How Algorand Solved the Blockchain Trilemma

Josiah Brown
8 min readSep 16, 2021
Photo by Launchpresso on Unsplash

In today’s market, altcoins are all the rage. An altcoin or alternative coin is a crypto asset that is not Bitcoin. Many altcoins compete with Ethereum. One of these altcoins is Algorand.

So what is Algorand? Like Ethereum, it is a programmable blockchain. This means it supports smart contracts. Algorand uses a special system called Pure Proof of Stake to choose which blocks are validated.

Pure Proof of stake was invented by MIT professor Silvio Micali — a leading cryptographic researcher and winner of the 2012 Turing Award. This system is the first of its kind, being the only current consensus system that solves the infamous Blockchain Trilemma.

What is the Blockchain Trilemma?

The Blockchain Trilemma was a term first coined by the creator of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin. The core traits of blockchain are scalability, security, and decentralization.

Before I dig into the trilemma, let me give a brief explanation of blockchain consensus and Pure Proof of Stake (PPoS).

Blockchain Consensus

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