Samson Dogo
5 min readAug 31, 2020

ALGORAND UPGRADE OF BETANET

LATEST UPGRADE ON ALGORAND

In recent Algorand news, the Foundation and Algorand Inc announced that they are upgrading the blockchain and introducing extensive smart contracting capabilities to create DeFi solutions and dApps that can be scaled to billions of users with negligible transactions, tens of millions of daily transactions. Fees. The foundation assumes that the integration of this advanced smart contract functionality into the Layer 1 protocol with existing functions such as atomic transfers, stateless intelligent contracts, and Algorand standard assets has limitations in terms of scalability, transaction speed, and high transaction costs (the typical Alogrand ) The transaction fee is 0.001 ALGO. This has long been a barrier to mainstream blockchain adoption.

The Algorand Network has released an upgrade to its protocol to include more tools for decentralized applications and to develop scalable blockchain native solutions for real use cases.

The company has announced its development and its use to improve the operations of the network by adding new functionality directly to various tiers, improving speed, scalability, and finality. The new features include Stateful Smart Contracts, Rekeying, and Fast Catch Up. The Algorand protocol has been independently verified not to split, and it has delivered over 1000 transactions per second since its inception and has demonstrated block times of just over 4 seconds.

STATEFUL SMART CONTRACTS

The cost of running smart contracts has really increased in the last few months. The speed has dropped dramatically on the Ethereum network. This is due to the increasing number of transactions with DeFi applications. The slow pace and high cost are never good signs of a high-performance network.To combat a similar situation in the future without compromising on speed (> 1000 TPS), security, scalability, finality, and network transaction costs (0.001 Algo), Algorand has introduced Layer-1 Stateful Smart Contracts to reduce barriers to adoption take away.

Algorand Smart Contracts can be concluded stateless or stateful. The primary purpose of stateless smart contracts is to approve or deny spending transactions. Stateful contracts do not approve spending transactions, but they do provide logic that can be used to manipulate the contract status. They are often used alongside with other Algorand functions such as Atomic Transfers and Algorand Standard Assets to create powerful applications. The prominent high transaction load use cases where Tier 1 Smart Contracts are useful are DeFi Loans, Loans, Investments, Insurance, Gaming, Custom Assets, and other scenarios.

Algorand Smart Contracts can be concluded statelessly as well as stateful. Being stateful means using space in the chain to store values. This storage can be global or local. Local storage refers to the storage of amounts ​​in an account balance record when that account is under contract. Global storage is data that is specifically stored worldwide in the blockchain for the contract. Like stateless smart contracts, stateful agreements are written in TEAL and can be deployed on the blockchain using the target command-line utility or SDKs. The primary purpose of stateless intelligent contracts is to approve or reject spend transactions. Stateful contracts do not approve spending transactions, but they provide logic that can be used to manipulate the state (global or local) of the agreement.

In most cases, these contracts are combined with other Algorand functions or atomic transfers are used to form a full application Algorand Smart Contracts (ASC1), provide the necessary security, scalability, and decentralization features contained in Algorand’s Layer 1 protocol, allowing developers to take advantage of the speed, cost-effectiveness, and simplicity of the network. Enable complex transactions with simplified tools that can be used to build a wide variety of applications and break down the technical barriers undermining blockchain adoption. Algorand’s smart contracts are extremely flexible and reliable because they run on a tamper-resistant (trusted) network and provide the necessary transparency with bug-free, immutable and accurate applications.

REKEYING

Of all the features Algorand has made, this one seems the most overwhelming of them all. Logging in again solves the private fundamental security problem. This means that users of this blockchain infrastructure can use their public key while changing their private key at any time.

This feature provides flexibility to the system as users can modify it as much as possible. The reconnect feature allows Algorand blockchain users to change their account to a smart contract account or an account with multiple signatures.

This innovation comes with a wide variety of users as it increases security. It changes who owns the account and more.

If the Algorand user uses the rekey function, he can easily keep the same public address by changing the private key, the public access will also change. This can be stressful for the user as he has to pass the double pause change

Most users can change their private keys due to security concerns and the fear that an unauthorized person could gain access to their accounts. Before changing your private keys, worry about the stress that comes with it.

The re-login feature changes this because users can change their private keys at any time without changing their public address.

Algorand rekeying provides users and administrators with an uninterrupted and more straightforward experience as simple changes to make private spending keys possible at any time without changing the public addresses.

. FAST CATCHUP

Fast Catchup is a new feature that uses catch point snapshots to quickly update a node. A new command on the target node is now available to catch up. The whole process should sync a node in minutes instead of hours or days.

If a developer wants to use his node, he must synchronize his node to the generator block, which can take hours, if not days, to send new transactions. This is not ideal for developers who just want to get started and use the new protocol features with little latency.

Fast Catchup is a new feature that quickly updates a node using catch point snapshots, shortening all node synchronization in minutes instead of hours or days. A single startup command is enough to start the quick warning process, making it simple and secure enough to add trades to the chain with verifiable trust. There are several ways in which the users can quickly respond to their requests. Reducing the requirements for the development environment and joining the consensus mechanism in a matter of minutes, quick coverage makes Algorand even more scalable.

PERSONAL PERCEPTION AND WHAT IS IN FRONT

The announcement of the new features of Stateful Smart Contracts, Rekeying, and Fast Catchup in the Algorand protocol is exciting. Algorand removes barriers for developers to create applications and send transactions to the Algorand blockchain. Developers will use a protocol with high speed, low cost, security, and scalability capabilities in an easy to configure and use environment.

And not only that, with features such as chain communication, token bridges, higher transaction speeds, etc. Algorand is on track to attract more developers and companies to build the Algorand blockchain.

For more info and update you can check on Algorand

website www.algorand.com

Samson Dogo
Samson Dogo

Written by Samson Dogo

Blockchain and cryptocurrency enthusiast/ambassador

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