HBAR is a cryptocurrency that's part of the Hedera Hashgraph system – a decentralized network for building apps.
The HBAR coin is one of the top 50 cryptocurrencies in the world based on market cap, according to the website Coinmarketcap.
But like all cryptocurrencies HBAR is highly volatile and its value can go down as well as up in the blink of an eye.
You could lose all you money investing in cryptocurrency and you should never invest money you can't afford to lose – or in financial products you don't understand.
There's no guarantee that you'll be able to convert your crypto investment back into cash either and you could be charged higher fees than on traditional financial products.
Cryptocurrencies are not regulated so you won't have the same protections either if something goes wrong.
Newer cryptocurrencies can also be riskier than more established coins like bitcoin.
Hashgraph is similar to a blockchain and was created in 2017 by American computer scientist Leemon Baird.
The Hedera Hashgraph system is a distributed ledger built on Hashgraph and was created by Baird along with Mance Harmon.
HBAR is the cryptocurrency of the Hedera Hashgraph.
The company itself expalins: "HBAR is the native, energy-efficient cryptocurrency of the Hedera public network."
It claims to be the third generation public ledger after "Bitcoin pioneered decentralized infrastructure and Ethereum brought programmability".
There is a total HBAR supply of 50billion units and according to Coinmarketcap almost 7billion were in circulation as of January 2021 – around 14% of the total supply.
There is a governing council for Hedrera and members include well-known companies like Google IBM and Boeing.
You can buy and sell HBAR on some cryptoexchanges ans is currently trading at $0.3987 at the time of writing.
HBAR's up nearly 5% in the past 24 hours and down just over 10% from it's all time high back in March of $0.4495.
Myron Jobson, Personal Finance Campaigner, interactive investor, says that one of Hedra’s unique selling points is its purported energy efficiency credentials.
He told The Sun: "Unlike the Bitcoin network which uses more in one year as the country of Argentina, analysis by Cambridge University suggests, Hedra claims to be a low carbon footprint public ledger."
“It is part of the InterWork Alliance’s (IWA) Sustainability Business Working Group which aims to aid global efforts on sustainability in the crypto space by in a number of ways, including standardizing carbon offsets.
“Proof-of-stake blockchains like Hedra inherently consumes energy to function – there is no getting around it.
"The effectiveness of carbon offset is difficult for the lay investor to gauge based on the publicly available information.
Mt Jobson adds: "Hedera Hashgraph still has a long way to go in proving its concept. The usual warnings over risk and volatility applies here."
Below we round up five risks of investing in cryptocurrencies.
Email us at money@the-sun.co.uk
From a fuel duty cut to energy bill help, predictions for spring statement today
P&O forced to pay out £36.5MILLION to workers after firing all 800 crew in ambush
Martin Lewis warns 'worrying' bill trick could leave you out of pocket
Rishi Sunak could cut Universal Credit taper AGAIN in tax boost for low paid
©News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. “The Sun”, “Sun”, “Sun Online” are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers’ Limited’s Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. View our online Press Pack. For other inquiries, Contact Us. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO)
Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/
