trA̷verse - on: A̷lgorand 01
Proce̶s̷sion:
A̷lgorand is a layer one blockchain you might want to be aware of. This article of trA̷verse will detail why. on: A̷lgorand 01 will touch a bit on the technology and the tools you can use to explore the ecosystem for yourself. Future episodes will look into community, organizational establishment, L2 ecosystems and economy.
There are reasons I am opening up a new webseries about traversing blockchains with Algorand. I have chosen to write ab̵o̷u̵t̶ A̷lgorand is because I know a bit about A̷lgorand. I've done the research on both the technology and the community. I've seen the good, the bad, and lived through the ugly. I've released python code on github for vanity address generation. So I've got my feelers out in A̷lgorand, and it is helping me dip my toes into blockchain development and make some frens within the twitter-sphere crypto-communities.
A few of the developers know of me in the community, some even know my ambitions and goals. Seeking to develop my skills at programming for blockchains, A̷lgorand was a clear choice to begin to tinker with. I've learned quite a lot about blockchains, and a little about the community itsself, it only makes sense to tackle this layer one in my first issuance of trA̷verse.
(By the way... Hey A̷lgofam... this is for you).
Blockchain Tril̵e̷m̶m̵a̶ Solved.
To understa̶n̶d̷ a majority of the hype around A̷lgorand, anyone within the fam would tell you about the Blockchain Trilemma. This is the idea that it is very difficult for blockchain technology to achieve decentralization, security and scalability sim̶u̷l̷taneously. It was said that a maximum of two out of three of these traits were doable. Algora̴n̷d̸ claims to have done this using their unique Pure Proof-of-Stake (PPoS).
- Security: Algorand boasts post-quantum security using the NIST approved Falcon Signature Algorithm
- Scalability: Algorand stating 6000 TPS, CPU costs to generate/verify user signatures only keeps overhead extremely low
- Decentralization: Algorand has a network of different nodes which maintain network decentralized consensus, with permissionless participation nodes and permissioned relay nodes.
I could continue on down the route of being ultra-nerd and technical, but there's plenty of technical documents online and frankly I don't want to read them, regurgitate them yet again, and spew them here. That requires a lot of back and forth, and rewriting what has been written. So check out the Algorand Technological FAQ here.
trA̷verse: across the A̷lgorand ecosystem
"It's dangerous to go alone, take this."
Each ecosystem has different ways to explore the content found within. The adage goes: "Give a person a fish they eat for a day, teach them to fish and they eat for a lifetime." While I could name a ton of projects within the A̷lgorand ecosystem, it makes more sense for me to explain some of the tools I use to explore it instead.
Ecosystem Exploration Tools
- Official site: A̷lgorand official website ecosystem list. Not a complete list, however more established and recognized projects can be found here.
- dAppRadar: A blockchain agnostic site with a filterable list. Linked is the composed list of the top Algorand dApps on dAppRadar. dAppRadar measures metrics like daily active users, tx, volume and more over time, and can be a very useful resource.
- Algo Curator - An unofficial commmunity lead site promoting various projects on the Algorand blockchain. A bountiful, stylized site containing many great projects to look into.
- Directory.Algo.xyz: Another unofficial, community lead effort to track each and every A̷lgorand project in the ecosystem, this is one of my favorites. With tons of data, charts and interesting rabbit holes to go down, I've spent a few hours just browsing this site.
Blockchain Exploration Tools
- Algo Explorer: Raw Algorand blockchain metrics and data, standard blockchain explorer
- AlgorandStats: metrics for Algorand governance staking.
- Algo Multiverse Explorer: An interesting visual representation of data as it travels using the Algorand blockchain.
There are many different tools found on Algorand that can be found across many different web3 ecosystems. Wallets, explorers, games, DAO launchpads, NFT markets, the list of dApp services within Algorand is vast, and believe me I have my favorites. Indead, I wanted to focus the tools above on exploration of the ecosystem mainly, and not specific projects.
A Note on Naming Services:
One key service to mention would be NFDomains. While there are multiple naming services that can be found onchain, NFDomains seems to be the service which has won the community over. NFDomains can be recognized by their .algo extension which can be directed like many other standard web3 naming services.
Example: Amphlux.algo resolves to a specific Algorand address on network. I also have an NFDomain amphlux.algo.xyz pointing to my linktree, as well as a community page.
On the socials with the Algofam
One fantastic source for cryptocurrency and blockchain news has traditionally be Twitter, and news about Algorand is no exception. Most big players in the Algorand ecosystem use Twitter, from the communities and NFT spaces to the Algorand Foundation and the founder himself, MIT Professor Silvio Micali.
Using microblogging platforms has been a great source for news and information and shouldn't be overlooked. With project listings within chat clients, it appears that Discord has taken the lead amongst the few chatting platforms and services that exist out there, with Telegram coming in at 2nd.
Conclusiŏ̴̟̤n̴͍͌s:
A̷lgorand is an incredibly fast layer-one blockchain with a growing, thriving online community. It has many projects already, with many more projects slated in the works. You can find a lot out about it with online resources, which is part of the fun. The idea behind trA̷verse is to write about that very exploration process.
on trA̷verse tomorrow:
HIVE Blockchain, Attention Economy
on: HIVE Blockchain, Attention Economy, an article over drawing in a larger audience using engagement mechanics such as a NFT Giveaway. It talks on using the HIVE blockchain for its immutability and why I enjoy the HIVE ecosystem.
trA̷verse: a series of musings, memoires and mementos gathered, garnered and gleaned from exploring new digital ecosystems. Born too late to explore the seas, born to early to explore O̵u̸t̷erSpace, born just in time to explore the Metav̷e̴rse̷.