Officially, the Hedera Governing Council voted to buy intellectual property rights for the hashgraph consensus algorithm, founded architect, and inaugural member, Swirlds Inc.

The Wednesday announcement details plans to convert their code into an open-source model under Apache 2.0 license this year. It also includes the transfer of core team members, such as CEO Mance Harm and chief scientist Leemon Baird (from Hedera To Swirlds Inc.) as the CEO/chief technology officer. Additionally, they will be deploying node and community staking opportunities.