Buy Harmony

Harmony is a blockchain that aims to address the limitations of traditional blockchains, such as Ethereum and Bitcoin. These networks struggle with scalability, speed, and energy efficiency. Harmony aims to solve these problems through an innovative architecture. By using sharding, where the database is divided into different segments (shards), Harmony supports the creation and use of decentralized applications (dApps) and increases the speed of transactions and block generation.

In addition to sharding, Harmony also distinguishes itself technically through its Fast Byzantine Fault Tolerant (FBFT) consensus protocol, combined with random state sharding and Boneh-Lynn-Shacham (BLS) constant-sized signatures.

With a focus on ease of use, low transaction fees, and fast transaction processing, Harmony provides an excellent experience for both developers and users within the ecosystem. The ONE token plays a central role in the network’s economic system, using it for staking, transaction fees, and on-chain governance. This contributes to the safe and democratic development of the platform.

Who founded Harmony?

Harmony was founded by Stephen Tse, a cryptography and software development expert with experience at companies such as Google and Microsoft. He has assembled a team of experts with backgrounds in both academia and industry to work on Harmony. The team consists of several dozen members who are committed to developing an open, scalable, and secure blockchain.

Harmony offers several features and applications for both users and developers, including:

• Execute transactions: Harmony allows users to execute transactions at lower fees and faster speeds than traditional blockchains, making it ideal for microtransactions and everyday financial activities.
• Build and deploy dApps: Developers can build efficient and scalable dApps on Harmony, benefiting from fast block generation and low costs.
• DeFi services: Harmony facilitates a wide range of decentralized financial services, allowing users to access financing, loans, and other financial products without going through traditional financial institutions.
• Issuing and trading NFTs: The platform's efficiency and scalability make Harmony a popular choice for creating, buying, and selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Harmony introduces a new blockchain architecture that aims to overcome the limitations of traditional blockchains. By combining innovative technologies, Harmony aims to provide a fully scalable, secure, and energy-efficient network.

Sharding

A key feature of Harmony is the implementation of sharding, a method of splitting the blockchain into different segments, allowing the network to process transactions and validations simultaneously. This significantly increases the overall capacity and speed of the network.

Harmony's sharding technique is unique in that it focuses on both transaction processing and blockchain state storage, allowing the network to scale linearly as more nodes join.

FBFT Consensus Protocol

Harmony uses the Fast Byzantine Fault Tolerant (FBFT) consensus protocol, a variation on the traditional Byzantine Fault Tolerance mechanism, to ensure fast and efficient consensus within the network. By using BLS (Boneh-Lynn-Shacham) signatures, Harmony can achieve the necessary agreement between nodes, resulting in faster validation and confirmation of transactions.

Effective Proof-of-Stake (EPoS)

The network uses a staking mechanism called Effective Proof-of-Stake (EPoS) to promote decentralization and ensure equality among validators. EPoS reduces centralization by balancing staking requirements and reward distribution, allowing both large and small token holders to participate in securing the network.

The ONE token plays a central role within the Harmony Network, with multiple functions such as staking, payment of transaction fees, and participation in decentralized governance. With a predetermined annual reward ratio of 441 million ONE tokens, Harmony aims to provide a stable and predictable reward system for validators.

There are a total of 12.6 billion ONE tokens available, but not all of them are currently in circulation. Of this total supply, 22.4% was allocated to the initial seed sale. An additional 12.5% was reserved for a Launchpad sale. The Harmony team and developers received 16.9% of the total supply. Approximately 26.4% of ONE tokens were allocated to protocol development, while another 21.8% was focused on ecosystem development.

Harmony stands out from other blockchains through several features and technologies. Here are the features that make Harmony unique:

• Sharding: Harmony uses state sharding, which divides not only network communication and transaction processing, but also the blockchain state itself into shards. This provides linear scalability in network, storage, and transaction processing.
• Fast Byzantine Fault Tolerant (FBFT): With its FBFT consensus protocol, Harmony achieves transaction finality in just 2 seconds, significantly faster than many other blockchains.
• Secure random assignment of validators to shards: By using cryptographically secured randomness, Harmony protects against shard attacks and ensures an unpredictable and fair distribution of validators.
• Cross-shard transactions: Harmony supports cross-shard transactions, increasing interoperability and functionality between shards without compromising security.

Harmony has proven itself as an innovative blockchain network, but no system is immune to attacks. In 2022, Harmony’s Horizon bridge was hacked, resulting in a loss of approximately $100 million. This attack was the result of a collaboration between two of the five validator nodes. Harmony recovered some of the stolen funds, which was partly achieved with the help of exchanges such as Binance and Huobi.

Harmony has since tightened its security and continues to work on strengthening its network against such attacks, reaffirming its commitment to user safety.

You can purchase Harmony (ONE) at Bitvavo, a space for both novice and experienced crypto traders. Follow these steps to buy ONE via our website or app:

1. Log in to your Bitvavo account or register as a new user.
2. Select "Deposit" to add money to your account.
3. Go to the Harmony (ONE) purchase page.
4. Enter the amount in euros you want to invest or the number of ONE tokens you wish to purchase and confirm with "Buy".

The price of ONE tokens depends on the current market value. Your purchased ONE tokens will automatically appear in your Bitvavo wallet. Selling Harmony coins is just as easy via Bitvavo, allowing you to quickly respond to Harmony price changes.

At Bitvavo, you can trust that your ONE tokens are safe. The majority of funds are stored offline in cold wallets, which ensures maximum security. We recommend enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) for an extra layer of security.

If you prefer a personal storage method, Bitvavo supports various software and hardware wallets. After purchase, you can easily transfer your Harmony tokens to an external wallet, as long as you have the correct address linked to your Bitvavo account.