Algorand slams Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana in new ad, community reacts

Layer-1 blockchain network Algorand has critiqued Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana in its latest ad, indicating the three are inefficient for day-to-day use.

The Algorand Foundation dropped a new ad on May 23, calling it “when blockchains meet the real world, only one delivers.” In the ad, three shoppers are featured checking out at a supermarket. Each shopper was trying to pay with one of the aforementioned cryptocurrencies.

Speaking to the customer trying to pay with Bitcoin, the cashier remarks that he would have to wait 27 minutes for the transaction to be executed. A direct reference to Bitcoin’s often long waiting times for transaction finality.

The customer paying in Ethereum was charged $112 dollars, with the cashier telling him that it was peak hours for the network, resulting in high gas fees.

Meanwhile, the Solana guy, played by Algorand CTO John Woods, sees his transactions failing time, referring to the network’s past challenges with outages.

The ad concluded with the appearance of entrepreneur Anthony Scaramucci, who is one of the backers of Algorand, asking how he could join the Algorand line. Shoppers were shown as reaching instant finality at significantly lower fees.

With the ad garnering over 740,000 views at the time of publication, the reactions from the community were mixed. While many users appreciated the ad, some commended the move.

One user called out Algorand for funding a costly ad but not funding its AlgoExplorer, which shut down in January 2024. Interestingly, the reason behind the move, as stated by the foundation, was a “lack of funding.”

“Algorand runs 21 TPS, can’t fund its main explorer but drops $100k+ on an ad,” another user wrote, echoing similar sentiments.

Crypto commentator MartyParty also criticized the advert, claiming that what was shown regarding Algo rand’s efficiency was not true.

Meanwhile, crypto analyst fiskantes.lens commented that negative ad campaigns about competitors at this early stage in the adoption cycle were a “very low move.” 

He further added that any “high TPS ghostchain” could make the same claims as Algorand, but the real test comes when it faces substantial use.

Scaramucci was also called out on X after some users pointed out his hypocrisy in a May 24 post about anticipating a Solana ETF, just hours before the ad dropped.

At the time of publication, Algorand’s native token ALGO was down 3.1% over the past 24 hours, down 95% from its all-time high of $3.56 reached in Jun 2019.