Layer 1 blockchain
Algorand ticker ALGO
Summary
Algorand runs a Byzantine agreement protocol over what it calls pure proof of stake. Accounts go online by registering participation keys, which are separate from spending keys. Each round a verifiable random function (VRF) privately selects block proposers and then fresh soft-vote and certify-vote committees, weighted by online ALGO. A block is written only after a certify-vote quorum, so a certified block is final. Stake is never locked and there is no slashing. Since the January 2025 staking-rewards upgrade, online accounts holding 30,000 to 70 million ALGO can earn proposer payouts, and absent or unresponsive accounts are suspended from consensus rather than losing any stake. 123467837
Design
- System
- Layer 1 blockchainPermissionless proof-of-stake base layer with its own blocks, its own committee agreement protocol and no settlement to another chain. It is not a rollup or a sidechain.
- Settlement family
- Its own design
- Scarce resource
- Stake (proof of stake)
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Other
- Who makes blocks
- Any online account can be chosen. Each node runs the VRF for the online accounts whose participation keys it hosts, with chances proportional to online stake, and nodes pass on only the proposal with the lowest VRF output. The Foundation reported nearly 2,000 validators and about 2 billion ALGO online in December 2025; how that stake is distributed was not verified.
- Fork choice
- No longest-chain or heaviest-chain rule. A round ends when a committee reaches a certify-vote quorum on one proposal. The specification states that safety (no forks) holds even during network partitions, while liveness needs bounded message delay; if no certificate appears before a timeout, nodes run a recovery procedure until agreement resumes. The specification sizes committees assuming at least 80% of online stake is honest, a stricter figure than the two-thirds supermajority quoted on Foundation pages.
Qualifications
- Finality · Applies. A block is final once certified, with no confirmation-depth wait, and the specification states forks cannot occur even under partitions given its honest-stake assumption. This is committee finality without slashing, so it is not economic finality in the sense used for chains that confiscate stake.
- Slashing · Not applicable. Algorand does not slash stake. Accounts that miss proposals or fail random challenges are suspended from consensus and lose payout eligibility until they re-register with a 2 ALGO fee.
- Relay network · Partial. Validators connect only to relay nodes, which the current node documentation calls repeaters. Relays have been a permissioned set registered in Algorand's DNS records; peer-to-peer relaying launched on mainnet in December 2025 as an opt-in mode and is off by default in node configuration.
- Block time · Partial. Foundation pages describe blocks as under 3 seconds and the developer portal as about 2 to 3 seconds; no independent measurement window was recorded.
- Tps · Contested. Two Foundation figures, a theoretical peak with no stated method and a self-reported stress-test window, are recorded separately and are not comparable.
- Settlement family · Partial. Recorded as other: Algorand runs its own Byzantine agreement protocol over pure proof of stake and the Algorand Virtual Machine, with no settlement to another chain.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Security and Scalability Contested
- Gives up
- Liveness under large outages and some operational decentralization. Blocks stop being certified if too much online stake is offline or unreachable (the staking documentation says the network cannot progress with a third of nodes offline). Validators are asked for a low-latency 1 Gbps link and round-the-clock monitoring, and message relay has relied on a permissioned set of relay operators listed in Algorand's DNS records, with peer-to-peer relaying only an opt-in alternative since December 2025.Algorand's developer portal says the design achieves all three corners; that claim is treated as contested. Security here means safety under an honest-stake assumption, backed by payouts and suspensions rather than slashing. The concentration of online stake was not verified.
- Full node at home
- Practical at home 1011The developer portal lists 8 vCPU, 8 GB RAM, 100 GB NVMe and a 100 Mbps low-latency link for an API node, which does not vote, and 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM, 100 GB NVMe and a 1 Gbps link for a validator. Non-archival nodes keep roughly the last 1,000 blocks (about 20 GB in September 2023). Archiver guidance is a 3 TB SSD for blocks and catchpoints plus 100 GB NVMe for accounts; the same page put archival storage at about 2 TB in September 2023. Full sync from genesis is slow, and the faster catchpoint sync requires trusting whoever supplies the catchpoint.
- Throughput claims
- Observed window: 5,000 tx/s 5Observed in the stated window only; not capacity.The page gives a range of about 5,000 to 5,700 or more per second; the lower bound is recorded.About 100 mainnet blocks, rounds 38,922,601 to 38,922,700, May 2024Public mainnet as operated at the time; validator and relay hardware not stated.Reported on Algorand's own developer portal as a community-led stress test with generated load; not an independent measurement and not organic demand. A 100-block burst does not show how state growth, archival storage or relay bandwidth behave under sustained load. No published method, dataset or uncertainty accompanies the figure.
- Theoretical peak: 10,000 tx/s 4Theoretical peak; not comparable across chains or with observed load.Foundation technology-page figure with no stated method, window, hardware or bandwidth assumptions. The same page also says tens of thousands of transactions per second are finalized, so the page is internally inconsistent. Ignores propagation limits, state growth and relay bandwidth; not comparable with observed rates on this or any other chain.
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Built into the protocolLimited scope | Atomic transaction groups, a protocol feature: up to 16 transactions, each signed by its own sender, share a group ID and all succeed or all fail, so two parties can swap Algorand assets in one group without an intermediary. Scope is limited to the same chain: the reference node repository (go-algorand) also ships a hash time lock template, a logic signature paying the receiver on a matching hash preimage or the owner after a timeout, but a template is a building block and live cross-chain use was not reviewed. 12161740 |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Light clients | Built into the protocolLimited scope | State Proofs: online accounts, the consensus participants, sign one every 256 rounds with Falcon keys, designed to let a light client verify Algorand transactions without running consensus. Scope is limited: a verifier must trust the initial participant commitment, its own verifier code and the new cryptographic primitives, each proof shows only that at least 30% of the top online stake signed, and no light client or bridge using State Proofs was verified. 9 |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | No payment or state channel network anchored to Algorand was found in the reviewed official documentation. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Applications run on the Algorand Virtual Machine with global, local and box storage; logic signatures let a program authorize spends or delegate limited authority; multisig and rekeying are protocol features. Calls must declare the accounts, assets and apps they touch, and fees do not scale with code complexity. 1415171819 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; asset issuers can set a clawback address that may move an Algorand Standard Asset out of any holder's account, plus a freeze address. These are issuer controls acting on holders, so they do not count here, and they do not apply to ALGO. Rekeying lets the current key holder move spending authority to a new key, multisig or logic program while keeping the same address; that is key rotation, not a recovery path. No protocol-level sender reclaim or cancellable delayed transfer of ALGO payments was found. 1314 |
| Rollups | Unknown | No rollup settling to Algorand was found in the reviewed official documentation. State Proofs and token bridges are not rollups. |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | Established in the ecosystemTinyman, Pact | Tinyman and Pact describe themselves as automated market makers for Algorand Standard Assets, and the Foundation's ecosystem page lists both, along with Folks Finance, which also offers swaps. Listing is not a liquidity or security measure. 212425 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | Established in the ecosystemUSDC (Circle) | Circle lists USDC on Algorand as asset 31566704; at review a public node showed that asset with a freeze address set and no clawback address. Tether says it no longer issues or is obliged to redeem USD₮ on Algorand, so that token (asset 312769) is legacy. Circle's cross-chain transfer protocol list does not include Algorand. 28293039 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | Algorithmic or hybrid stablecoins on Algorand were not reviewed. |
| Bridges | Established in the ecosystemWormhole | Wormhole lists Algorand for wrapped token transfers on mainnet, and the developer portal documents Wormhole Native Token Transfers between Algorand and EVM chains in a guide marked beta. Allbridge Core, announced for Algorand in September 2025, now states that Algorand is no longer supported. Risk: Wormhole transfers rely on a threshold of Wormhole Guardian signatures and on correct contracts and rate limits on both chains; a wrapped or bridged token is only as sound as that guardian set and the locked collateral. Routes can also be withdrawn, as the Allbridge case shows. 20313233 |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemAllo, Pera Explorer, Lora (AlgoKit) | Allo is listed on the Foundation's tools page, Circle's USDC address list links to Pera Explorer, and Lora is the Foundation's open-source AlgoKit explorer that reads algod and indexer directly. Public explorer views are provider-indexed data, not independent validation. 222326272838 |
| Hardware wallets | Established in the ecosystemLedger | See custody rows: Ledger lists Algorand in Ledger Wallet; Trezor states it does not support Algorand. 3436 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | Native supportSame as native: Yes | Can: Set up an Algorand account and send and receive ALGO in Ledger Wallet, with transactions signed on the device Can: Stake ALGO through third-party providers offered in Ledger WalletBecause participation keys are separate from spending keys, the Foundation says an account can take part in consensus while its ALGO stays on a hardware wallet. Ledger's page still describes holding rewards for any account with 1 ALGO, which reflects Algorand's older reward scheme, not the proposer payouts introduced in 2025. 3435 |
| Trezor | None foundSame as native: No | Cannot: Manage Algorand accounts in Trezor SuiteTrezor's Algorand page says Trezor does not currently support Algorand; third-party signing paths were not checked. 36 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for Algorand yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 27, 2026; next review was due Oct 7, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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go-algorand 5.0.2 tightened agreement message checks without a protocol upgrade
The maintainers published go-algorand 5.0.2 as a stable node release aimed at safer, more durable node operation. Its changelog lists three changes to the agreement (block voting) code: stale certificate bundles are discarded following the specification's bundle relay rule, a bound check is added on the voting step, and bundle verification is kept apart from untrusted periods. The notes state that the release contains no protocol upgrade.
- Implementation:three agreement changes listed in the 5.0.2 changelog
- Release:5.0.2 stable released 2026-09-15
- Activation:no network activation: the notes say there is no protocol upgrade; changes apply only on nodes that install it, and how many have was not verified
Sources: algorand/go-algorand maintainers — Algorand 5.0.2 release notes (external site) · algorand/go-algorand maintainers — algorand/go-algorand releases (external site)
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go-algorand 5.0.1 tightened State Proof verification without a protocol upgrade
The maintainers published go-algorand 5.0.1 as a stable node release, nine days after the 5.0.0 protocol upgrade took effect on mainnet. The notes say it improves node safety and the verification and performance of State Proofs, and the one changelog entry makes nodes reject State Proof data that uses a mismatched hash type. The notes state that the release contains no protocol upgrade.
- Implementation:one State Proof verification change listed in the 5.0.1 changelog
- Release:5.0.1 stable released 2026-08-31; superseded by 5.0.2 on 2026-09-15
- Activation:no network activation: the notes say there is no protocol upgrade; changes apply only on nodes that install it, and how many have was not verified
Sources: algorand/go-algorand maintainers — Algorand 5.0.1 release notes (external site) · algorand/go-algorand maintainers — algorand/go-algorand releases (external site)
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Algorand 5.0.0 consensus upgrade added post-quantum accounts and size-based fees
go-algorand 5.0.0 shipped a consensus upgrade with native Falcon-1024 accounts, a per-byte surcharge for oversized notes, arguments, programs and logic signatures, larger apps and AVM version 13. The Foundation reported that the upgrade reached its 90% support threshold on 15 August 2026, followed by a wait of about a week. Block headers read from a public mainnet node show the new protocol version taking effect at round 64,318,659 on 22 August 2026 (UTC).
- Proposal:approved by block-proposer upgrade vote, per the Foundation
- Implementation:released in go-algorand 5.0.0, followed by patch releases 5.0.1 and 5.0.2
- Release:5.0.0 stable released 2026-08-12
- Activation:active on mainnet since round 64,318,659 (2026-08-22 17:43 UTC), per public-node block headers matched to consensus version 42
Sources: algorand/go-algorand maintainers — Algorand 5.0.0 release notes (external site) · Algorand Foundation — Getting ahead of the (elliptic) curve: what's in the next consensus upgrade (external site) · Algorand Foundation — Algorand v5.0.0 is here. Here's what it means for you. (external site) · algorand/go-algorand maintainers — go-algorand protocol/consensus.go (external site) · Nodely — Mainnet block 64,318,659 header (Nodely public algod) (external site) · algorand/go-algorand maintainers — algorand/go-algorand releases (external site)
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xChain Accounts let EVM wallets control linked Algorand accounts
The Algorand Foundation announced xChain Accounts, which create an Algorand account linked to an EVM address and check the EVM wallet's signatures in an on-chain smart account, so MetaMask, Rabby and Coinbase Wallet users can use Algorand apps. The announcement named Alpha Arcade as live with it.
- Implementation:smart-account contract and integration SDK described as available
- Release:announced as live
- Activation:live with one integrating app at announcement; wider adoption not verified
Sources: Algorand Foundation — Use EVM Wallets on Algorand: xChain Accounts are now live with MetaMask, Rabby & Coinbase Wallet (external site) · Algorand Foundation — xChain Accounts (external site)
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Peer-to-peer relay networking launched on mainnet as an opt-in mode
The Foundation's 2025 roadmap review said peer-to-peer networking launched on mainnet in December 2025 as an opt-in feature, letting nodes connect to automatically discovered, permissionless relays as well as the known, permissioned relays. The node documentation recommends a hybrid mode but leaves peer-to-peer off by default.
- Implementation:peer-to-peer and hybrid modes available in node configuration
- Release:launched on mainnet in December 2025, per the Foundation
- Activation:opt-in; off by default
Sources: Algorand Foundation — 2025 on Algorand: Roadmap progress (external site) · Algorand Developer Portal — Configuring P2P (external site)
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Algorand Foundation announced an Allbridge stablecoin bridge; Allbridge's documentation now lists Algorand as unsupported
The Algorand Foundation announced in September 2025 that Allbridge would integrate Algorand for a stablecoin bridge, expected in Q4 2025. At the 2026-09-27 review, Allbridge Core's Algorand guide said Algorand is no longer supported. Separately, Allbridge Core says its liquidity pools were discontinued in July 2026 and that transfers now run over Circle's cross-chain transfer protocol (CCTP) and LayerZero's OFT token standard; Circle's CCTP list does not include Algorand. Allbridge gives no date for ending Algorand support.
- Proposal:announced partnership
- Implementation:an Algorand integration guide exists in Allbridge's SDK documentation
- Release:announced for Q4 2025; launch date not verified
- Activation:no longer supported according to Allbridge Core documentation at review
Sources: Algorand Foundation — Allbridge and Algorand Partner to Launch Cross-Chain Stablecoin Bridge (external site) · Allbridge — Allbridge Core SDK guide: Algorand (external site) · Allbridge — What is Allbridge Core? (external site) · Circle — Supported blockchains and domains (CCTP) (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Algorand through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- How concentrated online stake is, including the shares of the Foundation, exchanges and staking services, was not verified.
- The number and operators of permissioned relay nodes, and how much traffic now flows over peer-to-peer relays, were not verified.
- No rollup, payment channel or state channel anchored to Algorand was found; absence was not exhaustively verified.
- Algorithmic stablecoins were not reviewed. The hash time lock template in the node repository was read, but whether it is used for live cross-chain swaps was not.
- Wormhole's guardian threshold and Algorand route limits, and bridges other than Wormhole and Allbridge, were not reviewed.
- Whether Ledger Wallet supports asset opt-ins, Algorand Standard Assets and app calls was not verified; third-party Trezor signing paths were not checked.
- Block time and throughput figures come from Foundation pages; no independent measurement window was recorded.
- Use of State Proof light clients by wallets or bridges was not verified.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- Consensus Overview (external site)
- ABFT non-normative: Security Model (external site)
- ABFT non-normative: Recovery (external site)
- Pure proof of stake (external site)
- Why Algorand? (external site)
- Staking Rewards (external site)
- Staking rewards FAQ (external site)
- 2025 on Algorand: Roadmap progress (external site)
- State Proofs (external site)
- Algorand Node Types (external site)
- Catchup and status (external site)
- Protocol Parameters (external site)
- Algorand Standard Assets (ASAs) (external site)
- Rekeying accounts (external site)
- Multi-Signature Accounts (external site)
- Atomic Transaction Groups (external site)
- Logic Signatures (external site)
- Algorand Virtual Machine (external site)
- From Ethereum to Algorand (external site)
- Wormhole Native Token Transfers on Algorand (external site)
- Algorand ecosystem overview (external site)
- Ecosystem tools and infrastructure (external site)
- Lora Overview (external site)
- Tinyman V2 Overview (external site)
- About Pact (external site)
- Algorand Blockchain Explorer (external site)
- Pera Algorand Explorer (external site)
- USDC contract addresses (external site)
- Supported blockchains and domains (CCTP) (external site)
- Supported protocols (external site)
- Wrapped Token Transfers: supported networks (external site)
- Allbridge Core SDK guide: Algorand (external site)
- Allbridge and Algorand Partner to Launch Cross-Chain Stablecoin Bridge (external site)
- Algorand wallet (external site)
- LedgerHQ/app-algorand repository (external site)
- Algorand support status (external site)
- Algorand v5.0.0 has arrived: Here's how to upgrade. (external site)
- algorandfoundation/algokit-lora repository (external site)
- USDC asset 31566704 parameters (public mainnet node) (external site)
- Hash time lock contract template (htlc.teal.md) (external site)
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Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding