Google, IBM & Dell Now Run Hedera Nodes! HUGE Decentralization Milestone Explained
Hedera keeps ticking off milestones, and the latest one is easy to miss if you only watch price charts. As of a few days ago, the Hedera council members — not Hedera itself — are running all of the consensus nodes. Brian walks through what that means in the video, and this companion article expands on the two ideas at the center of it: the governing council, and the handoff of node operation.
Educational content only. Nothing here is financial advice.
What the Hedera Governing Council Actually Is
Think of the council like a corporate board. There are roughly 39 seats, and around 32 are currently filled. Those seats belong to large, recognizable organizations rather than anonymous token holders.
A breakdown shared by BSCN (reposted by Mick on X) grouped the members by industry, which is the part worth paying attention to. Technology includes Google, IBM, Dell and LG Electronics. Logistics pulls in Boeing and FedEx. There are telecommunications, financial services, crypto and gaming seats as well.
That spread isn't accidental. Hedera wants to be known as a trusted network for enterprise-grade applications — so the council is stocked with the exact kinds of organizations that need enterprise-grade tracking and settlement. If you want the full background on how the structure is designed, this explainer on how Hedera's council governance model works in practice covers it in more depth.
Dictator vs. Everyone vs. Expert Council
Hedera publishes a simple chart on hederacouncil.org plotting two axes: ability to make complex decisions, and trust.
- One decision-maker (a dictator): decisions happen fast, because nobody else needs to be consulted. Trust is low.
- Everyone votes (governance tokens): trust is high, but the ability to make complex decisions drops. There are trade-offs here too — you may not want every holder voting, and if voting power is tied to token count, someone can simply buy their way into influence.
- Expert council: decisions stay fast, and trust stays high, because up to 39 named organizations have skin in the game.
Brian's take in the video is that the third option makes the most sense, and he contrasts it with a recent Cardano governance vote that didn't go the way its founder wanted — a live example of the "many voters" model in action.
The Consensus Node Handoff
Here's the milestone. Originally Hedera ran the consensus nodes itself, on behalf of the council members, as part of a phased plan. Over time, individual council members began taking over their own nodes. Then more did. Now all of them do — Hedera is no longer running consensus nodes.
Why that matters: if you're IBM, and everyone knows you operate a consensus node for the Hedera hashgraph, your reputation is attached to it publicly. That's real skin in the game — sitting on the council and running the infrastructure.
Future phases may include permissioned community nodes outside the council, and potentially permissionless nodes run by anyone. Progress, not a finish line. If you're new to the underlying technology, start with how hashgraph consensus differs from a blockchain before evaluating the network further.
Turning Network News Into Something You Can Track
Governance milestones are fundamentals, not trade signals. The two rarely move together in the short term, which is why it helps to separate the two views. If you want to watch how price behaves around news like this, setting up alerts and indicators on a charting platform like TradingView is a practical way to do it — this walkthrough on reading HBAR charts with MACD and RSI shows one approach. And if you're weighing whether the fundamentals justify a position at all, the case for and against holding HBAR in 2026 lays out both sides.
Want to go deeper than a single video? The Crypto School community runs daily teachings Monday through Friday at 12:00, covering market structure, risk management and tools. You can join the daily Crypto School sessions at skool.com/crypto-profit and follow along live.
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