Using the HC Net, you can build mobile wallets, banking tools, smart devices that pay for themselves, and just about anything else you can dream up involving payments! Even though HC Net is a complex distributed system, working with it doesn’t need to be complicated.
Behind the scenes, every Aurora server connects to HC Net Core, the backbone of the HC Net. The HC Net Core software does the hard work of validating and agreeing with other instances of Core on the status of every transaction through the Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA). The HC Net itself is a collection of connected HC Net Cores run by various individuals and entities around the world. Some instances have a Aurora server you can communicate with, while others exist only to add reliability to the overall network.
You might want to host your own instance of HC Net Core in order to submit transactions without depending on a third party, have more control over who to trust, or simply to help make the HC Net more reliable and robust for others.
HC Net Core is the program used by the individual nodes (or computers) that make up the network. HC Net Core keeps a common distributed ledger and engages in consensus to validate and process transactions. Generally, nodes reach consensus, apply a transaction set, and update the ledger every 5-7 seconds.
The HC Net is a worldwide collection of HC Net Cores, each maintained by different people and organizations. The distributed nature of the network makes it reliable and safe.
All these HC Net Cores—the network of nodes—eventually agree on sets of transactions. Each transaction on the network costs a small fee: 100 Jots (0.00001 HCX). This fee helps prevent bad actors from spamming the network.
To help you test your tools and applications, HCNet.org operates a small test network and Aurora instance. Get started with the testnet.