# L1 ALGO Algorand By [moonduck15](https://paragraph.com/@moonduck15) · 2022-02-02 --- A cheat sheet to illustrate details on [Investors checklist for Blockchains](https://themoonduck-15.medium.com/investors-checklist-for-blockchain-47c14569c263) . Data or stats are not authoritative and picked from scans of tweets, discord , telegram reddit etc 2021 Q4 and some references are provided. In case of any misses do let me know and I will update. _These notes are more on under-the-hood engineering look. A separate article will cover the business development viewpoint_ _I use the trading ticker rather then name and for example for Axie Infinity blockchain game $AXS implies the coin or token and AXS implies the foundation/DAO/founders as appropriate_ **Status : DRAFT** * Basics * Price Action * Stats and Links * Highlight Pro and Con * Technology * Apps Ecosystem * Funds and Promotions * Readings Basics ------ [Algorand ( $ALGO)](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/algorand) was founded by Turing Award-winning cryptographer Silvio Micali and has Singapore based [Algorand Foundation](https://algorand.foundation/about-us/who-we-are) Boston , USA Algorand Inc. It has [Kenneth Rogoff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Rogoff) \[Harvard Economics Professor , ex Governor US Fed\] and [Naval Ravikant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Ravikant) \[ Prolific investor Angel list founder \] as advisors. Algorand plans to offer facilities to make it easy for government public projects and base for [CBDC](https://cbdctracker.org/). ALGO  uses a variation of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) called Pure PoS (PPoS) to secure the network and reach consensus on block production. Unlike other PoS models, PPoS does not reward, nor does it put validator or  slashes. Algorand intends  an on-chain governance system. ### Price Action 483% return from 2021 low to high. 0.3349USD (Jan 1) - 1.6702USD( Dec 31) for 398.63% return in 2021 ![Snapshot Jan 19 , 2022](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/589529ef961ac02cd8425b583abe1ba2476ebf291a71aa9530f91f1283968bce.png) Snapshot Jan 19 , 2022 ### Stats and Links [Community Stats](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/algorand#social) 63K+ Reddit, 23K+ Twitter, 42K+ Telegram **Links**  [Website](https://www.algorand.com/) [Whitepaper](https://www.algorand.com/docs/whitepapers/) [Medium](https://medium.com/algorand) [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com/algorand) [Telegram](https://t.me/algorand) [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/algorand/) [Discord](https://discord.gg/AFv6hck) [Github](https://github.com/algorand) [Explorer](https://algoexplorer.io/) **Highlight Pros & Cons** * Any user can participate in validation. No staking required. Users select themselves per cycle by lite local cryptography work and minimal network traffic in consensus cycle * Architecture for Government usage with ability for [_Permissioned Initiators for FATF travel rule_](https://investors%20checklist%20for%20blockchain/) _, whitelist and blacklist addresses, freeze and clawback assets._ * _Deterministic finality to the chain. No forking._ * Archival snapshot for OLAP query and analytics * Relatively small apps ecosystem * No EVM compatibility * C3: A new cross chain state proof mechanism ### Technology In Algorand's Proof of Stake pure consensus, called [PPOS( Pure POS)](https://algorand.foundation/algorand-protocol/about-algorand-protocol/pure-proof-of-stake)  a committee and a leader are randomly selected from the global validator set ( Users with $ALSO)  through a verifiably random function (VRF) and [self selection by a cryptographically random fair lottery](https://medium.com/algorand/algorands-core-technology-in-a-nutshell-e2b824e03c77).  The committees rotate block by block to reach consensus.  Algorand does not need staked validator but uses $ALGO as weights in voting. Relay nodes serve as [network hubs](https://algorand.foundation/algorand-protocol/network) and maintain connections to many other nodes. These nodes have high-performance network connections which allow for efficient communication paths, ultimately reducing the number of hops and the transmit time of sending a message throughout the network. Participation nodes are running the Algorand consensus protocol, and communicate with each other through relay nodes. They  have some  _users online with who act as validators_ but do not need to commit stakes or suffer penalty in slash. Any user holding $ALGO can participate. Online users do not use their spending keys (i.e., the keys they use to sign transactions) for consensus. Instead, a user must generate and register a specialized  time limited _participation key_ before going online. Offline Accounts: Users not participating in consensus layer or offline **Consensus** Random sampling or partitioning validator set [sortition mechanism](https://algorand.foundation/algorand-protocol/core-blockchain-innovation/protocol-participation). _Every block in Algorand reveals a new random and unpredictable selection seed that determines which users should participate in the next round of the consensus protocol_. A user thru the participating node where they have registered the participation key  secretly checks whether they were selected to participate by evaluating a Verifiable Random Function (VRF) with their secret participation key and the selection seed. This computation is minimal, so even a limited device such as a Raspberry Pi can do it. Every user receives an amount of rewards proportional to their stake for every block that is committed to the chain As long as enough of them run the consensus protocol honestly, the blockchain is [guaranteed to never fork](https://medium.com/algorand/formal-verification-of-the-algorand-protocol-bbde5a52b830), even if _all the relay nodes_ are compromised. The Algorand blockchain never forks. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/69b5f18338e0929f118c46d2a44fec1aaf85a96b6000028ea2eed2403c16dc9b.png) Two blocks can never be propagated to the chain at once because only one block can have the required threshold of committee votes. At most, one block is certified and written to the chain in a given round. Accordingly, all transactions are final in Algorand. Consensus requires [three steps to propose, confirm, and write a block](https://algorand.foundation/algorand-protocol/core-blockchain-innovation/protocol-participation) to the blockchain: 1) propose, 2) soft vote, and 3) certify vote. A node is aware of the online accounts it has as participating and will scan to check which are part of the the current block cycle and arrange a vote. Then the certify cycle starts with a fresh random set of user accounts selected to check for double spending etc. Each participating node iterates through its managed accounts to select a committee and to send votes. These votes are collected and validated by each node until a quorum is reached, triggering an end to the round and prompting the node to create a certificate for the block and write it to the ledger. At that point, a new round is initiated and the process starts over. * Only a small subset of users selected to participate each time a new block is generated * Number of selected users doesn’t change as the total number of network users increases * Users [do not need to communicate with other](https://algorand.foundation/algorand-protocol/core-blockchain-innovation%3e)s to determine whether they’re selected * Total communication cost of the network scales linearly * Blocks typically finalize within seconds ![https://developer.algorand.org/docs/get-details/algorand_consensus/](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/72a1865814026d24686cf563c2574154e025a03fcc95102ae3367270d2c2b346.png) https://developer.algorand.org/docs/get-details/algorand\_consensus/ A short succinct video may help.[Algorand Foundation Classroom: Security](https://youtu.be/A6moTNGkwUk) Smart contracts written in a programming language called [TEAL (Transaction Execution Approval Language )](https://developer.algorand.org/docs/get-details/dapps/avm/teal/) or thru Python using a PyTeal library ) in the [Algorand Virtual Machine (AVM)](https://developer.algorand.org/docs/get-details/dapps/avm/) . ERC-20 style tokens as  [Algorand Standard Assets (ASA)](https://developer.algorand.org/docs/get-details/asa/). There are Manager , Freeze, Reserve , Clawback,address to manage the token like freeze for KYC/AML and burn if conditions require. Algorand supports  multisig bundle of transactions in an [atomic transactions](https://developer.algorand.org/docs/get-details/atomic_transfers/). Algorand suggests a separate [Datawarehouse approach for query and analytics](https://developer.algorand.org/docs/get-details/indexer/) ![Datawarehouse for query analytics](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/a60624eb9c87236428ab002c8eb294b1b6c164b68e98e27a960c946011c53093.png) Datawarehouse for query analytics Apps Ecosystem -------------- [Coin98 infographic](https://twitter.com/Coin98Analytics/status/1459205912422350848) ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/b508ee5fc4e0a73931d40eb2274537d155f01a15ee92ae93458136945081f260.jpg) ### Sentiments 10 Billon $ALGO supply with 6.98 issued and 4.4 Mill with Foundation. **Funding** 2018 Seed and funding round and 2019 funding round of 72 Mill with Union Square Ventures, Pillar, Polybus,NGC etc **Promotion** [250M ALGO Grants Program](https://algorand.foundation/grants-program) ### Reading [C3: Algorand to Scale Ethereum with Groundbreaking Protocol](https://cryptosrus.com/algorand-to-scale-ethereum-with-groundbreaking-protocol-ethdenver-announcement/) `C3 is more-so focused on cross-chain settlement and collateral management, it is not quite a “bridge” to Ethereum in the traditional sense. A bridge seeks to shuttle assets to and from chains, like from Algorand to Ethereum and vice versa. Nevertheless, C3 is looking to change the game in how chains can see into each other’s “state.” Without going into the weeds, Algorand has devised what is called a “state proof.” This is what C3 is implementing`. [![]({{DOMAIN}}/editor/youtube/play.png)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6moTNGkwUk) [LoginID and Algorand partner for FIDO-certified biometric authentication](https://www.bitcoinisle.com/2021/10/11/loginid-and-algorand-partner-for-fido-certified-biometric-authentication/) [Instimatch collaboration for Islamic banking, RegTech, and payments](https://www.altcoinbuzz.io/cryptocurrency-news/partnerships/algorand-algo-enters-strategic-partnership-with-instimatch/) --- *Originally published on [moonduck15](https://paragraph.com/@moonduck15/l1-algo-algorand)*