• Algorand was developed in 2017 by MIT professor and cryptography master Silvio Micali, who also received the Turing Award
• Arlington Capital created a $100 million investment fund known as (AAGF) to incentivize companies to build applications on Algorand
• MAPay integrated with Algorand to reconstruct the healthcare payment system in the Bahamas.
• Algorand is built to satisfy the growing crypto rhetoric of Scalability, Security, and Decentralization.

Blockchain networks have launched as an alternative to mainstream or centralized institutions. Crypto is at its foundation, and firms building on the blockchain aim to challenge preferential networks by increasing the existing market deliverables. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to facilitate a medium and exchange, and Ethereum was created to enhance decentralized applications usage through smart contracts. 

Projects developed in the 2017-2018 era strive to establish decentralized networks that improve on a multitude of features, mainly security and scalability. Algorand has developed a scalable solution that encompasses all blockchain characteristics and facilitating faster transaction outputs.

Getting Accustomed to Algorand

The use cases of Algorand have drawn the attention of capital investment funds. Arlington Capital, managed by Michael Arrington, created the Arrington Algorand Growth Fund (AAGF) to support companies that build decentralized applications on the network. Algorand Pure Proof of Stake facilitates faster transactions through the two-layer model, the latter running data-packed smart contracts without hindering transaction speed.

Arlington Capital seeks to make the future of finance “more easily” accessible, while Osprey Funds formed the Osprey Algorand Trust to increase exposure to a “promising technology” by institutional investors. While both investments have different goals in how their investments are put to use, they both recognize the technological innovation of the ecosystem. 

Algorand is not stagnant in development, and its ecosystem is set to facilitate access to over $800M in healthcare costs in Bermuda. According to a report, MAPay, a global decentralized payment firm, will build its stablecoin infrastructure on the Algorand network. More so, the interplay between companies seeks to increase accountability and lower transaction costs for the Bahamas healthcare sector. Additionally, the Bahamas will improve its regulatory framework to attract more disruptive technology applications.

On the Flipside

• The decentralized network and application business model is still a dilemma as it does not truly iterate who is financially benefiting.
• Integrating blockchain and cryptocurrencies into our everyday life is a habit-forming process which takes time.
• A lot of cryptocurrency projects have shown promises and potential applications, yet they did not amount to much, aside from pure price speculation.

Bigger Fish in the Pond

Algorand’s integration with MAPay constitutes a multitude of blocks to increase the usability of the network proportionally. Algorand partnered with Bnext, a Spanish neobank, to improve the remittance network in Europe and Latin America. The partnership emphasizes Algorands’s high-performance blockchain. 

The ecosystem is developing to incorporate emerging functions to allow better blockchain interoperability and use cases. Yieldly, a DeFi platform built on Algorand’s framework, announced the Yieldly Bridges that facilitate interconnectivity between other networks such as Binance, Ehtereum, or Polkadot. To that end, the Algorand ecosystem is maturing as more companies identify the benefits of using their network.

Algorand Community Perception

From 2017 to 2021, the network has matured. The market rhetoric on Algorand is that it is building “the future of finance,” which, in the eyes of the many, is inclining towards Decentralized Finance. A Reddit post discussing the future of the network highlighted how Algorand seeks to mediate the movement of banks and financial institutions into a “new era.”

Growing exposure to ALGO, the native token of Algorand, and projects built on the ecosystem, aids in generating more awareness for the “Scalable, Secure, and Decentralized” network. The revolutionary Pure PoS, which implements “cryptographic sortition,” adds the demanded level of security on the blockchain. 

Implementing the Algorand ecosystem on a global level is not only dependent on the number of partnerships and fundings the company achieves. Interoperability is a crucial element of blockchain success. Additionally, while crypto is generating more widespread attention, it is nowhere near the transaction volume of credit card providers.