Algorand removes the technical barriers that for years undermined mainstream blockchain adoption: decentralization, scale, and security. Now you can build on a stable platform you trust.
Our consensus mechanism is the permissionless and proprietary PURE PROOF-OF-STAKE™. It ensures full participation, protection, and speed within a truly decentralized network. With blocks finalized in seconds, Algorand’s transaction throughput is on par with large payment and financial networks. And Algorand is the first blockchain to provide immediate transaction finality. No forking. No uncertainty.
The era of a decentralized, borderless economy is here. Algorand is the foundation. Now what will you build?
Neither a few delegated users nor a fixed committee is responsible for proposing blocks in Algorand. Instead, all users are randomly, secretly, and continuously selected to participate in the Algorand consensus protocol. Every block in Algorand reveals a new unpredictable selection seed that determines which users participate in the next round of block selection. An online user checks whether they were selected to participate by evaluating a Verifiable Random Function (VRF) with their secret key and the selection seed. The VRF acts similar to a weighted lottery where the number of algos that the user has affects the user’s chance of being selected.
In the Algorand protocol, participants change every round of block selection in order to protect the network against attackers. Before they participate, no one knows who the users are, and once they participate, their message is already propagating through the network so it is too late for an attacker to benefit from attacking them. For each round, every set of participants is random and independent of earlier participants.
The Algorand network has two types of nodes to simultaneously optimize decentralization and high transaction throughput.
Relay nodes allow for highly efficient communication paths.
Participation nodes propose and vote on blocks.
Any user is free to register as a relay or participation node. (Several entities---representing a wide array of technical, political, and organizational backgrounds across many different countries and continents---have already registered as relay and participation nodes.)
The Algorand blockchain does not fork. Unlike with proof-of-work protocols, two different blocks can never be added to the chain in the same position. Only one block can have the required threshold of signatures in order to be certified in a given round.
All transactions are final in Algorand. Once a block appears, users can rely on the transactions it contains immediately, as they can be confident that the block will forever be part of the chain. Even if the Internet is split into multiple pools of users, only one safe and consistent Algorand chain will exist.
Decentralized cryptocurrencies rely on participants to keep track of the state of the system in order to verify new transactions. As the number of users and transactions grows, this requirement places a significant burden on the users, as they need to store a large amount of historical data in order to validate new transactions.
Vault is a blockchain compression technology that minimizes storage and facilitates joining the Algorand network.