{"id":9054,"date":"2022-03-05T15:33:40","date_gmt":"2022-03-05T15:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nftandcrypto-news.com\/crypto\/what-is-the-algorand-blockchain-and-how-does-it-work\/"},"modified":"2022-03-05T15:33:41","modified_gmt":"2022-03-05T15:33:41","slug":"what-is-the-algorand-blockchain-and-how-does-it-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nftandcrypto-news.com\/crypto\/what-is-the-algorand-blockchain-and-how-does-it-work\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Algorand blockchain, and how does it work?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Algorand is a blockchain network created in 2017 by Silvio Micali, an MIT professor who won the Turing Award for his work in cryptography. Algorand is a decentralized permissionless blockchain protocol that anyone can use to develop applications and transfer value. The Algorand protocol is powered by a novel consensus algorithm that enables fast, secure and scalable transactions.<\/p>\n
Algorand addresses the common issues that most older blockchains have, specifically concerning scalability and consensus. The blockchain uses Pure proof-of-stake (PPoS), a consensus protocol that selects validators at random according to the weight of their stake in ALGO coins.<\/p>\n
The Algorand protocol is designed to solve three of the biggest problems most blockchains face: security, scalability and decentralization. Dubbed as the \u201cblockchain trilemma,\u201d the Algorand network claims to address the following three major issues. <\/p>\n
The Algorand protocol is secure against malicious attacks, making it ideal for transacting, holding high-value assets and building secure enterprise applications. It maintains security on both network and consensus protocol levels and protects individual users\u2019 accounts. <\/p>\n
The Algorand protocol can handle a large number of transactions per second, making it a more scalable solution than Bitcoin or Ethereum. Algorand\u2019s consensus protocol does away with the need for computational power used in Bitcoin to solve cryptographic problems. <\/p>\n
Instead, the protocol\u2019s computation cost per user is only used to generate and verify signatures, as well as operations requiring simple counting. According to Algorand, it can \u201cscale to millions of users and sustain a high transaction rate without incurring significant cost to participating users.\u201d<\/p>\n
Algorand is entirely decentralized with no central authority or singular locus of control. Transactions are verified by participating nodes in the network and each node has an equal say in decision-making. This makes Algorand a very decentralized system.<\/p>\n
Everyone on the network also has a chance of being part of the committee of users that approve each block because the selection is both random and confidential. There is no fixed committee and its nodes are run by people from all over the world.<\/p>\n
What sets Algorand apart from other blockchains is its use of PPoS, a consensus algorithm that employs a Byzantine agreement protocol. Should a node be compromised, staked the native token ALGO owned by participants in the network would automatically be protected with unique keys.<\/p>\n