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Hedera Consensus Service

Verifiable time-stamping and ordering of events for any web2 or web3 application.

Developer Quickstart Case Studies

Consensus for any application

Hedera Consensus Service (HCS) is a purpose-built tool for creating decentralized, auditable logs of immutable and timestamped events for web2 and web3 applications. Messages are submitted to the Hedera network for consensus, given a trusted timestamp, and fairly ordered. HCS is used by applications in production to track provenance across supply chains, log asset transfers between blockchain networks, count votes in a DAO, monitor IoT devices, and more.

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Fast, fair, and secure consensus without compromise

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Trust meets privacy

Combine the trust of Hedera’s public network with the privacy of a permissioned blockchain framework. Build applications that require privacy for sensitive data, public trust, and auditability.

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Speed & scalability

Take advantage of Hedera’s high transaction throughout, fast finality, trusted timestamps, and security. Build decentralized applications never before possible.

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Affordably low fees

A single HCS message costs $0.0001 USD, whether you’re using it standalone or in conjunction with a permissioned blockchain. You only pay for messages you submit.

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Development flexibility

Build your application using any development language. Set up your environment, create a topic, and submit your first message in no time.

A trusted real-time auditable log

Business and consumer applications today rely on expensive intermediaries to facilitate trust between parties for sharing data, transacting value, and meeting regulatory compliance.

Hedera Consensus Service (HCS) delivers decentralized trust for any new or existing application, across nearly every industry. Applications which benefit most from HCS require high-throughput, trusted timestamps and ordering, and fast finality. HCS also allows you to encrypt the content of sensitive messages for additional privacy.

Hcs   A Real Time Auditable Log
02 Armada Hedera Landing Blue

“We’re excited to start pushing billions of item-level data transactions through the Hedera network to deepen the connection between the physical and digital worlds, delivering unprecedented visibility across supply chains and a higher level of computational trust that is required for a more sustainable and connected world.”

Max Winograd
Vice President, Connected Products

A decentralized ordering service for permissioned networks

Permissioned blockchain frameworks today, such as Hyperledger Fabric or R3’s Corda, rely on moderation, matching, and ordering performed by custom-built and deployed consensus engines, such as Kafka or Raft. These services are prone to network outage, at risk of collusion by a small number of parties, and subject to the cost models of centralized infrastructure providers.

HCS combines the trust of Hedera’s public network, with the privacy of permissioned blockchain frameworks. It enables verifiable timestamps, decentralized ordering, and privacy for sensitive information, for enterprise applications and consortiums.


Hcs For Permissioned Networks
Hala Bg

"Hedera’s distributed ledger provides Hala Systems with reliable data provenance, in which the public can view digital media and be confident about its authenticity."

John Jaeger
CEO

Step-by-step with Hedera Consensus Service

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1: Create topic

A topic is created to manage the stream of messages for one application, such as a market where people bid on products.

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2: Send

When an event happens – like a bid – it can be sent as an encrypted message to the topic.

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3: Process

All of the messages are put into consensus order by the Hedera mainnet. A mirrornet can then send the messages for a particular topic to the application for processing.

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4: Audit

When an audit needs to be conducted, previous messages can be checked, along with a state proof that ensures they have not been falsified.

Low, predictable development costs

Hedera's fee schedule is set by the Hedera Governing Council and always based in USD — making development costs easy to predict and estimate. You can estimate fees on Hedera using the fee calculator.

*Hedera does not guarantee the accuracy of the fees on this page. You understand that You are solely responsible for payment of any actual fees charged to the account by the Hedera Network and Hedera will not be responsible for any discrepancies in the fees estimated and the actual fees charged.

Consensus Service API features

Topic Management

Topics make it simple to organize transactions, so each application only receives the messages it needs.

Consensus Order

Messages are put into consensus order and given a timestamp by the Hedera network, with cryptographic proofs, so they are as trustworthy as the full Hedera network.

Audit log

Messages are cryptographically tied together with a running hash to provide an auditable, tamper-proof log of history.

Scalable transactions

Message processing and storage are kept outside the Hedera network. This allows higher speed and scalability.

Low Fees

The high speed and good scaling ensure low, micropayment fees on par with Hedera Cryptocurrency.

Historical Data

The Hedera Consensus Service ensures speed and security are kept on the ledger while storage is kept off-ledger. Choose to keep everything, nothing, or anything in between.

Code Snippet Background

Create a topic, send a message

Use the Hedera Consensus Service API to start building applications which take advantage of the high-throughput, fair ordering, and fast finality of Hedera.

Function

Create topic
  • Create topic
  • Submit Message
  • Subscribe to topic

const { TopicCreateTransaction } = require("@hashgraph/sdk");

// Create a new public topic

let txResponse = await new TopicCreateTransaction().execute(client);

// Grab the topic ID

let receipt = await txResponse.getReceipt(client);

let topicId = receipt.topicId;

console.log(`Your topic ID is: ${topicId}`);

// Console: Your topic ID is: 0.0.114920

const { TopicMessageSubmitTransaction } = require("@hashgraph/sdk");

// Submit a message

let sendResponse = await new TopicMessageSubmitTransaction({

topicId: topicId,

message: "Hello, HCS!"

}).execute(client);

const { TopicMessageQuery } = require("@hashgraph/sdk");

// Subscribe to the topic

new TopicMessageQuery()

.setTopicId(topicId)

.subscribe(client, (message) => {

let messageAsString = Buffer.from(message.contents, "utf8").toString();

console.log(

`Sequence number: ${message.sequenceNumber} - ${messageAsString}`

)

})

Use  Cases  Payments  Dive  Deeper  Bg

Explore Hedera Consensus Service

From ideation to building your application, check out these Hedera Consensus Service resources to help you along your journey.

A network for decentralized applications

Explore other Hedera network services to run powerful smart contracts and manage files.

Token Service

Create your own token or NFT

Mint and manage fungible and non-fungible tokens on Hedera for application payments, governance, or digital collectibles.

Smart Contract Service

Run Solidity smart contracts

Deploy smart contracts in popular languages including Solidity and Vyper to create decentralized applications and protocols.

HBAR

Hedera's cryptocurrency

Use hbars, the Hedera network's native cryptocurrency, in smart contracts for collateral, staking, and other use cases.

Ready to start building?

Get started with Hedera Consensus Service