Algorand (ALGO) Upgrades Network to Offer Faster Speeds & More

The latest release of the Algorand (ALGO) protocol (Algorand 3.9) comes with several improvements that offer users and developers increased speed and performance. The team claims Algorand 3.9. can execute up to 6,000 transactions per second with a sub-four second average block latency, according to a blog post on September 7, 2022.

Algorand 3.9 Now Live 

Algorand, the distributed ledger technology (DLT) network in charge of ALGO, the 30th-largest cryptocurrency in the world, has successfully conducted a network upgrade designed to bring improved performance and more to the platform.

Per an announcement by the team, Algorand 3.9 supports the State Proofs technology, which brings trustless interoperability to the Algorand ecosystem. As hacks and heists continue to increase in the blockchain space, trustless interoperability goes a long way to enhance the security of blockchain protocols.

Algorand’s State Proofs make it easier for decentralized applications (dApps) on other blockchain networks to trustlessly verify Algorand transactions. The team claims its new State Proof feature brings unparalleled security to Algorand and even protects the network against threats from quantum computers.

“State Proofs also make it safer to use cross-chain services. In addition, State Proofs are post-quantum secure, making Algorand the first extensive layer-1 network that protects its history, even from quantum computers,” stated Algorand.

In 2022 alone, countless interoperability bridges and protocols have been exploited by hackers to steal millions of dollars worth of digital assets, with the largest so far being the $625 million Ronin heist that happened earlier in March.  

Better Performance and Latency

In addition to State Proofs, the team claims the Algorand 3.9 update offers superb performance, with the capability of processing 6,000 transactions per second (TPS), with a block time of less than four seconds.

“Algorand is committed to exceeding end-user requirements and ensuring you never need to wait on a transaction. To support our developers and the traffic from the great dApps they create, we have boosted our performance by a factor of 5 to 6,000 TPS. The network now produces larger blocks (5Mib) and produces blocks faster (sub-4-second block latency and finality),” stated the team.

In contrast, Ethereum, the world’s largest smart contracts blockchain can process about 13 transactions per second currently. However, after the network’s successful Merge and transition to the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus, developers expect Ethereum TPS to reach 100,000.

What’s more, the team has also revealed that Algorand’s latest iteration supports AVM 7, which “provides the ability to create randomness oracles that will enable every smart contract to get fresh randomness from a secure source when needed.” On-chain randomness enables use cases like fair selections, lotteries, and more.

Since its launch during the crypto summer of 2017 (mainnet and ALGO token went live in 2019), Algorand has held its own as one of the credible DLT networks on the market, and it’s often described as the real “Ethereum killer” by some, as it aims to solve the longstanding blockchain trilemma (scalability, decentralization, and security).

As reported by crypto.news earlier in April 2022, Algorand announced plans to integrate a feature into its smart contract to automatically offset carbon emissions. Thanks to its energy efficiency, the world football governing body FIFA adopted Algorand as its official blockchain partner last April.