Algorand Foundation
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Algorand Foundation
Algorand is a proof-of-stake blockchain cryptocurrency protocol. Algorand's native cryptocurrency is called ALGO. History Algorand was founded in 2017 by Silvio Micali, a professor at MIT. Algorand is composed of a company and a foundation. The Algorand Foundation manages ecosystem growth, award funding, cryptographic research primitives, on-chain governance and decentralization of the Algorand network, including nodes. The core development of the Algorand protocol is overseen by Algorand Inc., a private corporation based in Boston. The Algorand test network was launched to the public in April 2019, and the main network was launched in June 2019. Algorand, which has a negligible energy consumption per transaction, commits to be carbon-neutral, and even announced in April 2022 it was carbon-negative. Research The Algorand Foundation handles blockchain research for the project. It was led by cryptographer Tal Rabin. Design Algorand is intended to solve the "blockchain ...
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Silvio Micali
Silvio Micali (born October 13, 1954) is an Italian computer scientist, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the founder of Algorand. Micali's research centers on cryptography and information security. In 2012, he received the Turing Award for his work in cryptography. Personal life Micali graduated in mathematics at La Sapienza University of Rome in 1978 and earned a PhD degree in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1982; for research supervised by Manuel Blum. Micali has been on the faculty at MIT, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, since 1983. His research interests are cryptography, zero knowledge, pseudorandom generation, secure protocols, and mechanism design. Career Micali is best known for some of his fundamental early work on public-key cryptosystems, pseudorandom functions, digital signatures, oblivious transfer, secure multiparty computation, and is one of the co-inventors of zero-knowledge proof ...
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Carbon Dioxide Removal
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR), also known as negative emissions, is a process in which carbon dioxide gas () is removed from the atmosphere and sequestered for long periods of time. Similarly, greenhouse gas removal (GGR) or negative greenhouse gas emissions is the removal of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the atmosphere by deliberate human activities, i.e., in addition to the removal that would occur via natural carbon cycle or atmospheric chemistry processes.IPCC, 2021Annex VII: Glossary atthews, J.B.R., V. Möller, R. van Diemen, J.S. Fuglestvedt, V. Masson-Delmotte, C.  Méndez, S. Semenov, A. Reisinger (eds.) IClimate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change[Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S.L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M.I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J.B.R. Matthews, T.K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekà ...
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Blockchains
A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree, where data nodes are represented by leaves). The timestamp proves that the transaction data existed when the block was created. Since each block contains information about the previous block, they effectively form a ''chain'' (compare linked list data structure), with each additional block linking to the ones before it. Consequently, blockchain transactions are irreversible in that, once they are recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without altering all subsequent blocks. Blockchains are typically managed by a peer-to-peer (P2P) computer network for use as a public distributed ledger, where nodes collectively adhere to a consensus a ...
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Decentralized Finance
Decentralized finance (often stylized as DeFi) offers financial instruments without relying on intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks by using smart contracts on a blockchain. DeFi platforms allow people to lend or borrow funds from others, speculate on price movements on assets using derivatives, trade cryptocurrencies, insure against risks, and earn interest in savings-like accounts. DeFi uses a layered architecture and highly composable building blocks. Some applications promote high interest rates but are subject to high risk. History Decentralized exchanges (abbreviated DEXs) are alternative payment ecosystems with new protocols for financial transactions that emerged within the framework of decentralized finance, which is part of blockchain technology and FinTech. CEXs, DEXs and DEX aggregators are all built on the multi-layered DeFi architecture or components, where each layer serves a well-defined purpose. (See Figure: ''Multi-layered Architecture of t ...
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Algorand Foundation
Algorand is a proof-of-stake blockchain cryptocurrency protocol. Algorand's native cryptocurrency is called ALGO. History Algorand was founded in 2017 by Silvio Micali, a professor at MIT. Algorand is composed of a company and a foundation. The Algorand Foundation manages ecosystem growth, award funding, cryptographic research primitives, on-chain governance and decentralization of the Algorand network, including nodes. The core development of the Algorand protocol is overseen by Algorand Inc., a private corporation based in Boston. The Algorand test network was launched to the public in April 2019, and the main network was launched in June 2019. Algorand, which has a negligible energy consumption per transaction, commits to be carbon-neutral, and even announced in April 2022 it was carbon-negative. Research The Algorand Foundation handles blockchain research for the project. It was led by cryptographer Tal Rabin. Design Algorand is intended to solve the "blockchain ...
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Verifiable Random Function
In cryptography, a verifiable random function (VRF) is a public-key pseudorandom function that provides proofs that its outputs were calculated correctly. The owner of the secret key can compute the function value as well as an associated proof for any input value. Everyone else, using the proof and the associated public key (or ''verification key''), can check that this value was indeed calculated correctly, yet this information cannot be used to find the secret key. A verifiable random function can be viewed as a public-key analogue of a keyed cryptographic hash and as a cryptographic commitment to an exponentially large number of seemingly random bits. The concept of a verifiable random function is closely related to that of a verifiable unpredictable function (VUF), whose outputs are hard to predict but do not necessarily seem random. The concept of a VRF was introduced by Micali, Rabin, and Vadhan in 1999. Since then, verifiable random functions have found widespread use ...
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Byzantine Fault
A Byzantine fault (also Byzantine generals problem, interactive consistency, source congruency, error avalanche, Byzantine agreement problem, and Byzantine failure) is a condition of a computer system, particularly distributed computing systems, where components may fail and there is imperfect information on whether a component has failed. The term takes its name from an allegory, the "Byzantine generals problem", developed to describe a situation in which, in order to avoid catastrophic failure of the system, the system's actors must agree on a concerted strategy, but some of these actors are unreliable. In a Byzantine fault, a component such as a server can inconsistently appear both failed and functioning to failure-detection systems, presenting different symptoms to different observers. It is difficult for the other components to declare it failed and shut it out of the network, because they need to first reach a consensus regarding which component has failed in the first pl ...
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Tal Rabin
Tal Rabin (Hebrew: טל רבין, born 1962) is a computer scientist and Professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania. She was previously the head of Research at the Algorand Foundation and the head of the cryptography research group at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center. Biography Tal Rabin was born in Massachusetts and grew up in Jerusalem, Israel. As a child, she enjoyed solving riddles and playing strategic games. Her father, Michael Rabin, is a celebrated computer scientist who is responsible for many breakthroughs in the fields of computability and cryptography. She and her father have co-authored a paper together. She is the mother of two daughters. Career In 1986, she received her BSc from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She continued her studies for her MSc (1988) and PhD (1994) degrees in the Hebrew University under the supervision of prof. Michael Ben Or. Between the years 1994–1996 she was an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow ...
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Carbon-neutral
Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "post-carbon economy"). The term is used in the context of carbon dioxide-releasing processes associated with transportation, energy production, agriculture, and industry. Although the term "carbon neutral" is used, a carbon footprint also includes other greenhouse gases, measured in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalence. The term climate-neutral reflects the broader inclusiveness of other greenhouse gases in climate change, even if CO2 is the most abundant. The term "net zero" is increasingly used to describe a broader and more comprehensive commitment to decarbonization and climate action, moving beyond carbon neutrality by including more activities under the scope of indirect emissions, and often including a science-based target on ...
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Proof-of-stake
Proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols are a class of consensus mechanisms for blockchain A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a ...s that work by selecting validators in proportion to their quantity of holdings in the associated cryptocurrency. This is done to avoid the computational cost of proof of work, proof-of-work schemes. The first functioning use of PoS for cryptocurrency was Peercoin in 2012. Description For a blockchain transaction to be recognized, it must be appended to the blockchain. In the proof of stake blockchain the appending entities are named ''minters'' or (in the proof of work blockchains this task is carried out by the Bitcoin mining, miners); in most protocols, the validators receive a reward for doing so. For the blockchain to remain secure, it must ...
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Testnet
In blockchain technology, a testnet is an instance of a blockchain powered by the same or a newer version of the underlying software, to be used for testing and experimentation without risk to real funds or the main chain. Testnet coins are separate and distinct from the official (''mainnet'') coins, don't have value, and can be obtained freely from ''faucets''. Testnets allow for the development of blockchain applications without the risk of losing funds. A bug was discovered in the Bitcoin Core Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; sign: â‚¿) is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distrib ... software that gave miners the ability to take down essential parts of the Bitcoin infrastructure (nodes) by sending a 'bad' block to the blockchain. References {{cryptocurrency-stub Blockchains ...
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Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most populous city in the country. The city boundaries encompass an area of about and a population of 675,647 as of 2020. It is the seat of Suffolk County (although the county government was disbanded on July 1, 1999). The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest MSA in the country. A broader combined statistical area (CSA), generally corresponding to the commuting area and including Providence, Rhode Island, is home to approximately 8.2 million people, making it the sixth most populous in the United States. Boston is one of the oldest ...
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