Thread by @FrancescoCiull4

🅰Algorand Blockchain thread.

The Algorand Blockchain is a blockchain protocol created by Silvio Micali

He is an Italian professor at MIT, Turing award winner, and co-inventor of Zero-Knowledge proofs.

Let's see its key concepts in 2 minutes.

↓

Table of Contents:

- Definition
- Origins
- Research
- Consensus Algorithm
- Phase 1: Block Proposal
- Phase 2: Soft Vote
- Phase 3: Vote certification
- Smart Contracts
- TEAL
- Pyteal
- Block Explorer
- On GitHub
- To get Started

↓

Definition

Algorand is a Layer 1 blockchain protocol that aims to solve the blockchain trilemma.

The Algorand platform has a native token (ALGO) and supports smart contracts.

The consensus algorithm is based on:
- pure proof of stake
- a Byzantine agreement protocol.

Origins

2017: Algorand was founded by Silvio Micali, an 🇮🇹professor at MIT.

It's composed of:
- a foundation: manages ecosystem, funding, network decentralization.
- a company (Algorand Inc.): manages the core protocol development

2019: Official public and main network launch

Research

Algorand Foundation is the umbrella organization housing the core blockchain research team for cryptography and computer science led by cryptographer Tal Rabin.

Additional members of the research team:
- Craig Gentry
- Hugo Krawczyk
- Shai Halevi

Consensus Algorithm

Algorand uses a Byzantine agreement protocol

Consensus can be achieved until the majority of the stack is non-malicious

Consensus steps are:
- block proposal.
- soft vote.
- vote certification.

Phase 1: Block Proposal

A committee of users is selected randomly to propose the new block.

Each user determines if they're on the committee by executing a Verifiable Random Function (VRF).

VRF is also used to verify that the user is on the committee.

Phase 2: Soft Vote

The user builds a proposed block, including the crypto proof from the VRF, and disseminates it to the network for review/analysis.

A Byzantine Agreement protocol is used to vote on the proposed blocks.

A new committee is formed via cryptographic sortition.

Phase 3: Vote certification

Users analyze the proposed blocks they have received.

Users vote on whether any of the blocks should be adopted.

If the voting committee achieves consensus on a new block, then the new block is disseminated across the network.

Smart Contracts

Smart contracts on Algorand are known as ASC1 (Algorand Smart Contracts).

Algorand separates contracts into 2 categories:
- smart contracts
- smart signatures.

The type of contract determines when and how the logic is evaluated.

TEAL programming language

Algorand contracts are written in TEAL.

TEAL is an assembly-like language.

It's interpreted by the Algorand Virtual Machine (AVM) running on an Algorand node.

Pyteal

Algorand has also developed Pyteal

Pyteal is a Python library for generating TEAL programs using the familiar and convenient syntax of python.

To get started: developer.algorand.org/docs/get-detai…

Block Explorer

A block explorer is an online browser that shows details of all transactions on the Blockchain network.

Here is the Algorand Blockchain explorer, called Algoexplorer:
algoexplorer.io

On GitHub

On GitHub, you can find a Go implementation.

The project has currently around 1k stars and 300 forks

github.com/algorand/go-al…

To get Started

To know more about the Algorand blockchain, you can check this section on the official website:

developer.algorand.org

I am on the challenge of posting one Web3 content per day. Here is the GitHub repository with all the posts.

207 ⭐

github.com/FrancescoXX/10…

if you liked this thread, and you want more daily web3 content, follow @FrancescoCiull4.

If you want to help me, Retweet the tweet below. Thank you.

https://twitter.com/FrancescoCiull4/status/1497086970346016773