Hedera is a public distributed ledger for building and deploying decentralized applications and microservices. You can use Hedera’s network services–Cryptocurrency, Smart Contracts, and File Service–atop the hashgraph consensus algorithm, to build applications with high throughput, fair ordering, and low-latency consensus finality in seconds without relying on centralized infrastructure.

The network is made up of permissioned nodes run by the the Hedera Governing Council, a group of term-limited enterprises that lead the network's direction. Over time the network will move to a permissionless model.

Hashgraph is a distributed consensus algorithm and data structure that is fast, fair, and secure. This indirectly creates a trusted community, even when members do not necessarily trust each other. Hedera is the only authorized public network to use hashgraph.

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The following features of the Hedera mainnet are still under development and therefore not yet available:

• State Proofs
• Live Hashes
• Staking

We're actively working on expanding documentation, examples, and constantly improving our SDK. We'd love to hear from you if a particular subject is confusing, or you have suggestions for an improvement, please let us know by suggesting an edit or in the discord chat.