The leading Smart Contract platform is enabled by the AVM environment to provide numerous possibilities for next-gen applications at scale, unlocking powerful use-cases
The leading Smart Contract platform is enabled by the AVM environment to provide numerous possibilities for next-gen applications at scale, unlocking powerful use-cases
Algorand Virtual Machine (AVM) supports smart contracts with Turing-complete languages, larger program sizes, more state, has many new additional opcodes, and offers developers the ability to use functions, loops, and recursion.
Most transactions today are based on traditional contractual agreements composed of paperwork, that often need trusted third parties to validate the fulfillment of terms; an outdated, slow method that is no longer cost-effective. Developers using blockchain, use smart contracts to automatically execute transactions using basic lines of code stored on the blockchain when agreement conditions are met. However, first-generation blockchains are typically slow, costly, and are unscalable for dApps and applications that need to solve real-world use-cases.
Algorand is removing these impediments for viable mainstream adoption as the leading smart contract platform where sophisticated dApps are built on top of a fast, secure, scalable, and sustainable platform.
Algorand’s smart contracts act as a trusted, seamless solution with proven performance that is not only faster, scalable, and cost-effective but also functionally advanced to enable sophisticated and complex applications. Algorand’s Smart Contracts are trustless programs that execute on-chain, where users can be confident that the program was executed without error and the results were not tampered with. They are integrated into Algorand’s Layer-1, inheriting the same powerful speed, scale, finality, and security as the Algorand platform itself, and are error-free. Smart Contracts are written in a language called Transaction Execution Approval Language (TEAL) as well as in Python using the PyTeal library, a python language binding.
Algorand’s Smart Contracts are further strengthened by Algorand’s Virtual Machine (AVM) that interprets TEAL programs comprised of a set of operation codes (opcodes) used to implement the logic of smart contracts and smart signatures. AVM is fueling the simple, and more powerful smart contracts by providing a complete and advanced feature set that is enabling the seamless creation and execution of transactions within a single powerful Smart Contract. AVM is improving smart contract development and ensuring developers have the functionality needed to create powerful dApps while making blockchain application development more accessible to the wider developer community.
In today’s economy, there is a range of existing transactions that rely on intermediaries to provide trust and execution, leading to unnecessary delays and costs to consumers. Examples include bond issuance, escrow account creation, loan payments & fee executions, limit orders, subscriptions, collateralized obligations, disbursements, programmatic fees, delegated high- security account management, interface with off-chain data providers, HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit), decentralized exchanges, crowdfunding, voting and more.
Contract-to-Contract Calls for Expanded Smart Contract Functionality
With the recent release of Contract-to-Contract calls, a contract can simply call another one directly. This allows complex dApps to be built that can efficiently and trustlessly interact with other smart contract based dApps to extend functionality and usability. Additional information can be found here.
Algorand Standard Assets (ASA) provide a standardized, Layer-1 mechanism to represent any type of asset on the Algorand blockchain. These can include fungible, non fungible, restricted fungible and restricted non fungible assets.
In today’s economy, there remain many issues when it comes to the digitization of assets. These challenges include:
ASA’s Enable:
Role Based Asset Control (RBAC): Optional and flexible asset controls for issuers and managers for business, compliance, and regulatory requirements. This includes:
User Protections: Asset spam protection that prevents unknown assets that may have tax, legal, or reputational risk from being sent to users without their explicit approval (users must opt-in to accept new assets).
Standarized blockchain asset with customizable options
UNIQUE FUNCTIONALITY
MOST EXCITING USE CASES
Secure transfers and immediate settlement for multiparty transactions in Layer-1
In a traditional economy, there exists a trusted or legal framework. On the blockchain, Atomic Transfers provide a trustless solution in Layer-1. Atomic Transfers offer a secure way to simultaneously transfer a number of assets among a number of parties. Specifically, many transactions are grouped together and either all transactions are executed or none of them are executed.
UNIQUE FUNCTIONALITY
MOST EXCITING USE CASES
Public Address and Private Spending Key combos are used to protect accounts. Public Addresses are publicly known and used for identification of an account, where Private Spending Keys are for security purposes and used for authentication and encryption of the Public Address required to be able to send transactions from that account. Today, the Public Address and Private Spending Key combo can not be broken - they always come in distinct pairs.
The system of using keys in cryptography has existed since the beginning of blockchain. But it has become inefficient and not always secure. When a compromised Private Spending Key needs to be changed, an entirely new account with Public Address and Private Spending Key need to be opened - and assets moved from the old Public Address to the new. While this is effective, it is operationally onerous. A user who regularly changes their Public Address and Private Spending key also creates downstream implications, with each time a user wants to initiate a transaction from a new public address, they must provide the new public address to others for identification purposes. This leads to interruptions of automated recurring transactions with peers or institutions and additional back office work for those institutions, peers, and vendors to keep track of the changing public address.
Algorand Rekeying in Layer-1 solves these operational inefficiencies by allowing users to change their Private Spending key without the need to change their Public Address. Rekeying enables more flexibility, continuity, and less overhead with any changes of the Private Spending key. This is achieved by having:
Empowering Governance and User Control
UNIQUE FUNCTIONALITY:
Algorand’s Rekeying is unique because no other blockchain offers a way to change Private Spending Keys so easily, providing:
MOST EXCITING USE CASES