CHAPTER 6

Algorand

“Algorand developed a public Blockchain that runs on a version of

Proof of Stake, which drives electricity consumption to almost zero. I

care about the planet.” – Silvio Micali

Founded: June 2019

Native token: ALGO

Market Capitalization: $9.7B

Smart Contract languages: TEAL

In this chapter, we will cover Algorand, one of the most widely used

Blockchains today in the financial domain for its highly innovative

concepts in cryptography.

As per a news reported by CNBC in September 2021, the

cryptocurrency of Algorand has steadily progressed to 500% in just

last 12 months, whereas Yahoo reported it to have rallied 600% this

year. Algorand that hit the road in mid 2019, had become extremely

popular not only among the crypto lovers and DApps developers, but

also among the Governments to build Stablecoins as USDC and

Tether. One main reason perhaps is its co-founder Silvio Micali who

is a respectable name in the computer science industry. Earlier, the

same Silvio had co-invented many other algorithms and tools in

cryptography such as probabilistic encryption, Zero-Knowledge

Proofs, Verifiable Random Functions etc.

6.1 Consensus Model – Pure Proof of Stake

Algorand uses a special version of the Proof of Stake consensus

which is known as “Pure Proof of Stake” model. It is a public

permissionless Blockchain network that allows every user to

participate in the consensus process by just having some ALGOs in

their account (starting from 1 ALGO). At any point of time, the