What is Algorand?

Algorand is a scalable, secure, and efficient blockchain protocol designed by Silvio Micali, the winner of the Turing Award and co-inventor of zero-knowledge proofs. A new blockchain without competition at the level it offers makes it an ideal protocol that can be used to create decentralized applications (dApps) in any industry—from finance to social networking to logistics.

An Overview of Algorand

Algorand is designed to solve the blockchain trilemma. The three main objectives of any blockchain are security, scalability, and decentralization. Common wisdom holds that a given blockchain can only have two of the three. Take Bitcoin as an example: it’s secure and decentralized, but its scalability is the subject of major controversy. Ethereum is secure and scalable but sacrifices some of its decentralization. 

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Algorand founder Silvio Micali was able to create a blockchain that was scalable, secure, and fully decentralized. Algorand’s consensus mechanism is called Permissionless, Pure Proof of Stake, where validators are randomly chosen from a pool of all online users to propose and vote on new blocks and receive rewards. This also means that Algorand transactions are fast – every Algo transaction takes 4 seconds and costs only a fraction of a penny. 

Who is using it?

Accenture, Microsoft, and JP Morgan are some of Algorand’s customers. It also has notable investment from VC firm Andreessen Horowitz and many other prominent venture capital firms such as Lux Capital, Pillar, MetaStable Capital, and BOLDstart Ventures. In a bold move, Algorand was selected to power the Marshall Islands’ first national digital currency, the SOV.