Back in the early ’90s, two young guys met at the U.S. Air Force Academy. They were both excited about computers and big ideas. That’s where Dr. Leemon Baird and Mance Harmon became friends. What started as just two geeks talking tech turned into something much bigger.
Leemon and Mance didn’t just dream, they actually built something real. They created Hedera, a fast and secure platform that’s also friendly to the environment. At the center of it all is their special digital coin called HBAR, which powers everything.
Leemon Baird: The Math Whiz
Leemon Baird always loved solving problems more than playing games. In his 20s, he flew through a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon in just under three years, a school record. His focus? AI, machine learning, and distributed systems, how computers work together and agree on things.
Leemon didn’t just stay in the classroom. He taught as a Professor at the Air Force Academy, worked on top-secret cybersecurity projects, and even started a few tech companies that got snapped up by bigger players. With over 100 research papers and a stack of patents, he was a rock star in the tech world, always chasing the next big problem to solve.
Mance Harmon: The Guy Who Gets Things Done
Mance Harmon, Leemon’s buddy, was cut from a different cloth but just as driven. A Mississippi State grad with a master’s from the University of Massachusetts, Mance was all about making tech work in the real world.
He’d served in the Air Force, building simulations to outsmart missile threats and teaching cybersecurity to the next generation. Later, he climbed the ranks at companies like Ping Identity, where he led teams securing billions of dollars’ worth of digital assets.
Mance was the kind of leader who could rally a team and turn a wild idea into reality. He and Leemon had already started two startups together in the early 2000s, both successful enough to be acquired. Their friendship, born in 1993 at the Air Force Academy, was built on trust and a shared love for pushing boundaries.
The Big Idea: Fixing the Internet
Fast-forward to 2012. The internet was booming, but it had problems. Blockchain, the tech behind Bitcoin, was making waves, but Leemon thought it was clunky. It was slow, ate up tons of energy, and sometimes let people game the system to prioritize their transactions.
He wanted something better, a way for computers all over the world to agree on transactions quickly, securely, and fairly, without burning through electricity like a small country.
For three years, Leemon burned the midnight oil, scribbling equations and coding prototypes. By 2015, he cracked it: a new system called Hashgraph. It wasn’t a blockchain; it was something entirely different. Imagine a network where computers “gossip” about transactions, sharing info randomly until everyone agrees on what happened and when.
It was fast, secure, and fair, and Leemon knew it could be the backbone of a new kind of internet.
But ideas don’t become reality on their own. Leemon called up Mance, who was working at Ping Identity, and said, ‘I’ve got something big. Want in?’ Mance, always up for a challenge, didn’t hesitate. Together, they set out to turn Hashgraph into something the world could use.
Step One: Swirlds and the First Test
In 2015, Leemon and Mance started a company called Swirlds, short for “shared worlds”, in Dallas, Texas. Their goal was to test Hashgraph in private networks, like as banks or businesses. Leemon led the tech side, writing code and refining the algorithm, while Mance handled the business, pitching the idea to potential partners.
Their first big break came in 2017 when a group of credit unions, called CULedger, tried Hashgraph for secure financial transactions. It worked like a charm, fast, unhackable, and reliable. This success proved that Hashgraph wasn’t just a cool theory; it could handle real-world demands.
But Leemon and Mance had a bigger dream: a public network that anyone, anywhere, could use to build apps, make payments, or store data.
Building Hedera: A Public Network for Everyone
By late 2017, the two decided to go all in. They started building Hedera: a platform for developers, businesses, and regular people to create things without relying on a central authority.
But unlike most crypto projects, they wanted it to actually work in the real world. That meant making it trustworthy, stable, and built to last not just another hype coin.
A New Kind of Governance
To make Hedera stand out, Leemon and Mance came up with a bold idea: a Governing Council of up to 39 global organizations, like Google, IBM, and Boeing, to run the network. No single person or company would have control, everyone would get an equal say.
This council would vote on updates and keep things transparent, making Hedera appealing to big businesses who needed reliability.
Funding the Dream
Hedera needed funding to get started, so in August 2018, they launched an initial coin offering (ICO). They sold HBAR, the token meant to run the network. Investors were quick to join in, drawn by the promise of what Hedera could become.
On August 24, 2018, Leemon and Mance hit a symbolic milestone: they minted all 50 billion HBAR coins at a Starbucks in Austin, Texas. It was a nod to their roots, two friends turning a big idea into reality over coffee.
The Team Grows
They didn’t do it alone. They brought in key players like Andrew Masanto, who shaped Hedera’s brand, and Natalie Grunfeld Furman, who handled the legal side to keep everything above board. Together, they built the infrastructure for a public network, from coding the software to signing up council members.
Launch Day and Beyond
On September 16, 2019, Hedera’s mainnet went live. Developers could now build apps on the platform, and anyone could use HBAR to pay for transactions or store data. The network was fast, handling 10,000 transactions per second, and cheap, with fees as low as a tenth of a cent.
It was also eco-friendly, using less energy than a single credit card swipe, as proven by a study from University College London.
But the journey had its bumps:
Skeptics in Crypto
Some crypto fans thought Hedera wasn’t “decentralized enough” because the council ran the nodes. Leemon and Mance listened, promising a “path to permissionless” where anyone could run a node. They also open-sourced Hashgraph in 2022, letting anyone use the code for free.
Regulatory Hurdles
Building a crypto platform in the U.S. meant dealing with strict laws. The team worked hard to make sure the ICO and HBAR followed all the rules.
Keeping it Fair
Leemon and Mance each got 2 billion HBAR (4% of the total), but they locked them up for six years and promised to be transparent about any sales, avoiding any “get rich quick” accusations.
What is Hedera, Really?
Think of it like an open playground on the internet, anyone can build apps, send money, or store information without needing permission from a big company or middleman. No one controls it, not even the people who created it.
It works kind of like blockchain, but with upgrades: it’s faster, costs way less to use, and doesn’t waste a ton of energy. So yeah, imagine blockchain, but smarter and cleaner.
- Speed: Hedera can process 10,000 transactions per second, with results finalized in 3–5 seconds. Compare that to Bitcoin, which takes minutes.
- Security: It uses something called asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance, which is a fancy way of saying it’s nearly impossible to hack.
- Low Costs: Transactions cost pennies or less, making it great for small payments or big business apps.
- Eco-Friendly: It’s carbon-negative, meaning it offsets more carbon than it uses, unlike energy-hogging blockchains.
- Use Cases: Businesses use it for everything from tracking supply chains to creating digital collectibles (NFTs) to building digital currencies for banks.
Hedera’s run by the Governing Council, which includes heavyweights like Google, IBM, and Deutsche Telekom. They operate the network’s nodes (computers that process transactions) and make sure everything runs smoothly.
How Does Hedera Work?
Hedera’s secret sauce is the Hashgraph algorithm, Leemon’s big invention. Here’s how it works, in plain English:
- Gossip Time: Computers on the network share transaction details with each other, like passing notes in class. This spreads info fast.
- Everyone agrees: Instead of miners, the computers “vote” virtually to confirm transactions. It’s like a group chat where everyone nods in agreement.
- No Waiting: Transactions are processed in real-time, not bundled into blocks like blockchain. This makes it lightning-fast and fair, with no one cutting the line.
- Stake to Secure: People can “stake” their HBAR coins to help validate transactions, earning rewards (up to 6.5% a year) while keeping the network safe.
This setup makes Hedera perfect for all kinds of apps, from instant payments to secure data logs for businesses.
HBAR: The Fuel of Hedera
HBAR is the cryptocurrency that makes Hedera tick. There are 50 billion HBAR coins total, with about 42 billion in use as of May 26, 2025.
Here’s what HBAR does:
- Pays for Stuff: You use HBAR to pay for transactions, run apps, or store files on Hedera. Fees are tiny, think $0.0001 for a basic transaction.
- Keeps It Safe: Staking HBAR helps secure the network and earns rewards in return. It’s similar to lending a trusted friend a car and getting something valuable back.
- Grows the Ecosystem: Part of the HBAR supply is used to fund developers building on the network. In 2022 alone, the HBAR Foundation awarded $155 million in grants to support new projects.
Right now, HBAR’s worth about $0.1762, with a market value of $7.44 billion, and you can trade it on exchanges like Binance or Coinbase.
Where Leemon and Mance Are Now
By 2022, Leemon and Mance handed over the day-to-day running of Hedera to a new team, moving to lead Swirlds Labs (now called Hashgraph). Leemon, as Chief Scientist, keeps tinkering with the tech, building tools like HashScan, a way to explore Hedera’s transactions.
Mance, as Chairman, focuses on big-picture partnerships, like getting more companies to join the council. Both still sit on the Governing Council, steering Hedera’s future.
Their work has paid off. Hedera’s processed over 18 billion transactions, and companies worldwide use it for everything from digital payments to healthcare records. In 2022, a Texas tech group called Tech Titans named Leemon the “Technology Inventor” and Mance the “Emerging Company CEO” for their game-changing work.
The Legacy of a Friendship
Leemon and Mance’s story is about more than tech; it’s about two friends who believed they could make the internet better. From their Air Force days to a Starbucks in Austin, they turned a wild idea into a platform that’s powering the future.
Hedera’s speed, security, and green credentials are changing how businesses and people use decentralized tech, and HBAR is the spark that keeps it all running.
Also Read: The Man Behind Ripple: Chris Larsen’s Fintech Revolution
