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Discover Hathor

Introduction​

This article is the pathway for everyone getting started in their journey with Hathor. We will cover:

  • what Hathor is;
  • why to use it; and
  • what its main features are.

What is Hathor?​

Hathor is a general-purpose layer-one blockchain platform with three main differentiators:

  • It is highly fast and scalable without weakening security and decentralization.
  • It is easy to use, implementing sophisticated features — which in other blockchains require complex additional protocols — as built-in or off-the-shelf solutions.
  • It is affordable for both individuals and businesses, making blockchain technology accessible to a much broader range of previously underserved users.

Hathor is ideal for tokenization, notarization, and web3 use cases, aiming to address the pain points of both individuals and businesses. With Hathor, businesses can build use cases without requiring developers specialized in blockchain, and individuals can create their own tokens directly from their wallet application — without having to write a single line of code.

Why Hathor?​

In a nutshell, Hathor’s value proposition is to make blockchain technology more efficient and accessible — without sacrificing the core characteristics that make it valuable in the first place, such as security, decentralization, and immutability. This is achieved through the combination of the following features:

  • Proof of work (PoW)
  • BTC merged-mining
  • DAG + blockchain
  • UTXO model
  • Zero transfer fees
  • Built-in custom tokens
  • Atomic swaps
  • Multi-signature wallets
  • Data outputs
  • Nano contracts
  • Anti-MEV
  • Random number generation (RNG)

Proof of work (PoW)​

Proof or work (PoW) is solid and battle-tested. It has successfully secured the Bitcoin Network since 2008, having endured multiple crises and proven its resilience. While other consensus mechanisms are being developed and used, their long-term viability remains unproven. However, due to various technical and business factors, most blockchains today use PoS or other consensus mechanisms. Hathor took a different path: its protocol was designed from scratch to use PoW, but combined with other strategies to address the technical and business challenges that led other projects to not use it.

BTC merged mining​

One of the strategies Hathor uses to mitigate the challenges of PoW is BTC merged mining. In other words, Hathor Network piggybacks on Bitcoin's mining process. Mining pools reuse all the computational power spent on mining BTC to also mine HTR, with virtually no additional cost. For miners, this means increased profit margins; for Hathor, it means leveraging the full hash power of Bitcoin to secure the network; for the crypto mining industry — often criticized for high resource consumption — it means optimization, delivering more value to society with the same input; and for users of Hathor platform, it means high security at a lower cost.

DAG + blockchain​

Another strategy used to achieve scalability and fast transaction confirmation — without giving up PoW — is employing a ledger with a data structure that combines a directed acyclic graph (DAG) with a chain of blocks (blockchain). In a conventional blockchain, transactions are placed inside blocks, meaning block size and time intervals limit the number of transactions the network can process. In Hathor, both transactions and blocks are vertices in a DAG, and the practical limit on throughput is defined by the intrinsic nature of a global distributed system — not by theoretical constraints of the protocol.

Hathor ledger: DAG + blockchain.

Blocks no longer contain transactions. Instead, they are vertices that act as checkpoints in the ledger, still ensuring the security provided by the impossibility of recalculating the hashes of a long chain of blocks.

UTXO model​

Hathor, like Bitcoin, uses a UTXO-based bookkeeping model for wallets. When combined with built-in custom tokens, this enables a high degree of parallelization in contract execution — something not possible on EVM-based platforms. For example, on Ethereum and similar platforms, a transaction involving USDT locks (i.e., touches) the entire USDT smart contract, whereas on Hathor, it only locks its own UTXOs.

This is essential for use cases requiring high transaction throughput or a significant number of interrelated transactions, such as in financial markets. For end users, this accelerates trading and reduces slippage.

Zero transfer fees​

HTR is Hathor’s native utility token and is used to pay fees and consume network services such as tokenization, notarization, and contract creation and execution. These fees are then used to reward miners and support the ongoing development of the technology, making it possible to keep the network operational.

However, there are no fees for simple fund transfers between wallets and contracts on the ledger. The use of BTC merged mining makes block generation and network security both effective and low-cost, enabling zero-fee transfers. For users, this means spending less while using crypto and web3; for businesses, it means greater predictability in their OPEX.

Built-in custom tokens​

Built-in custom tokens is a unique feature of Hathor, enabling the creation of fungible and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in a simple, easy, and low-cost way. Using Hathor wallets applications, individuals can create a new token by filling out a form in the GUI, and organizations can do so with just a single API request.

Most smart contracts deployed on Ethereum merely implement standard interfaces such as ERC-20 (fungible tokens) or ERC-721 (non-fungible tokens). In other words, these contracts exist solely to create a new token. Such contracts are not necessary on Hathor, where users have a embedded token machine that create tokens that behave like just like a network native token. That is, they move through wallets via UTXOs. This makes Hathor an ideal platform for tokenization, particularly for real-world asset (RWA) use cases.

Atomic swaps​

Atomic swaps is a unique feature of Hathor that allows trades to be executed in a single transaction. Suppose Alice wants to swap X tokens A with Bob for Y tokens B. In the EVM world, a smart contract would be required to perform this trade in a trustless manner — on top of the two separate contracts needed to create and manage tokens A and B respectively.

On Hathor, none of those three contracts are necessary. Alice and Bob can perform the swap using a single blockchain transaction. Alice signs the inputs for tokens A, Bob signs the inputs for tokens B — and that’s it. In Hathor, we replace the full lifecycle of three smart contracts (design, implement, deploy, audit, etc.) with just three transactions, and the impact of this should not be underestimated.

For more on it, see Atomic swaps.

Multi-signature wallets​

Multi-signature wallets is a common feature available on most blockchain platforms. However, what sets Hathor apart is what becomes possible when this feature is combined with the previous two: most smart contract use cases can be implemented on Hathor through a combination of built-in custom tokens, atomic swaps, and multi-signature wallets.

In this solution architecture, the business logic is handled off-chain, while the blockchain is used solely to execute the asset exchange between parties, provided the appropriate signatures. This allows businesses to benefit from blockchain technology without taking on the inherent overhead of using smart contracts. This is arguably a more viable path for organizations to integrate blockchain into their systems and business models.

For more on it, see Multi-signature wallets.

Data outputs​

Data outputs is a feature of Hathor that enables the on-chain storage of data points of up to 30–31 KiB in regular transactions, which is orders of magnitude more than what is possible on most competing blockchains. This is another functionality that would typically require smart contracts, but on Hathor it can be done with a simple ordinary transaction, making it ideal for notarization use cases (i.e., document registration).

Additionally, the combination of data outputs with built-in NFTs enables the implementation of a simple and efficient solution for traceability use cases. First, an NFT is created to represent a collection of data points. Then, each transaction used to store a data point also includes the NFT. As a result, the NFT’s transaction history makes it possible to identify the on-chain collection.

For more on it, see Data outputs.

Nano contracts​

While Hathor enables the implementation of many use cases without the need for smart contracts, the platform also provides support for executing business logic on chain through nano contracts. Nano contracts is Hathor's version of smart contracts — that is, they are indeed smart contracts, but with Hathor's signature: simple, easy to use, low-cost, and accessible to everyone.

For developers, Hathor provides an SDK for developing contract models (AKA blueprints) in Python 3. In addition to the convenience of using a widely known and mature language, the SDK leverages the platform’s built-in features and abstracts much of the complexity and security issues found in the EVM model. For users, this means the ability to create new contracts from pre-existing models in a no-code manner, similar to token creation.

For more on it, see Nano contracts.

Anti-MEV​

Anti-MEV is yet another unique built-in feature that prevents node operators, miners, and validators from manipulating the order of transactions for their own benefit in DeFi contexts. On other Web3 platforms, users or DApp developers typically need to rely on additional (often complex) solutions to prevent these infrastructure operators from exploiting their early knowledge of transactions to carry out so-called sandwich attacks — i.e., analyzing the transaction queue and inserting a new one in the middle to profit at the expense of regular users.

On Hathor, anti-MEV provides transparent protection for everyone. Users and developers don’t need to do anything — they’re automatically protected against this type of economic attack. The way Hathor protocol works inherently prevents miners from executing such strategies.

Random number generation (RNG)​

Random number generation (RNG) is another unique built-in feature of Hathor, related to smart contracts, that enables a simple, low-cost way to implement use cases requiring randomness and fairness (e.g., lotteries, gambling, games, etc.). Hathor engine provides contracts with an RNG by leveraging the inherent entropy of the protocol.

For developers, this reduces costs by eliminating the need for third-party oracles to obtain external entropy sources. For DApp users, it means lower web3 usage fees and the confidence that they’re not being cheated.

Key takeaways​

The combination of all these features forms Hathor’s unique value proposition: an ideal blockchain platform for tokenization, notarization, and web3, designed for both B2B and B2C use cases.

Hathor’s technological signature is evident not only in each individual feature, but also in the way they come together as a cohesive whole:

  • Hathor is more affordable. For developer teams, they optimize the usage of capital and human resources. Some organizations may lack the money, time, or personnel to build projects on other blockchains, but do have resources to build on Hathor, making blockchain accessible to a much broader range of previously overlooked businesses. For end users, Hathor's low transaction fees combined with its scalability prevent the incurrence of high gas fees, allowing them to spend less money while using crypto and web3.
  • Hathor is easier to use. For developer teams, building blockchain projects is both practical and convenient. The challenges of blockchain development — such as code complexity, auditing, and security risks — are all handled by the platform enabling teams to focus solely on the use cases and products they aim to build on the blockchain. For end users, it’s possible to create tokens and even contracts in a no-code manner simply by using the graphical interface of the wallet applications.
  • Hathor is more effective. By providing a fully featured blockchain platform that is easy, fast, and inexpensive to use, Hathor enables businesses to prototype, release, and iterate their blockchain projects quickly. At the current stage of blockchain technology adoption, this is essential for achieving product–market fit.

In a nutshell, Hathor provides a blockchain platform that is secure, simple, low-cost, easy to use, and accessible to both end users and businesses.