Harmony Coin: A Smart Investment Decision?

Harmony (ONE) is a blockchain-based platform that aims to solve the problem of delivering both scalability and decentralisation without compromising either. It is a layer-2 protocol built on Ethereum that helps dApps scale up by offering faster and cheaper settlements. Its native token, ONE, is used to pay for transaction fees, storage fees, and gas fees, among other things. Harmony has been involved in some popular blockchain fields, such as DeFi and NFTs, but it faces tough competition from other dApp platforms. Its price has been volatile, and whether it is a good investment depends on individual circumstances and risk tolerance.

Harmony's mission and its unique features

Harmony's mission is to create a fast and open network of nodes, governed and operated by a large community. This node community is referred to as Pangaea, and it includes validators from over 100 countries.

Harmony is a layer-2 protocol built on Ethereum that aims to help decentralised applications (dApps) scale up by offering faster and cheaper settlements. It is a blockchain platform that facilitates the creation and use of dApps and aims to innovate the way they work by focusing on random state sharding, allowing the creation of blocks in seconds.

Harmony employs a novel approach to dividing the blockchain medium into fragments or parallel grids to increase speed and reliability while reducing costs. This technique allows transactions to be resolved in 3 seconds, and its transaction costs are a hundred times lower than traditional systems.

Harmony also has an Effective Proof-of-Stake (EPoS) protocol, which helps to reduce centralisation and increase transaction speeds. It focuses on validation and processing speed, striving to make block creation faster to support scalability. The sharding process, introduced by Harmony's developers, significantly cuts down the time needed to validate a transaction.

Harmony's website defines it as a "sharding protocol with a trustless Ethereum bridge". Sharding is a database partitioning technique used by blockchain companies to upscale and conduct more transactions per second. Harmony's sharding process is regarded as secure and uses a distributed randomness generation (DRG) algorithm that is unpredictable, unbiased, verifiable, and scalable.

Harmony also has a unique approach to its management token, ONE. It uses a PoS mechanism, which provides greater decentralisation, lower prices, and more nominal energy use than other methods. Shareholders in ONE have a vote on how the Harmony forum is governed, and they can earn a passive income by staking their tokens. The number of approved nodes an individual has is determined by how many tokens they have invested.

Harmony is also working on several other major innovations that could potentially disrupt the DeFi business creatively, including a noncustodial special wallet, stablecoins, and a DeFi protocol.

The NFT market and its potential

The NFT market has experienced explosive growth in recent years, with sales reaching $17.6 billion in 2021, a staggering 21,000% increase from 2020. This growth was fuelled by several factors, including the surge in cryptocurrency prices, celebrity endorsements, and the recognition of NFTs as a legitimate form of art.

The NFT market is projected to reach a total revenue of $608.6 million by 2025, with an annual growth rate of -11.01% from 2024 to 2025. The United States is expected to remain the dominant market due to its robust digital infrastructure and strong investor interest.

The potential of the NFT market lies in its ability to offer unique and secure digital assets, such as digital artwork, music, videos, and in-game items. NFTs ensure that creators and buyers maintain ownership of their assets, as they cannot be replicated or altered. Additionally, the increasing adoption of blockchain technology has made it easier to verify the ownership and authenticity of these digital assets.

The NFT market also benefits from the shift towards virtual experiences, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has created a demand for unique digital assets. The rise of decentralised finance (DeFi) and crypto investing has further driven interest in NFTs as a potential investment opportunity.

However, the NFT market faces certain challenges, including environmental concerns, the potential for speculative bubbles, and limited practical applications beyond art and gaming. Nevertheless, the NFT market has the potential to innovate and reshape the digital world, with corporations and brands continuing to explore its possibilities.

The team behind Harmony

Stephen Tse (Founder and CEO) has experience working with software giants such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft. He also founded Spotsetter, a mobile search company that was later acquired by Apple. Tse holds a Ph.D. in security protocols and compiler verification from the University of Pennsylvania.

Rongjian Lan (Co-Founder and CTO) is an experienced programmer who has worked with Google. He has published over 10 academic papers on spatio-temporal querying and map-based visualization. Lan is also the co-chair of the ABC Blockchain Foundation, which has over 100 engineers from Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn as members.

Leo Chen led a team of engineers at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he built high-throughput storage virtualizations. He also built the first generation of Kindle Fire and architected FireOS for all Amazon devices. Chen holds a master's degree in computer science and a bachelor's degree in the same field from Zhejiang University and Simon Fraser University, respectively.

Other notable members of the Harmony team include Minh Doan, Nick White, Sahil Dewan, Eugene Kim, Li Jiang, and Zi Wang, who have worked with companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple on various exciting projects.

The top partnerships

Harmony has established several notable partnerships that have contributed to its growth and development. Here are some of the top partnerships that have played a significant role in Harmony's success:

• Travala.com: Harmony partnered with Travala.com, a leading online travel platform, to integrate the ONE token as a form of payment on their platform. This partnership expanded the use case for the ONE token and made it more accessible to users looking to book travel accommodations.
• UTU Protocol: UTU Protocol and Harmony collaborated to launch AI-based oracles to maintain users' creditworthiness. UTU's credit scoring oracles were integrated into DeFi lending apps built on the Harmony platform, enhancing the user experience and security.
• CertiK: The integration of CertiK Security Oracle empowered a secured DeFi ecosystem on the Harmony chain. CertiK provided real-time security insights for Harmony users and developers, ensuring the safety of their investments and transactions.
• Blockchain Education Network (BEN): Harmony's partnership with BEN focused on enhancing the knowledge of new generation blockchain developers and providing them with new opportunities. This collaboration helped foster the next generation of blockchain talent and contributed to the growth of the Harmony ecosystem.
• Binance: Harmony teamed up with Binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, to launch BUSD on the Harmony platform. This partnership enabled cross-border finance and passive staking opportunities for ONE token holders on Binance.
• Animoca Brands: With the NFT market booming, Harmony collaborated with Animoca Brands, a major publisher and developer of games, to launch an NFT marketplace. This partnership positioned Harmony to potentially dominate blockchain-based gaming and digital collectibles.
• Chainlink: Chainlink, the leading oracle service in the blockchain industry, integrated its oracle service with Ethereum onto Harmony. This partnership provided Harmony with interoperability with Ethereum and access to Chainlink's vast network.
• Lympo: Lympo, a health data app, became the first Ethereum dApp to port itself over to Harmony due to scalability issues. This partnership served as a case study for the ease of porting from Ethereum to Harmony and the scalability of the Harmony network.
• Safe Haven: Safe Haven, a start-up focused on capital preservation services, announced that they would be issuing their SHA token on the Harmony blockchain. This partnership brought Safe Haven's flagship products to the Harmony platform and demonstrated their commitment to the Harmony ecosystem.
• Matic: Matic, a leading layer-2 scaling solution, worked with Harmony to bring Ethereum's future Plasma proof-of-stake sidechains to the Harmony network. This collaboration further enhanced the interoperability between Harmony and Ethereum, improving transaction throughput.

The price prediction

However, Cryptopolitan predicts that the ONE price could reach a maximum possible level of $1.01 with an average forecast price of $0.90. They also predict that the ONE price will reach $1 for the first time in 2030.

Other sources give the following predictions:

• Digital Coin Price: maximum price of $0.40 and a minimum price of $0.39 in 2032
• Coincodex: $0.241 in one year if it follows Internet growth, $0.134 if it follows Google’s growth, and $0.546 if it follows Facebook’s growth
• Cryptopredictions.com: maximum price of $0.0857 and an average trading price of $0.0686 in 2026
• Price Prediction: average price of $0.19 in 2022, $0.54 in 2025, and $3.7 in 2030
• Wallet Investor: average price of $0.2 in one year and $0.73 in five years
• CoinCodex: fall to $0.05 by 16 May 2022

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