database into smaller partitions called shards to reduce latency. Sharding thus enables fast and near-instant transactions, while preventing network congestion.

The sharding process depends on an adaptive Proof of Stake consensus mechanism based on a procedure known as distributed randomness generation. This combination enables security, scalability, and simple and easy verification.

The Harmony network operates on a variation of the Byzantine Fault Tolerance protocol, known as Fast BFT. FBFT facilitates speed and efficiency on the Harmony network by processing transactions in parallel. At the same time, Harmony reduces communication cost by signing transactions with an aggregate signature, which enables 250 or more validators to reach consensus in under two seconds.

Who Are the Founders of Harmony? (History of Harmony)

Harmony was co-founded and developed by a dev team that has vast experience in cryptography and computer science, bringing scaling and interoperability to Dapp developers. The founder and CEO of Harmony is Stephen Tse, while Nick White is also one of the co-founders and an active member of the Harmony community. The company was originally founded in 2017, with a dev team of 12 members, including Tse, out of which seven members had previous positions at Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Apple.

Stephen Tse previously worked for Google, Microsoft, and Apple as an engineer. Harmony should introduce cross-sharding and cross-chain infrastructure by the end of 2021 to further develop the project.

What Makes Harmony Unique?

Harmony makes a unique project in the market of cryptocurrencies and the sector of DeFi and Dapps as it strives to provide fast validation time and ensure that blocks can be created in seconds with near-instant finality for transactions on the ledger. Harmony significantly reduces the time needed for transactions to be validated by introducing sharding.

The project also hosts a program, Harmony Grants, to attract more Dapp developers to the network and support innovation and Dapp creation. Aside from using FBFT and game theory, Harmony finds its uniqueness in employing a Verifiable Random Function for security and sharding purposes.

What Gives Harmony Value?

Harmony is as valuable as its technology, utility, and technical capacity to support use cases and operations on the network. These elements define the intrinsic value of Harmony as a project, while the value of ONE is mostly driven by volatility and a multitude of specific factors. 

Harmony uses sharding to solve congestion problems and increase the overall capacity to scale, which makes it one of the few projects that can process transactions in seconds. The real-life value and the market price often doesn’t match, partly due to the high volatility in the cryptocurrency market.

How Many Harmony (ONE) Coins Are There in Circulation?

There are currently ONE in circulation out of a total of . There is no capped max supply of ONE as Harmony currently uses inflation to reward stakers. However, the total annual reward rate is set at 441 million ONE and transaction fees offset the issuance of new tokens. This means as network adoption grows, inflation tends towards zero.

The number of Harmony coins in circulation multiplied by the current price of ONE in the market equals the market cap of Harmony. The market cap ranks ONE among its crypto peers and also defines its dominance and market share.

Other Technical Data

Sharding was first used by Zilliqa (ZIL) to increase the network’s efficiency and to enable scaling for a more functional Dapp environment. To prevent malicious attacks that are possible in the sharding system if one shard tries to take over, Harmony uses deep sharding of the blockchain. Thanks to this technique, sharding is performed on consensus layers, and parallel processing is employed to enable the efficiency of the overall platform.

The fact that Harmony splits the network into smaller partitions, or shards, also allows devices of lower power capacity to become network participants and act as nodes.

Harmony ONE

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Ethereum ETH

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XRP XRP

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How is the Harmony Network Secured?

Harmony network uses Effective Proof of Stake to secure the network and prevent malicious attacks. Harmony is the first network to employ a variation of Proof of Stake in combination with sharding to enable decentralization and security. EPoS allows hundreds of different nodes to participate without risking the centralization of the staking process.

Harmony also uses Distributed Randomness Generation and a Verifiable Random Function which enable random nodes to be chosen by leading nodes in the process of verification without jeopardizing the security of the network.

How to Use Harmony

Harmony can be used for developing and hosting Dapps in a highly decentralized and scalable ecosystem designed to support the creation of DeFi-oriented Dapps. The network is also used for low-latency and low-fee transactions while offering high throughput and transaction finality in seconds.

ONE is the native token of the network and is a multipurpose cryptocurrency that powers the network. It can be used in network governance to grant voting rights to holders, and can also be used as an incentive to reward network participants for validation and securing the network. ONE is used for paying gas fees, transacting, and paying for storage fees. You can additionally trade ONE in the market of cryptocurrencies and try to make a profit based on the difference between buying and selling prices driven by trend reversals.

How to Choose a Harmony Wallet?

The Harmony ONE wallet comes as a Google Chrome extension that can be easily installed and even more easily used. There are also plenty of third-party wallets available for storing ONE and the type you choose will likely depend on how much you need to store and what you intend to do with it.

Hardware wallets or cold wallets like Ledger or Trezor provide the most secure option for storing cryptocurrencies with offline storage and backup. However, they can require more technical knowledge and are a more expensive option. As such, they may be better suited to storing larger amounts of ONE for more experienced users.

Software wallets provide another option and are free and easy to use. They are available to download as smartphone or desktop apps and can be custodial or non-custodial. With custodial wallets, the private keys are managed and backed up on your behalf by the service provider. Non-custodial wallets make use of secure elements on your device to store the private keys. While convenient, they are seen as less secure than hardware wallets and may be better suited to smaller amounts of ONE or more novice users.

Online wallets or web wallets are also free and easy to use, and accessible from multiple devices using a web browser. They are, however, considered hot wallets and can be less secure than hardware or software alternatives. As you are likely trusting the platform to manage your ONE, you should select a reputable service with a track record in security and custody. As such, they are most suited for holding smaller amounts of cryptocurrencies or for those making more frequent trades.

Kriptomat offers a secure storage solution, allowing you to both store and trade your ONE tokens without hassle. Storing your ONE with Kriptomat provides you with enterprise-grade security and user-friendly functionality.

Buying and selling ONE, or trading it for any other cryptocurrency, is done in mere moments when you choose our secure platform as your storage solution.

Harmony Proof of Stake

Harmony uses a variation of the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism called Effective Proof of Stake to increase the security of sharding and allow hundreds of nodes to participate in network operations. 

EPoS reduces the tendency towards stake centralization while supporting delegation, double-sign slashing, unavailability checking and reward compounding.

Conclusion

Harmony aims to solve the problem of inefficient scaling and interoperability, offering Dapp developers a perfectly optimized environment for DeFi Dapps and transactions with near-instant finality. Harmony aims to become one of the top networks in terms of speed and functionality, with low latency and low fees.

The more Harmony is adopted for Dapp development and fast transactions, the more valuable its native token, ONE, becomes. Traders can buy and sell ONE to make a profit, while network users can unlock all the network’s functionalities with ONE token.

Join the crypto revolution and start your Harmony journey today!

Harmony FAQ

Is ONE an ERC-20 token?

ONE tokens were released as ERC-20 and BEP-2 tokens, but following the launch of the Harmony mainnet, these tokens were migrated to native ONE tokens on a 1:1 basis.

What is Horizon?

Horizon is a bridge that can be used to migrate assets between Harmony and Ethereum or Binance Smart Chain.

How to buy Harmony?

If you are not sure how to buy Harmony, you will be thrilled to learn that you can easily buy ONE on Kriptomat. Create a free account on the Kriptomat exchange and set up alerts for the target price of your choice. You can also buy ONE instantly.

How to sell Harmony?

You can sell Harmony on Kriptomat at the target price of your choice by setting up an alarm to be alerted when ONE reaches the desired value. You can also sell ONE instantly. Traders often make a profit based on the difference between the buying and selling prices.

Harmony Price

Harmony price is in constant flux and is subject to frequent and often radical changes that can take place within a relatively short period. ONE price is influenced by the volatility in the crypto market and its value in the market is defined by a multitude of different factors that can be analyzed through sentiment, technical, and fundamental analysis for more successful investing and trading.

As well as traditional factors such as market sentiment, the flow of assets on exchanges, and the economy in general, the price of ONE is also influenced by demand for staking rewards and the level of adoption of the Harmony blockchain.

The current Harmony price is EUR.

The 24-hour trading volume of ONE is EUR. ONE is currently ranked of all cryptocurrencies by total market capitalization, with a market cap of EUR. It has a circulating supply of ONE and a total supply of .

Register now to begin your journey into the world of Harmony and cryptocurrencies with with Kriptomat!

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