Background information about the Hedera network — the public distributed ledger built on Hiero, governed by a council of global organizations. Covers the Hedera Mainnet, Testnet, HBAR cryptocurrency, Hedera Council, and the ecosystem organizations (Hashgraph, Hashgraph Association, HBAR Foundation). Use when generating content about Hedera as a product/network, its use cases, governance, HBAR token, or the organizations around it. Also use when the user mentions Hedera Mainnet, HBAR, HashScan, or Hedera Council.
Hedera is a public, open-source, proof-of-stake distributed ledger network (DLT). It is built on the Hiero open-source codebase (see the hiero-info skill for technical details on the underlying technology) and governed by the Hedera Council — a decentralized body of leading global organizations.
Hedera positions itself as "the trusted platform for building fast, secure, and compliant decentralized applications."
HBAR (symbol: ℏ) is the native cryptocurrency of the Hedera network. It powers all network operations.
Hedera avoids gas-based pricing (unlike Ethereum). Fees are:
Hedera provides four core network services:
Create and manage fungible and non-fungible tokens natively on the network.
A decentralized message bus for writing immutable, verifiable, and consensus-timestamped data.
EVM-compatible smart contracts written in Solidity.
Decentralized file storage using hash-based file identification for secure storage and retrieval across the network.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Throughput | 10,000+ TPS |
| Finality | Instant (seconds) |
| Consensus | Hashgraph (ABFT — Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerant) |
| Node model | Permissioned (Council members operate nodes) |
| Fee model | USD-denominated, converted to HBAR at transaction time |
The production network. All real HBAR transactions and live applications operate here.
A free test environment for developers. Mirrors mainnet functionality but uses test HBAR with no real value.
An early-access network for testing upcoming features before they reach testnet and mainnet.
For local development, use solo — an opinionated CLI for deploying and managing standalone test networks. See the hiero-info skill for details on solo and the solo GitHub Action. (The older hiero-local-node tool is being deprecated in favor of solo.)
HashScan (https://hashscan.io) is the primary block explorer and analytics tool for the Hedera network. Built by Hashgraph.
Features:
The Hedera Council is a decentralized governing body of leading global organizations that validate transactions on the Hedera network and steer its strategic direction.
Key principles:
Website: https://hederacouncil.org
The Council consists of 30+ organizations across industries:
Technology: Dell, Google, LG, Hitachi, ServiceNow, Wipro Finance: Shinhan Bank, Standard Bank, Nomura, LSE (London Stock Exchange) Telecommunications: Deutsche Telekom, Tata Communications, Zain Enterprise: FedEx, Mondelēz, Avery Dennison, Arrow Electronics Energy: EDF, Repsol Blockchain/Crypto: BitGo, Chainlink Labs, Swirlds Other: Ubisoft, Australian Payments Plus
Beyond full Council membership:
Hashgraph (formerly Swirlds Labs) is the primary software company providing technical development, product engineering, and marketing support for the Hedera network.
Products:
Note: Hashgraph is a separate company from the Hedera Council. Hedera is an independent, council-governed public network; Hashgraph operates as a developer and service provider within that ecosystem.
The HBAR Foundation is dedicated to supporting the growth and development of the Hedera ecosystem through grants, investments, and ecosystem development programs.
The Hashgraph Association is a Swiss-based organization focused on advancing the adoption of Hedera/Hiero technology, particularly in enterprise and institutional contexts.
Hedera targets high-volume, cost-sensitive enterprise applications across several industries:
hiero-info skill for the Hiero DID SDKsUnderstanding the relationship between these entities is important:
| Entity | What it is |
|---|---|
| Hiero | The open-source codebase (under LF Decentralized Trust) from which Hedera is built. Anyone can use Hiero to run their own DLT. See hiero-info skill. |
| Hedera Mainnet | The production public network running Hiero code, governed by the Hedera Council |
| Hedera Council | The governing body of 30+ organizations that operate nodes and steer strategy |
| Hashgraph | The software company providing engineering and products for the Hedera ecosystem |
| HBAR Foundation | Grant and investment organization supporting Hedera ecosystem growth |
| Hashgraph Association | Swiss organization advancing enterprise adoption of Hedera/Hiero technology |
| HBAR | The native cryptocurrency powering the Hedera network |
| Resource | URL |
|---|---|
| Hedera Documentation | https://docs.hedera.com |
| Developer Portal | https://portal.hedera.com |
| HashScan Explorer | https://hashscan.io |
| Hedera SDKs | See hiero-info skill (SDKs are now under the Hiero project) |
| JSON-RPC Relay | See hiero-info skill |
| Hedera GitHub (legacy) | https://github.com/hashgraph |
| Hiero GitHub (current) | https://github.com/hiero-ledger |
| Resource | URL |
|---|---|
| Hedera Website | https://hedera.com |
| Hedera Council | https://hederacouncil.org |
| Hedera Documentation | https://docs.hedera.com |
| HashScan | https://hashscan.io |
| Hashgraph (company) | https://hashgraph.com |
| HBAR Foundation | https://www.hbarfoundation.org |
| Hiero (open-source base) | https://hiero.org |