Blockchain

What is it?

A blockchain is a ledger shared across computing systems everywhere in the world. The specifics for each chain will vary with how it attempts to handle a specific Computer Science issue; namely, The Trilemma (distribution/decentralization, security, scalability).

In other words, a blockchain tries to sync and track data in a definitive ledger by replicating the most up to date data in a trustless, psuedo-anonymous manner all while executing this environment as fast as possible.

Each chain will issue a token, or cryptocurrency, that represents credits on each distributed network. What a token does on their network is up to the architects and governance of each chain, but usually it represents credit and allowance to write data to that specific blockchain. This takes the form of what is oftentimes called a "gas fee". The exact mechanisms for this, its speed, and how costly this is, depends on the blockchain itself and how it is governed.

State of Crypto

As of Q4 2021, most "normal" people seemingly only know of cryptocurrencies as something to gamble with and while that is certainly a use-case as a digital commodity, however, there are more interesting applications of the technology. A way to think about crypto is possibly as an office set up where people are updating a shared spreadsheet across offices and you don't know who your coworkers are. No more do you worry about who has the most up to date data, who's sharing with who, who has permission, what network share is relevant, locked data files, and all those related classic headaches. In crypto, all of those problems are already solved. All people need now are some digital coins and they can write to the shared blockchain of choice, permanently. What data do people want to write to the blockchain? That is name of the game today as new implementations of blockchain begin to manifest. Right now, it is early to say, exactly, who and what are the winners in this space, but there are inklings of interesting new use-cases emerging.

Why Algorand?

Algorand was chosen as the blockchain to focus research and development with because it is a "Best in Class" gen 3 blockchain. More specifically, all of the following things are true, as of this publishing, which will be essential to build reliable, fast, and economic solutions in the future:

• Cheap, Reliable, and Fast

  Time and money are always imperative for any business endeavor and utilizing blockchain tech must be cheap, reliable, and fast - it must be better than the solutions already in place to gain adoption. Any solutions built on top of blockchains that are expensive, slow, and unreliable will certainly see exponential slow down and cost bloat trickle upwards and ultimately outwards towards customers.
• Trilemma Implementation

  Algorand does not have miners, instead it is using "Pure Proof of Stake" (PPoS).
• No Forking

  When blockchains fork there is disagreement somewhere in its implementation whereby more than one node assumes two, or more, versions of the most recent state of the chain are legitimate. If enough nodes vote with confidence in each differing chain we ultimately see a fork. Everything that came before this point in time will now be duplicated (like NFTs) across these now two distinct non-agreeing chains and everything going forward will now be different while sharing the common history up to the point of contention. Algorand deals with this with something called Immediate Transaction Finality. In the classic banking world, this "finality" time is why transactions can take a while, among other reasons.
• Quantum Potential

  Algorand has people at the forefront of research in the field of Quantum Cryptography and probably has the best chance at becoming one of, and possibly the only, "post-quantum" crypto out there. When designing solutions, it is good to try to find something future proof.
• Good Track Record

  Transaction speeds have been consistenly under 4 seconds, the chain has never had a service interruption since its genesis, and probably will never fork (practically speaking). Building on top of something with a solid history is a good bet.
• Growing Decentralized Governance

  Those with the most coins have the most voting power for future governance of on-chain decisions. In theory, people with the most at stake should, usually, vote with their own best interests, which, if they are heavily invested in the blockchain, should be one in the same, or nearly the same.

Drawbacks

Everything with blockchain is not perfect. Regulatory challenges in the USA and around the world leave a lot to be desired at present. Many are not sure what exactly to classify crypto as. On the one hand, it seems to be a security, but it acts more like a commodity. Complicating this further, nearly anybody can create new coins, or expand existing supplies on a whim allowing for confusion and "rugpulls". However, even if regulation was to be applied, under who's jurisdiction would anything apply? How enforceable would those laws be? One thing is certain, trying to fit this seemingly new asset class in to traditional models would prove challenging or even impossible.

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