[Algorand and the blockchain Trilemma] - Crypto Academy / S5W4 - Homework post for prof @nane15
Good day everyone, how are you all doing?
I welcome you all to this week which is S5W4 of the crypto academy course which is about the Algorand and Blockchain Trilemma, the course was lectured by professor @nane15, hope everyone will enjoy it!!!
Q1. What is Algorand blockchain?
As we've learned from our previous lecture on Trilemma that all decentralized networks are working towards perfection, for the system to have the most prominent function in their system which are known as the scalability of the system, the security, and also for the system to be a no-man and all man system which is decentralization. And research so far has shown that it is almost impossible for the networks to have all the functions which is the reason why the network has to give up on one of the functions.
Because of this kind of issue, developers made lots of research on how to solve the problem, in the process many more projects were born, this is also what leads to the creation of Blockchain Algorand.
And Algorand can be said to be a decentralized blockchain network that is built in order to solve the problem of blockchain trilemma, which to be able to achieve the three most important functions which are (scalability, security, decentralization). The Algorand blockchain runs an open-source where the network holds two unique variations which are the pure-proof-of-stake (PPoS), proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus in order to have a fast, secure and decentralized system that is risk-free.
The Algorand was founded around 2017 by Silvio Micali, who was an Italian computer scientist, also a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the aim of Silvio Micali for building this technology is to have a system that will be free of Blockchain Trilemma and for the system to be fast when running any transaction and the system to be able to accommodate many users and to be able to run many transactions at the same time without any delay or lag in the system, also for the system to be fully decentralized.
The Algorand network was later launched around June 2029, it was confirmed that the Algorand is a blockchain network that doesn't require any user to look for a third party before they can have access to the network, the blockchain runs an open-source network where anyone can build their coin on. The blockchain can also process thousands of transactions per second because it runs a (TPS) and it can achieve any transaction within 5 seconds.
Q2. What is PPoS?
The Pure-Proof-of-Stake (PPoS) protocol is an acronym for consensus mechanisms for blockchains which is the Proof of Stake (PoS), as we know that PoS protocol is a blockchain consensus mechanism that is used to select the validators which align with the number of holdings in their possession.
In the case of PPoS, the idea is to do over the previous error that happens in the case of the former protocols, at the same time to strengthen the blockchain and also to have a stable and transparent decentralized network, and also to have a stable and scalable system, at the same time to have a more profound and secure blockchain. All of this proves how much effort the Algorand developers have put into building this system, also in order for all users to feel secure whenever they are running their various transactions.
The Algorand network cryptocurrency is known as (ALGO), with PPoS running on Algorand it can be seen how secure the network will be because the PPoS protocols are able to ignore few malicious users as far as the network has strong and honest users who tend to have the highest stake in the system.
The system has two important protocols that prevent any malicious user from affecting other users which are:
The first one is that the malicious user does not know who to affect, so most users who are given a new block are selected individually without any other party having knowledge of who they are.
The second part is that when the malicious users later found out who the selected users are, then it will be too late to affect these users of the new block so the malicious users will end up not benefiting anything from the attack because the new users have already achieved the aim of the consensus protocol. So the same method will be repeated anytime a new block is to be distributed so with this it became difficult for attackers to gain anything, which also shows how secure the Algorand blockchain is.
With the use of PPoS, it can be seen that users holding stake has most of the powers, which shows that each user receives a certain amount of rewards which corresponds to the stake of each user and to the blocks that are "committed to the chain". With this, the Algorand tends to have more users who will be committed to the system.
Q3. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of PPoS.
The followings are the advantages and disadvantages of PPoS:
Advantages of PPoS
With the help of Pure Proof-of-Stake, the Algorand system was able to prevent malicious users from infiltrating the system and attacking other users, by choosing randomly when assigning a new block to users.
with the use of PPoS, the system was able to perform thousands of transactions within a few seconds without having a lagging system which is way higher than the use of PoS.
It also makes the system to be more secured and also free from the control of a third party, it's impossible for a third party to interfere with any user's transactions.
The ALGO tokens are not blocked not linked so every user can make use of their tokens anytime they want to.
Disadvantage of PPoS
As of now, the PPoS is not known to have any disadvantage because the Algorand blockchain is a system that is newly introduced, so compared to the other consensus protocols that have been known for a long time, it is quite hard to find any fault on the new system, I believe to know the merit and demerit of the system, the system has to be studied for a while, with that we can know if the system has any disadvantage.
Q4. Do you think Algorand solved the blockchain trilemma? Explain your answer.
Well yes, I believe the Algorand blockchain solved the issue of blockchain trilemma, the reason is that most of the decentralized systems that have been built in the past always faced the issue of having to choose two functions while neglecting one, we know that these three functions are very important in order to have a full and stabilize decentralized blockchain.
It is confirmed that for a blockchain system to be fully decentralized then it has to have three important functions which are (decentralization, scalability, security), the development of the Algorand blockchain shows how capable the system is and from my point of view, the Algorand blockchain is a system that runs a full decentralized system.
From the explanation earlier we said that the Algorand blockchain runs the PPoS consensus protocols, the PPoS helps the system to be very stable and also to have a full decentralized system by making it hard for other users to know those that are chosen for validating the block, all this is possible because these users were chosen randomly, which also makes it quite impossible for any malicious users to know who the users are before the were chosen.
Also one of the functions is Security, looking at the Algorand system we can see that the way it is run, it will be almost impossible for any malicious users to have their way into the system because of how impossible for them to detect the users that the system will choose for validation until they are choosing which makes it impossible for users to be attacked.
The last one is scalability, for a blockchain to say that it is free from blockchain trilemma, then it must have all the three functions and scalability is one of them, in the case of the Algorand blockchain we can say that the system is scalable because the time it takes for any transaction be made successful is nothing but seconds and also it is proven that the system can run thousands of transactions within seconds, which also shows how scalable the system is and the system is said to be able to accommodate more users than any other system which further proves that the Algorand blockchain is a system that is decentralized, secure, and scalable, which also makes it to be free from blockchain trilemma.
Q5. Do you think PPoS is better than PoW? Explain your answer.
Yes I believe that the PPoS is way better than PoW, because in term of decentralization, security and scalability, it can be seen that PoW is rather lacking in the aspect of scalability because sometimes when doing transaction using the PoW, the system can only accommodate certain amount of people at a time, the time takes for transaction to be done using the PPoS system is way lower than using the PoW system. In regards to decentralization in terms of PPoS it can be seen that system gives all users equal power in mining, it's not that difficult to mine using the PPoS but it is not the same in the case of using the PoW system because many miners tends to compete with each other when mining using the ASCII computers which proves to be hard to get and literarily very expensive and this also means that not all miners will be able to afford such equipment, this also proves that the PoW only favors the rich while the poor are left far behind, while in the PPoS the mining is literarily affordable for all users.
And in the case of resources consumption, the PoW consumed more resources than the PPoS.
Q6. Do you think PPoS is better than PoS? Explain your answer
Yes I believe that the PPoS is way better than PoS, the reason is because over the years that we have been using the PoS system it can be said that many users have quite understanding of the system, it can be said that the PoS is also a baised system that only focus on the rich and neglect the poor.
The PoS has always prioritized the mining powers to those who stake higher which means that those that are not able to stake higher won't be able to get any reward validation from the new blocks, which also further proves that as long as you are able to stake the highest then you can keep on getting the validation rewards while those that are not able to will be left behind, this kind of situation won't bring any improvement to the system but rather makes the system depreciate and continue to lag behind the like of PPoS.
In the case of PPoS, it is proven that the system gives qual chance to all miners where even the poor are able to mine and get rewarded for their hard work, the system doesn't give any priority to either the rich it the poor, it creates an qual chance for all users where it chooses it's validation user randomly, with this it can be seen that the PPoS doesn't favor any user above the other.
Q7.Explore and explain an ALGO transaction using algoexplorer.io (Screenshots required)
To make any transaction on ALGO the first thing you do is is to log on their website which is link, from the website you will be able to see all the necessary step you are to take in order to make any transaction, I will be guiding us through it with a screenshot.
From the ascreenshot above we can see many information that are delayed at the homepage like at the top of the webpage we can see the lastes block which is currently at 17,959,858, we can also see the current price of ALGO which is at $ 1.4947 and this can be found at the web page immediately you log on the website.
From the image above, the first box shows the current price of ALGO, the second box shows all the blocks of ALGO and by clicking on the icon that says view all blocks, you will be able to view all of ALGO blocks, the box by the side shows all transactions that have taken place in the platform, by clicking view all you will be able to view all transactions.
The above image shows the current number of blocks on ALGO, it also displayed the reward earned from each block, It also shows the time each blocks were created.
The image below will be showing the transactions details, for you to view them then you have to clicked on the icon by the side which shows view all transactions.
The image above shows the transactions that have taken place on ALGO, it shows the time the transactions was done, also shows amount that was charged for each transaction, it also shows the type of transaction that happened, by clicking on the trx ID you will be able to view more information on the transaction made.
The image below displayed more information on the transaction made.
The image above shows the full details of the transaction that took place and by scrolling down the page you will be able to see more information of the transaction.
The image below also shows that at the top you will see an icon that is design like the moon, when you press this icon, then you be able to change the color of the background to dark mood, after that by the side you will see an icon that shows wallet, when you clicked on the wallet you will be able to see other sub icon like my ALGO wallet, ISO wallet, and the android wallet which also shows that you can access your wallet any where.
Q8. Perform an analysis of the price of ALGO from the beginning of the year to the present. Via graphics (screenshots required.)
you can perform your price analysis on the same website, after you log into the website, by the side of the platform you will see an icon that displayed the Algorand statistics, you can also check the analysis from the coinmarketcap.
The screenshot above shows that the Algorand coin experience a sharp rise in the market price which also shows that for that period of time the buyers are the ones dominating the market which means the market price is rising towards the bull trend.
The image above also shows that at that period of time the ALGO coin experienced a downward movement in the market price which also shows that at that period of time the market is dominated by the sellers which also cause the market to move towards the bear trend.
From our ealier explanation, we can see that the creation of the Algorand blockchain proves that the other blockchain networks can also also utilized the use of PPoS, and eliminate the treate of blockchain trilemma in the system, with the Algorand blockchain it can bee seen that the PPoS fully established the fact that other blockchain networks can also have all the three function which are decentralization, security, scalability in their system, with this the system can eliminate any treate to the system, they can be fully decentralized. Special thanks to my humble professor @nane15 for his wonderful lecture on this course. Thank you and God bless you all..