Hashgraph Distributed Consensus Platform Enables Developers to Build Serverless, Secure Apps in the Cloud

COLLEGE STATION, TX—December 20, 2016—Swirlds™, building the trust layer for the internet, today released a new version of the Software Development Kit (SDK) for the hashgraph distributed consensus platform, free for download. The latest version of the SDK adds a replicated file system, providing the ability to offer a free, synchronized, distributed file system with any application built on Swirlds.

The Swirlds software development platform goes beyond blockchain. It provides capabilities not previously possible with existing technology, to build and run shared worlds—fully distributed applications that harness the power of the cloud without central servers. Swirlds is the industry’s only operating system on which to build applications that rapidly achieve distributed consensus, resulting in fair, fast, proven and efficient transactions without any single point of failure.

“The evolution of distributed consensus is not just to be able to create and place transactions in order, but then to be able to record these transactions in a record that everyone using the system has full access to, at any time, without the need for a central server,” said Leemon Baird, co-founder and CTO of Swirlds. “Imagine a serverless version of Dropbox, or Google Docs, or other file sharing services, available for any application, with the additional benefit of not being beholden to any given entity. This is the next step in developing a true distributed consensus platform, and we are pleased to be releasing this publicly today.”

Leveraging the hashgraph distributed consensus algorithm, the Swirlds platform enables developers to efficiently create always-available, serverless, distributed applications of unlimited scope and scale. With applications built on Swirlds, transactions are:

  • Fair: As Swirlds does not rely on miners, Swirlds applications ensure the actual order of transactions is the consensus order, and all transactions are included.
  • Fast: Swirlds does not require “proof–of-work.” Transactions happen in milliseconds, instead of minutes or hours.
  • Proven: Users quickly receive absolute proof of the consensus results of their actions for 100 percent order certainty.

“Developers want to create distributed applications that eliminate the need to trust the security and availability of centrally-managed data and applications servers,” said Mance Harmon, c0-founder and CEO of Swirlds. “Whether you want to build a distributed identity director, online auction, stock market, cryptocurrency, or multiplayer game, today we are pleased to have taken another step in the creation of a highly-performant operating system for distributed applications.”

The Swirlds SDK

The Swirlds SDK contains the Swirlds platform, sample apps with source code that can run in that browser, and documentation for installing, running and writing new apps using Eclipse. In addition, developers benefit from a detailed tech report that outlines the hashgraph, consensus algorithm, and math proofs that power the platform, and a second tech report that walks through examples of each step of the algorithm. The SDK is available on the Swirlds downloads page.
About Swirlds

Swirlds provides a platform to build and run shared worlds—fully distributed applications that harness the power of the cloud without servers. Applications built on the Swirlds platform create trust in peer-to-peer networks without a central server, while ensuring fairness, which is needed in auctions, markets, and multiplayer games. Leveraging the new hashgraph consensus algorithm, the Swirlds platform enables developers to build applications that are fair, fast, secure and trusted. Swirlds—building the trust layer of the internet. www.swirlds.com | @Swirlds