While there have been major advances in blockchain technology since the advent of Bitcoin, a large swath of altcoins are essentially just some gimmick piggybacking off of Satoshi Nakamoto's original idea. Algorand is different. Algorand is the next generation blockchain.
Look around at the bevvy of altcoins that have flooded the market in the last few years, and you'll notice that even the networks touted for their revolutionary nature are just innovative ways to utilize the technology that already exists. Innovative use cases are by their very nature not revolutionary. While some of the novel use cases for blockchain technology are clever and perhaps even extremely useful to society — blockchain-powered loans, remittances, and personal data to name just a few — proprietors of these altcoins are simply accessorizing Satoshi's brainchild. These innovations are more similar to the advent of the flip phone or wireless headphones. They are not the next generation of blockchain.
Not so with Algorand. Algorand has tackled what Vitalik Buterin has coined (no pun intended) the "Blockchain Trilemma." Buterin claimed that every blockchain could only have two of the following three attributes: (1) Security, (2) Scalability, and (3) Decentralization. However, what exactly is the point of blockchain technology if it doesn't promise all three of these features? Isn't that what Bitcoin promised us when it first burst onto the scene? After all, without ironclad security, a blockchain is impotent against the bad actors that plague the financial world. In fact, a lack of security for a decentralized platform like a blockchain can be more dangerous than any of the issues inherent in fiat-centric finance. Without scalability, what are we even doing here? As the founder of Algorand, Silvio Micali, if fond of saying, "Are you planning to build a blockchain just for your family?" And if you elect to build a blockchain with optimal security and eminent scalability, can you really sacrifice decentralization, the very impetus for blockchain technology in the first place?
Algorand purports to have solved this trilemma with a combination of fundamental mathematical and cryptographic principles. I do not pretend to understand all of the intricacies of how Algorand's blockchain functions, but I plan to continue my research and share my findings with my readers. However, the key to Algorand's blockchain is a solution to the Byzantine Agreement Problem, a concept I will explore in a future article. Suffice it to say that Algorand is not some accessory to blockchain technology, it is a blockchain revolution. A new era has begun. It is now the era of blockchain 2.0.
