Is there an actual alternative for Ethereum?
Web3 is full of rising stars, some of them are dying too fast to be considered, some of them are having silver tongues and make us quickly fall in love, while there is nothing to actually back their promises.
The hunt is consistent, even more during the bear market. Ethereum create their position, creating a huge community and being the go-to technology. Yet being first and common creates a doubt — is it great, or just popular? Can it be challenged by something else? Lots of Web3 projects are declaring to be “the first”, “the new”, “the best”, but in the ocean of those claims, who is actually good to be considered?
Today let’s make a deep dive into one of the projects, that grew a bit out their PR, but are actually backed by the community and experts.
Who’s today's subject?
This project was created by an MIT professor to solve the Blockchain Trilemma. If you’re guessing Algorand, you’re right. Named often as the killer, the rival, they yet call themselves: the future.
But what is so special about them?
Well, the name “killer” didn’t come out of nowhere. Slow transactions and massive fees became an ugly trademark of Ethereum. While other competitors still struggle with scaling, Algorand solve the issues and currently performs better than Ethereum. Their focus is strongly connected to achieving as best finality rate as possible, goal to be instant or near-instant.
How, though?
What makes Algorand unique is its staking mechanism, making the entry-level so achievable. Just 1 ALGO (Algorand’s native cryptocurrency) is enough to participate and secure the network. In comparison, Ethereum requires 32 ETH (Etheruem’s native cryptocurrency), even in a bear market, this amount is over many users’ capabilities, while Algorand asks for less than a dollar to participate.
While PoS (Proof of Stake) is a common mechanism, Algorand uses their own variation, a Pure Proof of Stake (PPoS), it’s a highly democratized consensus, that allows such low participation requirements.
Another, a bit controversial decision that Algorand made, is their approach to slashing, or rather a lack of it. While many platforms allow slashing (the process that allows punishing malicious behavior), Algorand decided to resign from this mechanic to speed up the transaction. Instead of reducing the balance, they put the network into recovery mode, which allows the process to carry on. This approach to moving away from errors keeps the platform efficient.
What about developers?
That is always my main concern — is the technology familiar, fun, or, at least, easy to use? As a developer myself, I can easily adapt and even the most annoying technology — if I have to use it, I will. But I won’t lie, I like familiarity. So that’s why seeing that Algorand has a dedicated library PyTeal dedicated to Python — a beloved programming language, is something that won me over. As a Developer Advocate, my job isn't only to code, but often to teach others how to do so. It’s so much easier when the language is familiar to many — that make it easier to bring more Web2 developers to the table. But having in mind that Python is also such a friendly language, that often is taught even to children — that makes space for not only developers, but enthusiasts in general!
Is Algorand the only solution?
Probably not, but they definitely go in the right direction. They listen to the community and try to answer their daily struggles. The competition shouldn’t overlook them, but definitely, they could learn from them. Algorand isn’t an ideal solution, but one wasn’t yet created. I’m excited to see what Algorand’s presence alone might do to the market, I hope it will higher the quality of Web3 in general since other projects will have to catch up with them.
