Question 1

What is Harmony?

Accepted Answer

Harmony is a sharded proof-of-stake blockchain for decentralized applications, and ONE is its native token. Sharding divides network, state, and transaction processing across multiple shards, allowing different parts to process work in parallel rather than having a single execution path handle all transactions. Greater processing capacity from sharding does not mean that every operation is inherently faster or cheaper; users' actual experience still depends on the network, application contract, prevailing network conditions, and transaction settings they use.

Question 2

What is ONE used for?

Accepted Answer

ONE is used to pay transaction fees on the Harmony chain and to participate in staking and protocol governance. When transferring funds or interacting with a decentralized application, the network must process and record the transaction, and fees are paid in ONE; this fee is the cost of using on-chain resources, not a uniform price for purchasing an application's business service. An application action may therefore involve two types of expense at the same time: ONE fees paid to the network, and asset exchanges, collateral, or service conditions specified by the application itself in its contract or interface. Whether the latter exists and which asset pays it depend on the specific application and cannot be inferred from ONE's use for Gas.

Question 3

Can holding ONE allow participation in staking?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Token holders can delegate ONE to a validator, which participates in consensus on behalf of the associated stake; if the validator is elected and performs its duties properly, it may receive block rewards under network rules, and delegators then participate in reward distribution according to their delegation relationship. Delegation does not require token holders to run a validator node themselves. Rewards are not determined solely by the amount delegated: whether the validator is elected, its operating performance, and the fees or commission it sets all affect delegation outcomes. Staking also differs from an on-demand deposit; before participating, users should confirm the specific conditions for delegation, withdrawal, and reward claiming in the wallet or protocol they use.

Question 4

What is EPoS?

Accepted Answer

EPoS is Harmony's Effective Proof-of-Stake mechanism. Rather than using only validators' nominal stake directly for competition, it calculates “effective stake” for validator election and sets median-related bounds for effective stake. These bounds mean that additional nominal stake for a single validator does not necessarily increase its effective election weight proportionally; the design aims to reduce incentives for stake to become excessively concentrated among a small number of large nodes. Election outcomes determine which validators can participate in consensus and receive corresponding rewards, so nominal delegation size should not be the sole criterion when selecting a validator.

Question 5

How does ONE relate to network governance?

Accepted Answer

ONE is also the unit token for Harmony protocol governance voting. Governance generally operates by proposing protocol-level changes, voting under the rules, and executing approved decisions; therefore, ONE's governance use is participation in decisions about on-chain rules, not a claim on an entity's operating revenue. Whether a proposal has been submitted, passed, or implemented must be confirmed separately: proposal text only describes the proposed content, passage indicates the decision outcome, and actual network adoption also depends on subsequent execution and upgrades. Improvements under discussion must not be treated as network rules that have already changed.

Question 6

What mechanism risks are involved in staking?

Accepted Answer

Harmony's EPoS has a slashing mechanism for validator double-signing. Double-signing means a validator signs conflicting blocks; once the rule is triggered, the associated stake is penalized and the validator is also barred from continuing to participate. For delegators, risk does not arise only from market prices: delegating to a validator means their outcome is connected to whether that validator can be elected and operate compliantly. Protocol risk from “a validator being penalized for misconduct” should be distinguished from the participation outcome where “a validator is not elected or performs poorly and rewards differ”; these are not the same situation.

Question 7

What do validators and delegators each do in Harmony?

Accepted Answer

Validators and delegators have different roles: validators run nodes, participate in block production and consensus, and bear responsibility for complying with protocol rules; delegators use ONE to support the stake of their chosen validator and do not directly perform that validator's node duties. This division of roles enables ordinary token holders to participate in staking, but it also makes delegation choices materially consequential. A validator's effective stake, election status, commission, and compliance performance can affect the delegation experience through reward or penalty mechanisms; delegation does not turn ONE into a fixed-income product.

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