Google has just joined the Hedera Hashgraph governance council. As Libra, Hedera Hashgraph is consortium-based. Actually, the CEO of Hedera Hashgraph complained that the governance model was copied after meeting Facebook a while ago with an ad on the Wall Street Journal as seen in the image below.

From a technical point of view, Hedera is not based on a blockchain: it is based on a hashgraph, which another type of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) than a blockchain. One of the technical advantages of a hashgraph is that it reaches a very high number of transactions per second (TPS) compared to a blockchain (not considering layer 2): 100 000 TPS for Hedera Hashgraph compared to around 1000 TPS for Libra. A high TPS is important for the global payment application domain, for example, Visa/Mastercard usually needs 2500 TPS.

Both DLTs are taught as part of the blockchain, cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance course that I lead at the University of Geneva with official European (ECTS) credits and that can be attended via Skype, no need to be in Geneva. Registration to the course is open here: https://www.cas-blockchain-certification.com/en/cas-blockchain-switzerland

In addition, to be part of the governing council and contributing to the nodes and technology via features on its cloud, Google could push for the creation of a stablecoin on top of Hedera Hashgraph. A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency coin that has a stable value.

We published in 2017, at an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) event, a paper on stablecoins based on a basket of fiat currencies. Libra chose this type of approach for its stablecoin in 2019. However, given the regulatory hurdles that Libra has faced with such an approach that allows the consortium to rebalance the percentage of each currencies in the basket in order to maintain its global value, the Google Hedera Hashgraph stablecoin could be backed by US dollars only. It would be difficult to forbid such an approach because many other existing stablecoins are backed by USD only already. Another advantage for the USD-backed Google Hedera Hashgraph stablecoin from the point of view of the regulatory issues may be that the non-profit foundation governing Hedera Hashgraph is based in New-York. US regulators may be more favorable to a stablecoin whose foundation is based in the USA and based on USD only.

Finally, based on my previous study in GAFAM trust (linked in the image below), Google is the second most trusted GAFAM, Amazon being the most trusted.

Which DLT will be chosen by Amazon for its Amazon stablecoin? Will it be based in the USA or in Geneva as chosen by Libra? What about the Chinese BATX? When WeChat will implement the China CDBC (Central Bank Digital Currency)?

Exciting times ahead and join via Skype or on-site the University of Geneva blockchain and cryptocurrencies course if you want to stay ahead: https://www.cas-blockchain-certification.com/en/cas-blockchain-switzerland



