Hedera Hashgraph is a distributed ledger of transactions, otherwise known as a DLT (distributed ledger technology). While blockchains are the most commonly used DLTs, Hedera is slightly different since it uses a new consensus algorithm known as hashgraph. The hashgraph consensus algorithm aims to process and finalize more transactions at scale than traditional Proof-of-Work (PoW) networks, as they are often characterized by high latency and low transactions per second (tps). Hedera's state is stored on mainnet nodes, which are all currently run by members of the Hedera Governing Council. But in the future, mainnet nodes will be permissionless. These nodes secure the Hedera ledger by reaching a consensus on the validity and order of transactions. Hedera provides two core network services: the Hedera Consensus Service (HCS) and the Hedera Token Service (HTS). HCS allows clients to submit messages to the Hedera network for consensus timestamping and ordering, but it doesn't require the consensus nodes to store state related to that message. Instead, application state or data is persisted off-chain, where HCS users can define confidentiality and access control that cater to their use-case. The HTS supports native tokenization, whereby clients can create and manage various token types. Token controls include managing supply and KYC compliance, along with native atomic swaps and multi-sig capabilities.