Will Hashgraph Supersede Blockchain?

Blockchain, the parent technology of cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin is in for a terse competition. The plausible threat to blockchain could not be from regulatory authorities, but from Hashgraph, a revolutionary data structure. Hashgraph is also based on Distributed Ledger Technology, with rectification to flaws in the blockchain.

Hedera Hashgraph, developed by Lemon Baird in 2016 claims that it  provides” consensus time-stamping” simultaneously retaining the functionality of blockchain. This makes it a more reliable algorithm with the ability to process more than 2,50,000 transactions per second.

Will Hashgraph be able to win the battle?

In Hashgraph a block has a timestamp, the transactions related with it, the hash of the block and its predecessors. Whereas in Blockchain the data is organized into a series of interconnected blocks. A hash function in mathematics maps the data of arbitrary size into a fixed size. For instance. It will take a hash function of say n characters and then return its hash value which may be of 256 characters. In order to retrieve the original data, processors will consult the hash table relevant to that function. The hash function requires longer to be decrypted as the algorithm is based on randomness. 

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One similarity is that both rely on gossip protocol. A node in the network conveys information about the transactions to its neighbors. Thus, it becomes a race between the nodes to solve the hash and the winning node acquires the share of the currency. After the winning nodes communicate about finding the hash, the other blocks stop finding the hash for that transaction. This is proof-of-work in blockchain. The credibility of winning blocks claim is first verified to avoid the entry of fraud blocks or duplicates.

Consensus Protocols used in Hashgraph and Blockchain

In Hashgraph a consensus protocol utilizes gossip history to create a directed graph. The timestamp will determine the order of the messages. According to the protocol, if there are z members (z>1), any event can refute its truthfulness if it can be seen by 2n/3 events of other members. If there are 4 members linked to an event, it indicates a consensus among the members, this will solve the trust deficit between participating members. This protocol makes hashgraph much faster than blockchain.

Also Read: The Supreme People’s Court of China will Consider Blockchain Evidence to be Legally Binding

In a blockchain, if two miners find a contesting block, the proof of work is analyzed and one block is subsequently discarded. Whereas in Hashgraphs all events are retained and are utilized to arrive at a consensus. Blockchains cannot withstand such rapid insertion of blocks, as only one branch can add to the growth of the block, thus proof-of-work is required to slow down the growth, which leads to delay in authenticating the transactions.

Comparing Blockchain and Hashgraph

Conclusion

While both blockchain and Hashgraph have their own merits and demerits, only time will tell which becomes the more viable option among tech giants and corporations.