Traders and meme coiners alike find Algorand to be extremely fast and inexpensive. The top meme coin on Algorand is contested by a new ecosystem of meme coins. The market cap of only one coin is over $1, which is very early. It seems most coins have a nice fixed limited supply of 1B and increasing liquidity pools. Algorand actually allows you to keep your gains. Everything just works smoothly.
Also Read: Japan’s economic security problems highlighted by the sale of stray BitFlyer
As someone who keeps looking into meme coins, it definitely made me realize the benefits of Algorand even more.
Developer Friendly & Ecosystem
It is extremely accessible to developers (Source 1): it supports development in Python, C++, GO, Java, Javascript and RUST – removing the need for developers to retrain or learn obscure or new languages (e.g. Haskell). TEAL, ALGO’s smart contract language, is incredibly intuitive and can be accessed via Python (PyTEAL). Source 1 shows that Algorand offers comprehensive and detailed documentation as well as tutorials (for free) to all prospective developers.
Additionally, more than 50 grants have already been issued to support developers with 200-250m in funding available. Approximately 600 to 650 companies are currently developing on ALGO and intend to deploy DApps/ALGO-based services.
Conclusion: ALGO is poised for an explosion in its ecosystem and has the ability to instantly attract developers.
Solving the Blockchain Trilemma
Agorand is a solution to the “blockchain trilemma” – a network that can simultaneously be scalable, secure, and decentralized.
By using algorithmic randomness, the pure PoS (PPoS) consensus mechanism achieves decentralization. PPoS does not rely on pooled validators like dPOS (e.g. XTZ, ADA), so it minimizes the tendency to centralize over time like dPOS. The ALGO node running is permissionless – anybody with at least 1 ALGO can run a node and theoretically take part in consensus. Moreover, the hardware requirements are very low – an ALGO node can be run on a low energy, $50 Raspberry Pi.
VRFs, or Voluntary Redistribution Frameworks, are a key feature of PPoS. As a result, malicious actors cannot attack the network since their identities (which must be corrupted to carry out an attack) are unknown until the block has been generated. Due to ETH 2.0’s long-lived beacon chains, PPoS is paradoxically superior to ETH 2.0 with its 150,000 nodes. Contrary to ALGO, ALGO’s random selections vary on both a round and subround basis, which means that block proposers, voters, and vote certifiers all vary, regardless of where they are in the certification process. The difference between ETH 2.0 and ALGO is that if a node misbehaves in ALGO, all certifiers simply vote against it – no slashing required.
The governance system (launching 1/10/21) will decentralise the network further by putting decisions regarding the network, tokenomics, and which projects receive developer grants (see below) in the hands of ALGO holders.
Summary: ALGO provides scalability, security, and speed while remaining decentralized.
Carbon Negative
Compared to ADA, Algorand’s pure proof-of-stake consensus mechanism consumes less energy (0.008 kWh/tx vs. 0.5479), with 4,000 active validators – a 70,000x reduction. To produce an NFT, only 0.0000004 kg of CO2 is required. By analyzing the energy used by each node, an on-chain sustainability oracle, locked up in a smart contract, offsets this energy consumption 100%+ with carbon credits. ClimateTrade, among others, is channeling this funding into reforestation, peat management, and wind energy projects at a global level.
ALGO is the world’s first carbon negative blockchain network and is eco-friendly.
Academic Rigor
MIT professor Silvio Micali founded Algorand, and the company is backed by a solid team of academics with a strong publication record and peer-reviewed academic prowess (Source 1) (Source 2). He conceived of and pioneered zero-knowledge proofs (among many other protocols) – an integral part of ETH 2.0 and the future of cryptography and cryptocurrencies. Having such a respected and trustworthy team boosts ALGO’s chances of mass adoption, especially in the financial/institutional sectors.
Main Conclusion: The prestige of ALGO’s team enhances its ability to form partnerships.
Real World Use
The main feature of Algorand is that it is forkless – it is mathematically impossible for ALGO to fork (Source). Transactions and real-world usage rely on this feature. Businesses that accept ALGO (unlike 99% of other cryptos) will not only experience a rapid transaction finality, but they will also be able to trust that the transaction is not on a forked, lost branch of the blockchain. NFTs are also affected by this. ALGO has seen a lot of adoption so far, including:
- More than 70 million South Americans (potentially 200 million soon) use ALGO to issue and store COVID-19 passports.
- BNext adopts ALGO for its $100b/year Spain*->Latin America remittance service.
- MAPay adopts ALGO to power $800m/year of healthcare payments.
- One of the oldest and largest digital rights management companies in the world, SIE, has launched 4.5 million NFTs onto ALGO – representing the work of 10,000 artists and generating $100 million in royalties every year.
- Recently, ALGO was featured in a World Economic Forum (WEF) report on cryptocurrencies – recommended as a “VIP” blockchain that can solve issues with BTC / ETH and proof-of-stake . The document will be seen by institutions, banks, and economists worldwide.
