Hathor Network has positioned itself as the "WordPress of blockchain," aiming to radically simplify blockchain development and usage. The project utilizes a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus that uniquely merges DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) and blockchain data structures, creating an interoperable environment accessible even to non-technical users.
Innovative Architecture: DAG + PoW Hybrid
Initiated in 2018 by a skilled dev team, Hathor's mainnet launched in January 2020. The protocol is built on heavy academic research, with its whitepaper authored by CTO Marcelo Brogliato as part of his PhD thesis. Hathor offers a one-stop solution: developers can create smart contracts and dApps without learning Solidity, Substrate, or Rust, using open APIs in multiple programming languages and familiar tools. A developer-friendly headless wallet is also available for complex applications.
Low Barrier: Mint Tokens and NFTs in Minutes
For end-users, the Hathor mobile or desktop wallet includes a built-in token minting feature: simply lock 1 HTR for every 100 units of a custom token. NFT minting costs only 0.02 HTR per piece, with zero transfer fees within the network. NFTs can be minted directly from the desktop wallet with no technical knowledge required.
Merged Mining Boosts Efficiency
Hathor is among the few protocols implementing merged mining, allowing miners to mine multiple cryptocurrencies without additional PoW effort. This reduces hardware costs. Hathor tokens (HTR) are minable on F2Pool and Poolin, two major Bitcoin mining pools. Notably, from January 5, 2022, block rewards will halve from 32 to 16 HTR.
Key Partnerships and Use Cases
Since mainnet launch, Hathor has seen adoption across several projects, including 9Block (an NFT platform by Brazilian influencer Felipe Neto), AfferoFlow, Kick-Off Music, and Databoi. The NFT platform Dropull for in-game items in Cidade Alta (one of Latin America's largest gaming servers with 120,000 active users) is also built on Hathor. Additionally, Hathor launched Hathor Green to incentivize green mining, partnered with Simplex to release an ecosystem debit card, and integrated with hardware wallet Ledger for secure token storage.
What's Next
Hathor's team continues working on new upgrades and partnerships. A dedicated NFT marketplace is under development, and the decentralized exchange HathorSwap is expected to go live in the coming weeks. With its straightforward approach to blockchain applications, Hathor positions itself to become a major stakeholder in the crypto space.