# Hedera

By [abdul](https://paragraph.com/@rdenis) · 2023-04-24

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Hedera is the most used, sustainable, enterprise-grade public network for the decentralized economy that allows individuals and businesses to create powerful decentralized applications ([DApps](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-applications-dapps)).

It is designed to be a fairer, more efficient system that eliminates some of the limitations that older blockchain-based platforms face — such as slow performance and instability.

It was funded through an initial coin offering (ICO) in August 2018 and first launched open access to its mainnet just over a year later in September 2019. As part of the ICO, investors were able to purchase the platform’s native utility token (HBAR) at the lowest possible pricing.

The HBAR token has a dual role within the Hedera public network.

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*Originally published on [abdul](https://paragraph.com/@rdenis/hedera)*