Algorand Gets Facelift With 4 Key Updates, ALGO Boom Incoming?

Algorand (ALGO) is making an interesting play to be a more functional blockchain. According to John Alan Woods Algorand CTO, four new Algorand updates are coming to the protocol in 2024 as part of its roadmap.

Important Algorand Updates Coming on Chain

In terms of Transaction Per Speed (TPS), John Woods said Algorand has now become approximately 10% faster. With such dynamic round times, the protocol is bound to experience increased network performance.  Consequently, this would translate to higher throughput and lower block times to make the protocol generally optimized. 

This upgrade will cause block times to average less than three seconds. In the long run, developers and builders will enjoy the flexibility that comes with the efficiency and scalability of the Algorand network. Similarly, end users will benefit from the upgrade as confirmations will be as fast as point-of-sales.

Then there is AlgoKit 2.0, a comprehensive toolkit with the integration of one of the world’s most popular programming languages – Python. This move is directed at gaining widespread adoption amidst Algorand’s consistency towards technical excellence. With the AlgoKit 2.0, developers would not need specialized programming knowledge to build on Algorand.

There is a gargantuan amount of change coming to Algorand in 2024.

Not everyone has the time to review the roadmap in detail, so here's the major changes in 4 lines:

🏎️ Dynamic Round Times: Algorand is now ~10% faster in terms of TPS.

🐍 AlgoKit 2.0: in Q1 2024, you can build… https://t.co/wZKwYFa2Uu

— John Woods (@JohnAlanWoods) January 23, 2024

Precisely, builders would be able to write secure code, and from there, a visual debugger tool will help identify and solve issues quickly. Amidst several benefits of this particular Algorand update, it is cost-effective in terms of building and maintenance. More importantly, it presents an even easier route for newbies to maneuver. 

As highlighted, more upgrades are coming to AlgoKit 2.0 in the remaining months of this year.

Incentivization for Algorand Block Producers

The next Algorand update features consensus incentivization. The protocol plans to incentivize participation through its Proof-of-Stake mechanism. All block producers will be rewarded for their work and this will hopefully trigger a surge in the amount of ALGO that is being staked. Also, it would grow the number of consensus nodes in the network and in turn, improve the security and decentralization of the protocol. 

The fourth Algorand update highlighted by the firm’s CTO is P2P networking. Algorand is leaving behind its relay structure where consensus nodes produce blocks in a permissionless manner, and moving on to a P2P gossip network. This is very similar to the structure leveraged by Bitcoin (BTC) and other networks. Here, the flow of data is directly between consensus nodes. Ultimately, this is to make the network more viable.

While Algorand has faced major headwinds in recent times, in the long run, all of these updates are poised to positively impact the price of ALGO. Notably, ALGO has not been a top performer seeing it is changing hands for $0.1559, down by 5.38% in the past 24 hours. The coin has also dropped by 38.60% over the past year and the coming updates might be the ultimate catalyst needed to reverse the growth course of the protocol.