What is Algorand Protocol

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Everything you should know about Algorand protocol
leewayhertz.com/everything-about-algorand-protocol
Acknowledging the efficacy of blockchain
platforms, they are known for the mechanism of
recording information in an unalterable manner
eliminating the scope of the fraud. Blockchain
platforms are programmable, secure, unanimous,
immutable, time-stamped, distributed and is
anonymous or pseudonymous in terms of
participants identities. Generally, the
blockchain network revolves around three
fundamental concepts such as security,
decentralization and scalability. Amongst all
these benefits there is one major challenge that
the blockchain developers face while creating a
blockchain platform is the Blockchain Trilemma.
The blockchain trilemma is about the scalability,
security, and decentralization of a blockchain
ecosystem. It is important to understand that
the concept of a Trilemma. It is simply a
reference model to decode the challenges of
blockchain technology and there is no universal
statement stating that these factors cannot be
achieved. To address this blockchain trilemma
issue, the robust Algorand protocol is the
appropriate solution. Lets understand what
Algorand protocol is, and what problem does the
Algorand protocol solve within the blockchain
ecosystem. What is Algorand Protocol? The
Algorand blockchain ecosystem uses a
decentralized agreement protocol called Byzantine
which is based on the pure proof-of-stake (PPoS).
It can tackle an arbitrary number concerning the
malicious users till the honest users following
the norms of the protocol have more than
two-thirds of the entire stake in the system.
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Protocol Participation All the online users in
the Algorand protocol who have algos can take
active participation in the consensus protocol.
To minimize exposure, users avoid using their
spending keys which they use to spend the stake
for the consensus. Alternatively, any user who
wishes to participate in the protocol curates
and registers a participation key.With the help
of this key, accounts can take part in the
voting and proposing on the blocks of the
blockchain ecosystem. Utilizing the
participation keys makes the users algos safe
even in the situation where the participating
node is being compromised. Self-Selection via
Verifiable Random Function Every single block in
the Algorand blockchain reflects a new random
selection seed that is unpredictable in nature.
This random selection seed predicts which
user should participate in the coming round of
the consensus protocol.While getting committed
to the blockchain, every user becomes cautious of
this particular seed (viewing the similar seed).
A user privately verifies whether they are
allowed to participate by running a Verifiable
Random Function (VRF) with the help of their
private participation key and the selection
seed. This computation process is minimal. The
computation process of the verifiable random
function gives a pseudorandom output with proof
that is cryptographic in nature and can be used
to check the result. After sending the proof, the
user can validate their selection status in the
participation process to anyone. Pure
Proof-of-Stake The fact that the users are
selected to participate in the protocol depending
upon the stake (total number of algos) that they
own, makes this protocol a pure proof-of- stake.
The verifiable random function acts in a similar
way to a weighted lottery just the way every
algo present in an account receives its private
lottery ticket. There are better chances of an
account being chosen to participate when an
online account contains more algos. Replaceability
of the Users Talking about the participation of
the users in the blocks certification using
VRF, they are chosen randomly and privately
without any public communication among the users
on the platform. As this procedure and its
execution needs the private key of the user,
nobody except for the user has the information of
their selection.It is not known by an adversary
about who is of importance in the generation of
the next block till the point it becomes too late
for them to leverage from an attack. The user by
then has already sent out their messages and
completed their responsibility in the consensus
protocol. After all this, for every step of the
protocol, a distinctive subset of participants
is randomly and secretly chosen, which is not
related to earlier subsets.
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Achieving Consensus Consensus defines the manner
in which blocks are chosen and written targeting
the blockchain. Algorand takes the assistance of
VRF to choose accounts while proposing for
blocks in a given round. When the block is being
proposed to a blockchain, there is a committee of
voters who get selected to cast their votes on
a block proposal. If the maximum number of votes
are from the loyal participants, the block gets
its certification.The process of consensus needs
three fundamental steps to propose, confirm and
then write a block associating it to the
blockchain Propose Soft Vote Certify
Vote These three steps are described below, with
an assumption that an ideal case would be when
there are users who are not malicious in nature
and there is no partition in the network due to
technical issues. Block Proposal The block
proposal process selects accounts to submit new
blocks to the network. The step begins with each
node in the network looping through all of the
accounts it administers.Also, it executes
Algorands VRF on each account that is online and
participating to see if it is picked to propose
the block. After selecting an account, each node
propagates the proposed block together with the
VRF output, demonstrating that the account is a
genuine proposer. Each node in the network will
receive block proposals from other nodes and then
validate the resulting VRF output. Soft
Vote Following that each node will execute the
VRF for every participating account, it
administers to determine whether or not that
account has been selected to participate in the
soft vote committee. If a certain account is
selected, it will receive a weighted vote
depending on the number of algorithms it
possesses.Each account will vote to ratify the
block, reducing the number of ideas to a single
final choice. When the timeout expires, these
votes will be cast in favor of the lowest VRF
block proposal that has been computed and will
be sent to other nodes together with the VRF
proof. Each node will verify the VRF evidence of
committee membership before adding it to the vote
tally for the whole network. Following the
attainment of a quorum for the soft vote, the
process goes on to the certify vote stage.
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Certify Vote After that, a new committee is
formed to examine the block plan that was
approved during the soft vote phase for
overspending, double-spending, or any other
issues that may have arisen.If the block is found
to be genuine, the committee votes once more to
certify it. It is accomplished in a way similar
to the soft vote, in which each node iterates
over its managed accounts to choose a committee
and transmit votes.These votes are validated by
each node till they get the quorum. This is when
the round comes to a conclusion. After this the
node is prompted to generate a certificate for
the block, adding it to the ledger. The round
comes to an end after the certificate
generation. Upon reaching this stage, a new round
is begins, and the procedure is repeated once
again. Who is behind Algorand Protocol? Founded
by Silvio Micali in 2017, Algorand is a
blockchain platform that is completely
decentralized, safe, and scalable, and serves as
a common platform for developing products and
services for a borderless economy. Silvio is in
charge of all research at Algorand, including
theoretical, security, and crypto-financial
studies. Micali has been a member of the
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Department of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) since 1983. His research
interests are in cryptography, zero-knowledge,
pseudorandom generation, secure protocols,
mechanism design and blockchain, among other
technologies. He is particularly well-known as
the co-inventor of probabilistic encryption,
Zero- Knowledge Proofs, Verifiable Random
Functions, and a slew of other protocols that are
considered to be the cornerstones of modern
cryptography. The Algorand team, which combines
technical expertise with professional experience,
is comprised of globally known researchers,
mathematicians, cryptographers, and economists,
and established business executives from global
technology firms. Team Silvio Micali (Founder)
Steve Kokinos (CEO) W.Sean Ford (COO) What are
the core features of Algorand protocol in Layer1?
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• Smart Contracts
• The propagation of smart contracts is expensive,
  and the technology does not scale to meet the
  needs of real-world applications. These barriers
  must be eliminated for widespread adoption to be
  feasible.These hurdles are removed by Algorands
  smart contracts (ASC1), which are a trusted,
  seamless solution with proven performance.
• Smart contracts (ASC1) are not only quicker,
  scalable, and cost-effective, but they are also
  functionally advanced, enabling sophisticated and
  complicated applications.
• Users may be certain that the programme was
  executed without error and that the results were
  not changed when they utilize Algorands Smart
  Contracts (ASC1s),
• which are trustless programs that operate on the
  Ethereum blockchain.
• They are incorporated into Algorands Layer-1,
  where they inherit the same powerful speed,
  scale, finality, and security as the 111Algorand
  platform itself. They are also cost-effective
  and error-free, thanks to their integration into
  the Algorand platform.
• ASC1s have the capability of automatically
  enforcing custom rules and logic, ranging from
  simply stating how assets may be moved to more
  complicated logic and flow in application logic.
• They are developed in the Transaction Execution
  Approval Language (TEAL), which is a novel
  programming language, and PyTeal, a Python
  language binding, which is used to communicate
  with the ASC1.
• Because smart contracts are efficient and
  automated, they allow for the disruption of
  economies and the establishment of new business
  models across a wide range of sectors. They also
  allow for the execution of agreements without the
  need for third parties to be involved.
• Algorand Standard Assets (ASA)
• On the Algorand blockchain, Algorand Standard
  Assets (ASA) provide a
• standardized, Layer-1 mechanism for representing
  any form of asset on the network. Assets that
  are fungible, non-fungible, restricted fungible
  and restricted non- fungible might be included
  in this category. When it comes to the
  digitization of assets in todays economy, there
  are still a number of challenges to be resolved.
  The following are some of the difficulties
• Achieving access to global and digital markets.
• Transferability is available around the clock.

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• Enabled by the ASA
• Role-Based Asset Control (RBAC) is a type of
  asset control that is optional and adaptable for
  issuers and managers to meet business,
  compliance, and regulatory needs. This includes
  the following
• Asset accounts should be analyzed individually
  for investigation purposes.
• When legal or other restrictions necessitate the
  transfer of an asset, the item must be forced to
  be transferred.
• For privileged asset transactions, a whitelist
  mechanism is used, which allows only particular
  addresses that have been allowed to trade inside
  a specific asset to be used (all others will be
  restricted)
• Asset reserve models that are adaptable to
  specific business requirements.
• Off-chain asset documentation is included in the
  definition of on-chain assets.
• Protective measures for users include asset spam
  prevention, which prohibits unknown assets that
  may be subject to taxation, legal liability, or
  reputational
• damage from being delivered to users without
  their explicit consent (users must opt- in to
  accept new assets).
• What problem does Algorand protocol target?
• A number of different methods have been suggested
  like the Proof-of-Work (PoW), Proof of Stake
  (PoS), Proof-of-Burn (PoB), and Proof of Elapsed
  Time (PoET) to improve the democratic,
  efficient, and scalable nature of the consensus
  process employed by
• blockchain technology.
• These methods, however, have a number of
  drawbacks, for example, the PoW technique
  necessitates a large amount of computing power,
  scales poorly, and consumes a
• significant amount of electrical energy.
• Recently, an innovative technique known as
  Algorand has been developed as a means of
  overcoming these constraints. Algorand not only
  seeks to solve the blockchain trilemma of
  decentralization, scalability, and security by
  guaranteeing linearity in the blockchain.

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attacker, and it incurs almost no cost on the
part of the attacker. It is possible to slow
down the message validation process on honest
nodes which finally compels them to pick
default values on the consensus. This leaves
targeted nodes trailing behind in the chain
after comparing it to nodes that have not been
attacked. What opportunities does Algorand
provide? Tokens The Algorand network has its
native cryptocurrency named Algo. Currency like
Algo has been created to assist in the
development of a borderless economy allowing
open participation. This token can be transferred
in only 4.5 seconds to the receivers wallet.
With high scalability and trust, Algo gives
assurance to fork-free transactions. Wallet The
Algorand network has its own wallet to channelize
all the funds and the transactions on the
Algorand ecosystem. This wallet works with robust
offerings for several partners. The Algorand
wallet integration supports all different
platforms and browsers. Algorand wallet uses the
Algorand Wallet Plus which is a Wallet Connect
protocol to bridge the gap between the dApp and
the wallet for safe communication. What
Algorand development services does LeewayHertz
provide? LeewayHertz provides various Algorand
development services as mentioned below Smart
Contract Development We have skilled developers
who provide smart contract development services
for the Algorand blockchain network to assist
various dApps. We create architecture, provide
auditing services, and deliver optimized smart
contracts to clients with the design and
development. dApp Development We have blockchain
developers who are skilled enough to build
enterprise- grade decentralized applications on
the Algorand platform for various clients and
assist them in accelerating the time to market
and increase ROI. Nodes Creation Our skilled
developers of blockchain platforms create
completely optimized and efficient nodes for the
Algorand network and ensure their compliance with
the consensus mechanism that is
implemented. Support and Maintenance We provide
maintenance and support services for your
Algorand network. LeewayHertz offers lifetime
support services to clients with the
existing decentralized application and the ones
who want us to develop their dApps. Conclusion
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Algorand eliminates the technical issues that for
a long time are undermined in common blockchain
adoption decentralization, scalability, and
security. With Algorand you can develop on a
stable platform with assured privacy. Algorands
consensus mechanism is permission-less and pure
Proof-of-Stake. It guarantees complete
participation, security, and speed within a
truly decentralized blockchain ecosystem. The
blocks in Algorand are finalized within seconds,
and Algorands transaction throughput is on the
same level with huge payment and financial
networks. As researched, Algorand is the first
blockchain to provide quick transaction finality
with no forking and no uncertainty. With
experience in developing robust blockchain
applications, we assure to build and deliver
scalable blockchain solutions to clients. If you
are looking for a skilled blockchain development
company to develop a dApp on the Algorand
platform, we are here to assist you throughout
the development process.