Swirlds, a software platform designed to build fully-distributed applications that harness the power of the cloud without servers, has released the Software Development Kit (SDK) for the hashgraph distributed consensus platform.

Available for free download, the Swirlds SDK contains the Swirlds browser, example apps with source code that can run in that browser, and documentation for installing, running and writing new apps using Eclipse. In addition, developers benefit from a detailed tech report  that outlines the hashgraph, consensus algorithm, and math proofs that power the platform.

“Swirlds broadens the range of applications that can be decentralized, providing a platform for building the trust layer of the Internet,” said Dr. Leemon Baird, founder and CEO of Swirlds. “The SDK gives unprecedented access to a platform to design and develop applications with fairness in decision making, speed, trust and reliability, at a fraction of the cost of traditional server-based platforms.”

Leveraging the hashgraph distributed consensus algorithm, the Swirlds platform enables developers to efficiently create always-available, serverless distributed applications of unlimited scope and scale.

According to Swirlds, its software development platform goes beyond blockchain to build and run shared worlds—fully distributed applications that harness the power of the cloud without servers. It removes the obstacles inherent in blockchain technology. Swirlds believes that blockchain is “inefficient and does not enforce fairness” and can be challenged with high latency and probabilistic consensus, which often requires costly and wasteful mining.

With Swirlds, developers build applications that rapidly achieve consensus, resulting in fair, fast, proven and efficient transactions without any single point of failure:

• Fair: As Swirlds does not rely on miners, Swirlds applications ensure the actual order of transactions is the consensus order, and all transactions are included.
• Fast: Swirlds does not require “proof–of-work.” Transactions happen in milliseconds, instead of minutes or hours.
• Proven: Developers and users quickly receive absolute proof of the consensus results of their actions for 100 percent order certainty.

“Developers want to create trusted, distributed applications that are not controlled by any single organization, for uses such as distributed identity directories, online auctions, stock markets, cryptocurrencies, and multiplayer games,” said Baird. “Using the power of Java, developers build smart contracts and can go beyond to build entire shared worlds. This is the first time these concepts have been brought together on a single platform.”