Over the last few years, we have had several projects that touted themselves as the “Ethereum killer.” From Neo to EOS to Cardano, we have had many projects who made pretty ambitious claims about replacing Ethereum as the premier smart contract platform in the world. However, it looks like the real heir to the throne is working quietly on sidelines accumulating one valuable partnership after another. The name of the project that we are talking about is Algorand.

In this article, we will be looking into all the reasons why Algorand is in pole position to take over the lead in the smart contract platform space.

#1 The man behind the project

Ethereum has Vitalik Buterin, Eos has Dan Larimer, Cardano has Charles Hoskinson, while Algorand has Silvio Micali. All of these are geniuses in their own right, but the reality is that the first three made their name after entering the blockchain space. Micali is one of the greatest cryptographers who has ever lived. In 1989, along with Shafi Goldwasser and Charles Rackoff, he created zero-knowledge proofs. Along with that, he is known for his work on public-key cryptosystems, pseudorandom functions, digital signatures, oblivious transfer, and secure multiparty computation. Some of his doctoral students have been legends in their own right like Mihir Bellare, Bonnie Berger, Shai Halevi, Rafail Ostrovsky, Rafael Pass, Chris Peikert, and Phillip Rogaway.

Micali was awarded the Turing award in 2012 for his contribution to cryptography.

#2 Why projects have been choosing Algorand?

High-profile projects like the decentralized exchange IDEX and stablecoin Tether have decided to create an instance of their protocol on Algorand. The reason why they chose to do so is because of Algorand’s underlying technology:

• Algorand is the world's first open-source, permissionless, pure proof-of-stake blockchain protocol for the next generation of financial products.
• Algorand delivers high speed, security, and decentralization.
• Algorand 2.0 offers instant confirmation of transactions, performing micropayments, and automatic wallet support.
• The Algorand Standard Asset (ASA) technology enables you to create tokens that inherit all the same features, security, transaction finality, and performance of the primary token (ALGO).

#3 Attracting more developers

Creating a healthy developer base is critical for the growth of an ecosystem. To that effect, the Algorand Foundation announced the launch of a 250 million ALGO (approx $50 million USD) Grants Program to encourage developer activity on its blockchain. The grant will be allocated to deserving developers across four categories:

• Research Proposals: Ideas that have a major impact on the long-term future of Algorand.
• Development Tools and Infrastructure: Tools and infrastructure components that will make Algorand easier to develop on.
• Applications and Use Cases: Projects that bring in a lot of real-world utility.
• Education and Community: Educational efforts that educate the general public on the blockchain space.

Along with this, Algorand has also partnered with the Reach platform. Reach helps inexperienced developers to create decentralized applications (dApps) by abstracting away the complexities of the blockchain.

#5 Enhanced automation frameworks

Algorand developers achieved another milestone by creating an automation framework called “Mule.” The features of the Mule framework are as follows:

• Define automated tasks as python scripts in one centralized location without any need for scripts in the application repositories.
• Provide a simple way for you to organize their execution through an intuitive, declarative yaml format.
• Provide a “cli” that can consume any valid mule yaml file and execute the automated tasks deterministically.

#6 Valuable partnerships

• Marshall Islands: SFB Technologies will be partnering with Algorand blockchain for Marshall Islands’ CBDC dubbed SOV. The government of the Marshall Islands will oversee SOV and its supply will grow at a fixed rate of 4% each year to keep inflation in check. The SOV will allow the Marshall Islands to efficiently operate in the global economy by circulating alongside the US dollar.
• Meld: Meld partnered with Algorand and the Australian gold industry to tokenize gold and its supply chain. Algorand will host a new stablecoin to track the supply chain between users and partner members.
• DUST Identity: DUST (Diamond Unclonable Security Tag) utilizes nanoengineered diamonds to create an unclonable identity layer on any object. By partnering up with Algorand, DUST will provide scalable and tested methods to authenticate physical objects and validate genuine transactions on the blockchain.
• World Chess: World Chess is a London-based media company and the official broadcaster of the World Chess Federation events and a commercial partner of the World Chess Federation (FIDE). They partnered up with Algorand opened up the first-ever Museum of Blockchain in Hamburg, which ran from 5th November 2019 to 17th November 2019. This pop-up museum allowed visitors and participants of FIDE World Chess Grand Prix to learn more about the blockchain, cryptography, and Algorand.
• Italian Society of Authors and Publishers: Algorand has entered into a partnership with the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE) to create a new platform for decentralized copyright management. They will partner up with Algorand to develop and fortify copyright management tools and services.
• IBMR and ARCC: The International Blockchain Monetary Reserve (IBMR) is currently working on a macroeconomic project called Asia Reserve Currency Coin (ARCC). The goal of the ARCC is to promote financial inclusion in Southeast Asia and fight corruption by placing an incentive on public reporting of problems. As a part of this collaboration, Algorand will work on the ARCC project.
• AssetBlock: Real estate startup AssetBlock has launched its tokenized property investment platform on the Algorand blockchain. Investors will be able to directly exchange ALGOs (Algorand’s native currency) for a share in the properties.
• CERN: PlanetWatch, the first blockchain company to sping off CERN’s partnership program, is building the world's first immutable air quality ledger utilizing the Algorand blockchain and IoT technologies. They aim to capture crowd-sourced data to fight air pollution and store them on Algorand’s immutable ledger. Contributors to the ecosystem will be rewarded with native PLANET tokens.

Conclusion

With a dedicated core team that’s focussed on delivering the best technology available in the decentralized space, along with some of the most enviable partnership lists out there, it’s no surprise why Algorand has become such a hot property. Led by one of the greatest living cryptographers in the world, Algorand has stormed in out of nowhere and is currently looking like the most definite contender to lead the smart contract race.