Harmony is a decentralized blockchain which is designed as a bridge between scalability and decentralization, an area other blockchains have struggled to find common ground.
With its high transaction throughputs (TPS), scalability and security, Harmony aims to move cryptocurrency and blockchain to a new level of mainstream adoption. By removing the limitations of other blockchains, Harmony is set to bridge the gap, allowing crypto to become a widely used digital currency.
With the Proof of Work (PoW) protocol of some other blockchains such as Bitcoin, decentralization comes from the requirement that a computer solve an arbitrary mathematical puzzle to stop anyone from cheating the system. These computers are often called Miners and are a form of transaction Validator. This allows trusted transactions without the need for a third party to be involved.
Proof of Work requires large amounts of electricity in order to achieve its intended functions and as traffic on the network grows, transaction speeds go down and transaction costs will go up due to scalability issues.
Harmony uses a form of Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus protocol called Effective Proof of Stake (EPoS). With EPoS larger Validators are incentivized to spread out stake among other validators, helping add to decentralization.
