The mainnet of Harmony is composed of four pieces of a thousand nodes. These shards allow the Harmony network to produce one block every two seconds. The platform has a decentralized governance system, with no central authority. As a result, it will be operated by a community of people. The main goal of Harmony is to solve the scaling problem that plagues bitcoin, and to achieve this, it has developed a deep sharding protocol.
The algorithm behind Harmony‘s sharding protocol is based on a Verified Random Function. The resulting outputs are unpredictable and unbiased. Because each shard has 250 validators, each node can have as many as 250 validators. The nodes in each shard have a separate address, and no one can access the other’s private keys. This way, the network can operate more efficiently and reliably.
The Harmony community is comprised of 800 nodes from more than 100 countries. These nodes utilize the sharding concept, which applies to the blockchain state, transaction validation, and network communication. This makes Harmony fully scalable in all aspects of the blockchain. Moreover, its Proof-of-Stake consensus is known to be low-cost for nodes, and the sharding mechanism also encourages stake distribution. In other words, it’s energy efficient.
Using a verifiable random function as the proof-of-stake algorithm, Harmony allows many nodes to participate in the network operations. Its sharding mechanism makes the system more reliable and improves decentralization. Staking pool Saturation Parameter helps to split up large stakes by a single validator, increasing the cost-effectiveness of the process. The SST model of the Harmony blockchain also promotes block reward distribution.
Harmony is designed to be scalable, but there are a few key challenges. The blockchain’s shards are limited by their capacity and complexity. The Harmony blockchain is based on the principle of distributed consensus, which is not a consensus protocol. Instead, it is a decentralized database of transactions. As a result, there are many nodes. It is not possible for any single node to act as a shard.
The Harmony blockchain uses a powerful consensus algorithm called Effective Proof-of-Stake. This algorithm allows many nodes to participate in the network operations, improves sharding and decentralization, and allows for the creation of multiple shards. As a result, the Harmony blockchain is scalable and can handle many users. There is no limit to the number of shards a single blockchain can handle.
While Harmony is a well-developed cryptocurrency, it is still a fairly new project. Currently, the project has been around for a few years, but it was recently hacked, resulting in millions of ONE tokens being stolen. Since the hack was not reported in the media, it has not yet been successful in achieving its goals. The only way to make the Harmony network work is to increase the number of shards and accept more risk.
The Harmony team is composed of more than thirty people. Its core developers include Dr. Stephen Tse, who is a highly skilled cryptographer and is responsible for Google Maps. He has also worked as a developer at Apple for two years and sold his start-up to Apple for seven figures. After two years with Apple, he left to pursue his passion for blockchain technology. With its decentralized network, it takes seven epochs for funds to be unstaked.
The Harmony network was influenced by Cardano and Ethereum. Its blockchain is made up of four shards, including a beacon shard and shards one, two, and three. Each shard maintains the same blockchain state, making transactions between shards just as fast as transactions between same-shard nodes. Its consensus protocol is based on the principle of “distributed shards”.
The Harmony network rarely becomes congested due to its decentralized nature and the use of proof-of-stake. In addition to this, the Harmony network also requires multiple validators for every transaction. However, the system is a good fit for those looking to develop a service. If you have an idea, you might want to check it out. In July 2020, the Harmony will announce its grant scheme. With seven-million dollars, developers can implement new services and applications.