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ALGO RADIO: All I want for Christmas is $ALGO
Recorded: Dec. 12, 2024 Duration: 0:50:19Space Recording
Full Transcription
Hello, everybody, and welcome to episode two of Algo Radio, and today the name of the episode is All I Want for Christmas is Algo.
We have an amazing speaker lineup, as usual.
Only one person missing, which is the man, the myth, the legend, John Allen Woods, but he's going to be joining shortly as well.
In the meantime, we'll do some quick introductions.
Pero, do you want to go first?
Yes.
Maybe we'll try next time.
Fred, do you want to go next?
Absolutely.
How's it going, Mikel?
It's been on, brother.
Well, so, if you want to introduce yourself, obviously, everyone knows Fred.
Fred's super famous, but for those who don't know Fred, Fred's going to introduce himself.
Yeah, absolutely.
Hey, Algo fam.
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening to all of you.
It's an absolute pleasure to be back.
For those of you who don't know me, I am Fred Estante, and here at the Foundation, I work in the ecosystem team, leading ecosystem infrastructure and DeFi.
And, yeah, we're going to talk a lot more about some really fun stuff coming up to DeFi very soon.
But, Mikel, over to you, my friend.
Pero, do you want to have another go?
Sorry, guys.
Pero team are working so hard right now.
It's very difficult to speak at the same time, but they'll give us an update in a second.
Mark, do you want to introduce yourself?
Yeah.
Hey, Mikel.
Hi, Algo fam.
I'm Mark Vandlebroek at the Foundation, looking after all things marketing.
I can't wait to talk more about all the things that we have planned.
Awesome.
Do you want to go?
Hi, everyone.
I'm Doran Galeem, Head of Education and Inclusion, Algorand Foundation.
So I'm part of the Impact team and sit with business development.
I've been at the foundation a little over three years.
And, yeah, I'm excited to be here today and share some updates on what we're doing at the Impact team.
Thanks, Mikel.
Awesome.
Wasim, do you want to go?
GM, GM, everybody.
How's it going?
So Wasim here, the Community Manager and Affiliate Manager at the Algorand Foundation.
Essentially, I manage a champions program.
And recently, we've been working on an affiliate KOL strategy, which I'd love to deep dive into further.
Perfect.
And the man, the myth, the legend is finally here on stage.
John, do you want to introduce yourself?
I don't know about all that, but thanks.
Thanks for the flattering introduction.
Hello, everyone.
It's John Woods.
I look after tech things at the Algorand Foundation.
Awesome.
Perra, third time lucky.
Hey, what's up?
This is Joe from Perra.
Happy to be here to talk about the new asset inbox feature that we just rolled out.
Thank you, Perra.
They've been working very hard.
So, you know, it's good to see them here.
So, first off, we'll head to a very important team at the foundation, which is Impact.
And a lot of you have heard of some of the great partnerships that's been coming from that team.
I won't drop too many spoilers, UN.
But Dora's going to give us an update on that.
Thanks, Mikkel.
Well, yeah, so now that you mentioned UN, yeah, I want to talk about that.
So, as many of you know, in the spring, we ran a beta of the Algorand Blockchain Academy.
That's a capacity building program for UN staff.
And they approached us, actually, to learn more about Algorand, learn about blockchain for development.
So, we did a beta in the spring.
It was a ton of work.
Lots of people were involved on the team.
And it was a smashing success.
We were actually surprised how great the feedback was because we put this together rather quickly with the help of many, many fantastic ecosystem projects.
So, shout out to Lofty.
Shout out to Yeet, the CEO of Perel Wallet.
Go Plausible.
Whole Chain.
I mean, I can't even mention them all.
And then, since it was so successful, we're like, all right, we can really do this.
And now, we just launched the Blockchain Academy, not just to UNDP, but also to UNB, so United Nations Volunteers, and then UNCDF, United Nations Capital Development Fund.
So, over 23,000 staff can apply for this program.
And, yeah, we were inundated with interest.
So, not just from UNDP and UNB and UCDF, but also from other organizations.
So, next year, we need to think about how we can bring this even to other UN organizations.
And I can't drop any names just yet, but we've been approached also by other global major multilateral organizations that want a piece of the pie.
So, they also want the academy for their staff.
And I think what makes the academy special is really the fantastic entrepreneurs we have in our ecosystem because they came, they created content, they were available live, they answered questions, they were super approachable.
And I think that's the secret sauce, like the interaction, not just with our team, but with the fantastic builders in the Algorand ecosystem who want to create real-world impact.
So, that's been absolutely fantastic.
I look forward to 2025 and scaling this program even more.
And I think one thing I want to emphasize about that, that for us as a foundation and for the Algorand ecosystem, this is not just we turn this sort of gift into something for UN and other organizations.
But it's really also a business development opportunity for our ecosystem because we get our projects in front of the UN organizations.
And what does it mean?
The UN are the ones that have connections to policymakers, to local governments, to regulators, to major enterprises and institutional clients locally that, you know, for normal people, it's really hard to get into.
So, for us, it's really also a fantastic opportunity to widen the span and showcase the power of Algorand.
And maybe the last thing I'm going to mention is one of the participating projects that we are showcasing as part of the academy is ATEC.
And some of you may have seen that the application to Care Wallet, K-A-R-E.
We just did an announcement about that for disaster relief.
So, what the Care Wallet does, and that's part of the academy, and I'm going to speak as part of that, is that they delivered disaster relief payments on Algorand much quicker.
And they used the decentralized identity aspect that did Algo that we have to identify beneficiaries.
So, instead of folks having to wait weeks or even months to get any sort of funding from volunteer organizations or the government, they can now get it within minutes.
And that's really a fantastic improvement.
We tried it in Florida.
We tried it in Mississippi.
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
And we're really grateful to ATEC and also the organizations on the ground and the beneficiaries who provide valuable feedback so we can really scale that in 2025.
I'll stop here.
There's more to come.
I'll stop here.
Thank you, Dora.
And just on that as well, a lot of these organizations, whether it's the UN or these other ones we can't actually name yet, they've worked with different, you know, blockchains, different companies.
But it's Algorand that seems to be attracting our attention.
You know, why are they so bullish on Algorand, Dora?
Well, I think we are really down to earth and we're transparent.
We are very upfront about what Algorand can do.
And we are not, we're not here to make a buck with part of these programs.
We really want to create real world impact.
And I think people really associate that with Algorand.
You know, it's, it's super cheap and affordable.
It's super fast.
It's carbon neutral.
You know, what's not to love.
And we are very, I think we have a very good reputation and we get the trust from the community.
And we can showcase a, you know, legitimate interest into, you know, as cheesy as it sounds, making the world a better place.
So I think that's why people come to us.
And then, you know, last but not least, our director of Impact, Matt Keller, he has a background from the World Food Programme.
Our CEO has been working in developing countries before she came to us.
So we have that solid background and standing that really makes us a trusted partner.
Yeah.
Perfect.
Thank you so much for that update.
And next, I think we can all agree in the Algorand community, it's been a bananas week in many ways.
I think, Fred, you can enlighten us on that.
It's been a bananas week indeed, Mikael.
The Algorand, right?
What a week.
But Mikael, before I even jump in on my, on the updates and things I want to share today, man, I just got to say that maybe next time we need to organize this better.
Because there's just no way that I can top all the incredible stuff that Doro just mentioned and some alpha she dropped, right?
So maybe next time we just leave Doro for less, right?
Because there's just no way I can beat this.
But moving on.
So as the Algorand fan knows, we have been working very, very, very hard towards the introduction of staking rewards.
And John and Mark are going to share a lot more information on this very soon.
But just as a quick recap to the Algorand fan, we're going to have lots of incredible opportunities in the ecosystem for you to participate in staking rewards, right?
From the very basics and very interesting way for you to run your own node and participate directly in consensus, all the way to a huge plethora of DeFi and non-DeFi solutions that are going to basically enable people to participate in many different ways, right?
So here we're talking about, for example, the four LSTs, liquid staking tokens, that have already been announced by Folks Finance, Tinyman, Messina, and Compex.
We also have PECT, one of the leading DEXs in the Algorand ecosystem.
And there recently announcement that they're going to be launching the consensus eligible liquidity pools,
which are basically going to be new liquidity pools that have ALGOS as one of the assets in the pair.
And those liquidity pools are going to be participating in consensus.
So at the same time that you provide liquidity, you're going to be earning the rewards from securing the network, right?
Then you also have the ReadyPools, incredible structure created by the Transaction Lab team.
And we also obviously have the delegated peer-to-peer staking solution being created by Valar, formerly known as iGoProtect, that was the winner of one of our most recent hackathons.
So lots and lots of really cool options coming up soon.
But, Mikel, I don't know, this is a pretty dope space as we have today.
So what do you think that maybe I drop some alpha for the AlgoFam?
What do you think?
Should I do it?
I think you have to do it now, Fred.
Oh, dang it.
All right, I'll do it.
So AlgoFam, stay tuned because probably next week or in the next few days, there's going to be the announcement of another LST.
There is the fifth liquid staking token coming to Aubrey, and it's going to be quite a fun one, okay?
It's going to be quite interesting tech that this team is building.
Unfortunately, I cannot say any more than that, but stay tuned because an announcement is coming your way very, very soon, right?
And I think you're all going to like it very much.
It's going to be an incredible LST ecosystem here in Aubrey, all right?
But then just to wrap up today, I guess, from my side, Mikael, I just want to share two quick things that I think are great opportunities for all the developers out there, right?
As we all know, you know, since John and his team delivered, you know, AlgoKit 2.0 with Python support, etc., the eyeballs from developers all over the world, you know, is just increasing on our brand.
Lots of new developers joining our ecosystem, you know, in the main stages of the learning curve to become a spectacular AlgoDev, and you have two opportunities to put your Algorand Dev knowledge to test going on at the moment.
The first opportunity is to join the Folks Finance bounty on Immunify.
So Folks Finance just started a few days ago a $30,000 bounty with Immunify to find bugs in the contracts of their LST, the ex-Algo.
So if you're an AlgoDev out there, just head out to Folks Finance profile, find the link, check it out, their bounty on Immunify, because, you know, if you help review their contract and if you find any bugs,
you can receive up to $30,000 by helping them, you know, better secure their contract.
And similarly, Messina has the CodeQuest bounty running at the moment, and it's a very, very interesting one, very close to my heart,
because basically they are giving away 40,000 algos for prizes to devs that are going to create basically creative tools to facilitate value movement across chains, right?
So they basically have two different quests.
Quest number one is to develop a JavaScript application that's basically going to utilize the Messina SDK,
very well-documented SDK for the Messina Bridge, to automate bridging of tokens from Algorand to Bayes, Ethereum, Avalanche, and other chains.
So that's quest number one.
And quest number two is an incredible quest that I'm personally very excited about,
and I cannot wait to see this in action, which is they're incentivizing the creation of cross-chain arbitrage bots, right?
So the quest is all about, you know, developers creating the infrastructure, the monitors,
basically the price of assets across, you know, multiple chains,
and then creating the necessary infrastructure for this cross-chain arbitrage to take place between Algorand
and, you know, the target chain that your bot finds the opportunity.
So these are two very, very interesting opportunities for all the Algor devs out there, you know,
to test your skills, test your knowledge, and, you know, maybe you create something very, very nice and be rewarded for doing so, right?
So Algor devs, if you have any questions, look at our Algor devs X profile here,
or of course, just pay me, the Algorand Foundation, or anybody, and we'll be happy to share more information.
But yeah, Mikhail, it's been a bananas week indeed, my friend.
Back to you.
Thank you, bananas, indeed.
So thank you for that amazing update.
Next, we're going to head over to Perra, who recently released an amazing new feature that's going to absolutely change the game.
Hey, what's up?
Thanks for having us, and thanks for organizing this space.
So yeah, on Monday, we just released this new feature called Asset Inbox.
So what it does is, if anybody's ever used Algorand in the past and had to transfer assets, you have to opt into an asset before it can be sent to your account.
This is great in certain ways, like your account can't get dusted, anything like that.
So we really wanted to preserve that privacy element that's made by the opt-in, but also make it easier to facilitate something to people who never used Algorand before, or somebody needs to send them an asset.
You have to find out, get them to opt-in beforehand, and send it to them.
So it was a little bit of a friction process as well for when you did want it.
So with the help of Joe Polanyi at the foundation and the creation of ARC-59, it's a brand new standard that works throughout the entire ecosystem.
And the way it works is when you're sending out an asset, it'll check to see if you're opted in or not.
If you are, great, it'll send as normal.
But if you aren't, it'll give you the option to send to the asset inbox of the recipient.
What this does is there is a smart contract that's called, and there's basically a holding account where you'll send the asset and the algo to cover the costs with.
And then that user on the other end gets notified, hey, you got an asset in your inbox.
And from there, they can either accept it, which means that they accept the asset and it gets sent to the wallet along with the fees, or they can reject it, which means the asset's burnt.
And then from there, they still get the remainder of the fees.
So it's a nice little way to clean up your inbox and also keep the spam out.
So we're really excited to launch it.
We think it's a great feature for the app and for Algorand in general.
So we're really, really excited for the future things that we can do with it too.
Amazing.
Thank you for the update.
And we'll be working with Parrot on a really cool giveaway during the Christmas period as well.
More alpha to come on that.
Yeah, we got a bunch coming too, but probably by the end of the year and right into the new year.
Our staking, staking rewards portal should be going live relatively soon.
So from there, you can go in and check all the staking providers on Algorand.
So that's basically ready to go.
We're just waiting for the final launch of it.
In addition to that, we have ARC78 key reg transactions.
So if you're using a terminal user interface, you'll be able to use Para nice and easy.
So we got that coming as well.
In addition, just went out today.
But for iOS users, this has been a highly requested feature.
But you can now easily download and copy your NFTs within the app.
We're looking to get this feature on Android as soon as possible as well.
But just if you're an iOS user, be on the lookout for the latest update.
We also fixed what was happening with Flex and Stacks.
So that's resolved as well.
So yeah, we have a lot coming.
And then in the new year, we're hoping to get multi-sig HD wallets going,
which is going to be a nice, cool feature that allows us to do more tasks in the future.
So it's a nice upgrade.
What's cool about the HD wallets is you'll have one wallet key,
and then you can generate a bunch of wallets coming from that, sharing the same key.
And in addition to that, you can do things like use that key on Ethereum,
and it creates a little bit more interoperability between Algorand
and the existing blockchain ecosystems.
So it'll help us onboard a little bit better as well.
So really excited about that feature as well.
Perfect.
Thank you so much.
A lot of exciting updates coming from Peril.
And now we have a special guest as well, who you may have seen on NASDAQ Trade Talks,
who's going to tell us all about the recent and upcoming marketing developments.
As you know, it's been a really busy period for Algorand,
and you've seen it everywhere on multiple channels, on national TV these days.
So Mark, do you want to give us an update?
Hey, Mikael.
Hey, Algor fam.
Yes, glad to be here.
So yeah, a couple of updates.
Last week was pretty busy.
I was in New York, as you mentioned.
And it was very interesting.
I've never been to the NASDAQ.
And so being able to participate in a NASDAQ Trade Talk was an interesting experience.
And it was super cool because we got to talk about tokenization and climate tech.
And of course, Algorand is really well positioned in that regard because we are the only blockchain
that has been carbon negative since 2021.
And so automatically it will attract companies and enterprise customers who are more interested
or interested in kind of being carbon neutral and are operating broadly in this climate tech space.
So yeah, it was a very interesting conversation.
We talked about Finboot, a whole chain.
We mentioned one to three carbon with carbon insets, Eureka, all projects that are running on Algorand.
And so that was fun to do.
And then I also participated in the ownership conference.
There was another conference that was just happening like a couple of blocks away from a NASDAQ.
So the timing was good and had a whole conversation about blockchain and impact and got to talk about HESA Pay
and what we're doing in Nigeria and the Care Wallet, all the things that Dora also mentioned earlier.
And so that was cool.
And then yesterday, we were talking about impact.
We recorded with John and Min, we recorded episode three of Verifiably Random.
And it's all going to be about impact.
And we have the famous Matt Keller on the show.
And so he's going to talk about everything that's going on in the field of impact.
And so that podcast, I think, should go live, if I'm not mistaken, tomorrow.
So keep an eye out for that.
It'll be really good.
What else?
Maybe a quick update on the marketing campaign.
So as you know, we launched a marketing campaign.
Can a blockchain do that?
Marketing campaign has been in the wild for now almost four weeks.
And so we're starting to see some initial results, which are quite promising.
So, for instance, the hub website that we created that has all of the use cases and all of the projects highlighted
attracted more than 70,000 visitors, which I think is pretty good in less than a month of time.
Also, it's interesting when you go to Google Trends and you look at search trends specifically for Algorand,
and you'll see that the trend is upward starting early in November.
And so that's good to see because it coincides with when we launched the marketing campaign.
Also, if you look at the growth metrics here on X, as we shared in the latest Algo Insights report,
you see that those metrics are all pointing up and to the right.
So we love to see that, of course.
You've probably seen the Forbes takeover.
And I can tell you very soon, I think early next or the first week of January,
you'll start seeing the campaign appear on Bloomberg.
And that will be another kind of big step forward for our campaign.
So that's where we are on that.
What else can I tell you?
I was in New York probably like a month ago as well.
And we, as you probably noticed, we recorded the newest ad.
And that's going to be released pretty soon.
And the ad is going to be about staking.
And so I noticed Algo leaks here in the list of listeners.
So Eddie will be featured in the ad.
And so I just saw a first cut and it's looking pretty sweet.
So keep an eye out for that.
It's coming pretty soon.
And I think that's about it for me.
Miguel, back to you.
Thank you very much for those great updates.
Bloomberg, that's absolutely huge.
And can confirm the advert is really great.
And that will be coming out very, very soon.
And just on marketing note, as you may have seen recently across social media,
a lot of KOLs and influencers have been very interested in Algorand,
talking about RWA, talking about our tech stat.
And just wanted to bring Waseem on stage to kind of explain the project behind it.
Thank you, Mikel.
I really appreciate it.
I've got a little request for you and the speakers.
Can you guys unmute yourself and give the Algor fam a round of applause?
I want everyone to unmute themselves.
We don't want no emojis.
We want the proper thing, huh?
So, guys, I know you guys are bringing through the thick and thin with us,
but now the tides are turning.
The tables are turning, right?
And it's great to see the positive sentiment throughout the community.
And we're hoping that the KOLs have had additionally added that value too towards that sentiment.
This is a strategy that I've been working on for the past few months.
And I personally believe there's a lot of importance when it comes to KOLs,
especially creating organic relations with KOLs.
And, you know, getting new eyeballs over to our ecosystem and getting that wider outreach to the Web3 ecosystem as well, right?
They need to know about our partnerships.
They need to know about our use cases, our tech stack, and what's happening to the Algorand ecosystem.
And KOLs is one of those levers that I believe is super important.
So something that I've currently been working on is actually educating these KOLs as to, like,
what Algorand is all about, about our tech stack, about our partnerships, our use cases to achieve, you know, scalability, etc.
So providing that knowledge is super important to them.
So that's how they can forward that to their audience and amplify it further by distributing the content.
It's great to see our community behind the posts that these KOLs make.
It's fantastic to see the way that you guys engage when you like or share a comment on what they're posting.
Some of the KOLs that have approached me and said, you know what, some of these posts that we make and the kind of engagement we get,
we don't get that from a lot of other communities.
So honestly, hats off to you guys, the way that you guys actually, you know, engage with them and amplify the content.
It's really good to see that momentum on them tweets.
So that's fantastic to see.
So we'll probably be going for, like, a more, like, multi-channel approach towards this.
So as you guys know, Deep Crypto Twitter is super important.
So X is super important.
YouTube, Telegram, Discord, Reddit.
So you'll be seeing us a lot more often across all these channels.
We're going to be proactively working towards this KOL strategy.
I hope to be ramping this up further.
If you guys personally think there's certain KOLs or influences that we should be collaborating with,
you're more than welcome to DM me personally, just on my Twitter.
And that's something that we can look into.
But yeah, that's something that we look to ramp up further.
But do let me know if you guys have any recommendations.
Love to hear your feedback.
But yeah, like I said, after the festive season.
Talking about Christmas and festive season, most people will have turkey.
But we've been cooking up a big, fat, juicy steak for you guys that we'll be eating very, very soon.
So I would love to pass it back to Mikhail to tell us further.
Yeah, and just pause there before we head over and talk about the juicy steak.
Just in terms of the KOLs, I mean, it's not just a lot of people think it's just, you know, in America and Europe.
But this has actually been a global effort.
I mean, people don't see the work that's happening behind the scenes in, say, South Korea, in Japan, in all these different regions.
So you're just trying a bit more light on that.
100% across all regions.
So we're looking at some of the key regions.
For example, Europe, US, Korea is also another important region for us.
We get good traction from there.
Obviously, India and Nigeria, we're ramping out there as well.
So yes, of course, it has been a global reach for us.
It's time consuming, nevertheless, especially if you're wanting to make organic relationships, right?
So bear with us, but we're looking to get a lot more KOLs on board, no doubt.
Perfect.
And we are going to head over to John now.
But I just wanted to blindside John a little bit with a question.
You know, John, we spoke about this and a lot of people right now are talking about, you know, Willow and, you know, the quantum world.
And how, you know, certain blockchains are ready, some certain blockchains aren't ready.
Can you enlighten us?
Can you save us from our anxious worries and explain to us how Algorand is preparing for a quantum world?
Yeah, absolutely.
So first, let me talk about Willow a little bit because I think I've seen, not from our community, actually, our community are very enlightened.
And actually, the Cardano community seem quite enlightened about it and they seem to be talking about the right stuff.
But I've seen across the crypto industry and CryptoX, I've seen a lot of misinformation about Willow.
You know, the thing about quantum computers is that they're very good at essentially two algorithms, Shor's algorithm and Grover's algorithm.
And Shor's algorithm is basically a quantum, it harnesses quantum phenomena in order to factor large numbers and indeed reverse the discrete log.
And that's kind of how it breaks RSA and elliptic curves.
And so Grover's algorithm, on the other hand, is another quantum algorithm that can be run on a quantum machine of significant qubits.
And it is very good at attacking symmetric primitives.
So it basically square roots the bit strength of symmetric encryption and it square roots the security of hash functions.
And so what that means is it turns a 256-bit symmetric encryption algorithm or a 256-bit hash function like SHA-2 into a 128-bit strong symmetric primitive or hash function.
So the kind of the cryptography industry is most afraid, I think, of Shor's algorithm, right?
That's the one that has more teeth because that's the one that breaks digital signatures like elliptic curve digital signatures that Bitcoin uses.
It's the one that breaks EDDSA, which is what we use on Algorand for our signatures of our transactions.
And critically, it's the one that can attack the VRF, right?
Because the verifiable random functions we use on Algorand are also predicated on the security of Edwards 25519, which is, again, an elliptic curve.
And so in a nutshell, quantum computers do two things well.
They're not general purpose things.
They won't make your Doom Eternal run faster or Elden Ring run faster.
But they will break certain kinds of cryptography using these two technologies.
Now, we look at Willow, and you look at what Google have accomplished.
It's essentially one logical qubit.
And there's logical and physical qubits, and it's a bit hard to understand.
But essentially, you need many physical qubits in order to make a useful logical qubit, where logical is essentially a qubit that can be used to attack cryptography.
And so you'll see people say things like, oh, we need 2,000 qubits.
And in another sentence, you'll see someone say, we need a million qubits.
And what they're really all trying to get to is to say, you need millions of physical qubits in order to create useful, error-corrected, logical qubits, of which those logical qubits, which you can think of as collections of physical qubits, about 2,500 to 3,000 of them is where we get dangerous.
So where are we today?
We're at 1, and we need 3,000.
So we need to scale up Willow by a factor of about 3,000 before it gets dangerous.
That's a really hard task, and it's not one that's going to be kind of accomplished in the next couple of years.
But the core insight that Willow has brought is that Google have found a way to do two really cool things.
Number one, they found a way to create a quantum chip that can reconfigure itself, a little bit like a field programmable gate array,
where it can iron out parts of its structure that are prone to decoherence or prone to errors when running quantum attacks.
And secondly, and this is the most important thing, normally when you add more and more physical qubits to increase the number of logical qubits,
you get instability, a bit like a Jenga tower, right, where people have been playing for a while and it starts to get wobbly.
Google's core innovation with Willow is that as they add more physical qubits to make more logical qubits to indeed build something that's useful that can attack cryptography,
Google managed to do this in a way that as they add more physical qubits, it doesn't get wobbly, okay?
It stays coherent, and it stays coherent for a reasonable amount of time.
And so what they've really managed to do is create a primary building block for quantum computers that they believe,
and if they're right, it's true, will scale out to build real dangerous quantum computers.
So quite a significant step forward, but not something that's going to break cryptography in the next two, three, four years.
Now, where is Algorand in this kind of, you know, if you try to position it against this incoming threat?
Well, there are essentially three components of a blockchain that I like to think about logically when I think about quantum resistance.
The first is the history of the chain.
So, you know, you can't rewrite that, right?
I mean, that's the whole point of blockchain.
So if that's being built or grown using classical cryptographic primitives that can be broken by a quantum computer,
then you've got a problem.
And so you've got to protect the history of the chain.
Second, it's the accounts, right?
I talked about how elliptic curves can be broken,
and so quite literally, it's taking someone's public key and reversing it to get their private key.
I mean, that's what quantum computers essentially do.
So if I know your public key, I can just generate your private key on a quantum computer and steal your funds.
So accounts have to be something that are secure.
And then finally, depending on the consensus mechanism you use,
you potentially may need to secure that against quantum computers.
And so Algorand needs to secure all three things, and we have done one of the three.
The one thing we've done is we've secured the history of the ledger with state proofs.
So every 256 rounds, a Falcon key, which is a fast Fourier lattice-based signature over N-True,
it's a post-quantum lattice-based signature scheme, which is very, very strong, NIST-approved, and soon-to-be FIPS-approved.
We use this post-quantum lattice-based scheme to sign the history of the chain every 256 rounds.
That's every 12 minutes or so.
And each time we sign with Falcon, we essentially create an immunity for the history of the chain,
so it's strong against anti-quantum attacks.
So any quantum computer can't just go back and rewrite the history, and that's a very powerful thing.
And in fact, it's so powerful, I have not seen any serious projects, i.e. projects that are actually used,
that have meaningful market cap, that have meaningful user bases, that have post-quantum cryptography in production,
i.e. in mainnet running right now.
There's lots of people talking about it, but no one's actually done it.
No one's certainly in any kind of significant project.
There are some hobby projects that are out there with a couple of million-dollar market cap
that are playing around with these things, but that's different from running it in production
for billions of transactions and hundreds of thousands or millions of users as we are.
So yeah, that's kind of where Algorand is. It's taken the first step.
And you might think to yourself, well, John, you know, if it's the case that we still need to secure accounts
with a post-quantum signature scheme, and indeed, we still need to find a post-quantum VRF
so that we can ensure that the consensus mechanism is also bulletproof against quantum attacks,
isn't that a lot of work? And the answer is yes, it is a lot of work, but here's the great news.
Number one, we have a ton of experience from our work bringing Falcon and bringing state proofs
to secure the history of the chain. We learned a shit ton of stuff about how to build post-quantum systems
and how to do it in production, right, which is very different than talking about.
Number two, for our 2025-2026 roadmap, we're going to be working on research and development
in this area, right? So I don't want to commit to dates because I don't want to disappoint people,
but we're going to be getting it done as quickly as we can. And number three, and I think this is most important,
we have literally the brightest minds on planet Earth available to us.
So Algorand has a pedigree like no other. You know, guys like Chris Pichart,
who's head of cryptography at Algorand Technologies,
he is literally world-class, literally like Ronaldo, Messi, whatever you want to call it.
He is the guy who put the P in GPV. He is the guy who basically invented lattice-based post-quantum crypto.
So, you know, we have access to the finest minds in the world. And so if anyone can do it, we can.
So in summary, yes, it's dangerous. Willow's okay. I wouldn't worry about that one.
We probably have about five years. I want to get it done in the next two.
And we have access to the finest minds in the world. And we're already one third of the way there.
Amazing. Thank you. A lot of gems we just dropped there.
And just to round it off on your end, please, can you give us an update on the big fat juicy steak that you've been cooking about?
Yeah. Yeah. Not just me, but of course, many, many folks at the foundation, of course.
And we're very excited about this tectonic shift for Algorand.
And it really is. It really is a pivot in terms of Algorand's philosophy around security for the network.
It's a pivot in terms of the philosophy that the community are going to embrace by securing the network.
It's going to maximalize decentralization and, of course, security in the network.
It's going to lay the roads that are required for our movement to peer-to-peer very soon.
And so for me, in the time that I've been here, in approximately three years, I think the most important thing, technical thing that we have done, I think even more important maybe than Algorand and the developer tools, because it's just so critical to the core of the network.
And so I couldn't be more excited to see people get involved.
It brings a reason, I think, a reason to exist within the Algorand ecosystem that has just not been there before.
Of course, it was fun to develop things. It was fun to play with DeFi.
It was fun to do meme coins and all that kind of stuff.
But there are so many people who very much get a kick out of securing a network and being part of the node running gang.
And so I think that's going to be a whole new kind of community and economy within the Algorand ecosystem.
And, you know, as I mentioned in my talk in Bangkok, at the Staking Summit with Vitalik, we have what I think, as Mark and his team have put it very well, Algorand staking is not just different, but it's better.
And that is because you don't have to have some ridiculous supercomputer.
It's got a low hardware requirement.
OK, you can run this stuff in your home.
Number two, you get the rewards in real time, right?
We're going to pay out rewards every two and a half seconds or so.
Number three, it's safe.
There's no slashing, right?
You don't have to put your payment keys or your keys that actually hold the crypto.
They don't live on an online computer.
They can still live on your ledger.
Number four, there's no lockup, right?
So you can exit and enter as much as you like and as little and as often as you like.
And number five, and a lot of people have asked about this, we're going to have great software.
OK, we're going to have software that downloads the node, starts it, lets you know if there's problems with it, helps you to register your account online.
So you can start engaging a consensus and monitors the health of the node.
And also, by the way, we'll download any updates that the node needs.
So we're going to have great software and great documentation that's going to do all this stuff for you.
And as Fred said earlier, there's other options.
If you're not interested in running a computer in your home all the time and you're not interested in running some software like this because you just either personally don't like it or you don't have the time, you can get involved in so many other ways.
Liquid staking, peer-to-peer pools, and indeed other options such as delegating your key pair to be run by someone else who runs nodes as a service.
So tons of options, very, very exciting pivot for Algorand.
And I think genuinely one that's going to bring more eyes, more users, and more folks from other chains in to check out Algorand for the first time.
And I think when they come and they check out how good the staking is, I think they'll stay for all the other wonderful things in the ecosystem from Pera.
And it's recently launched a wonderful experience, making opt-ins no longer friction, but instead protection, all the way to the wonderful products that we have on chain that have been built by everyone in the community.
So, yeah, happy to take any questions, by the way, from the community or whatever, if they have any questions that they want to ask about the staking.
Perfect. Thank you so much.
And like John said, please, if you have any questions, drop them in this space as tweets and we'll answer them as quick as we can.
So far, I can see a lot of tweets about hoodies and people asking for merch and swag, which is always the case.
But as you know, we're currently working on a merch store, which will be coming in 2025 Q1.
And just to kind of tease that and to, you know, thank all of the Algorand family for their unwavering support.
We're going to be doing a 12 days of Christmas giveaway where every day for the next 12 days, you'll have a chance to win either a hoodie, some Algorand,
so you can, you know, get started on your staking journey and some other really cool and creative prizes as well.
And the first one is starting literally right now as I click send.
So be sure to check that out in about 10 seconds.
But yeah, we're going to be giving away hoodies, we're going to be giving away Algorand,
we're going to give away some really cool prizes that you wouldn't even be able to think of.
So, yeah, it's going to be a really cool way to, you know, show Algorand to people in different ecosystems,
to onboard people and just to, you know, raise, raise attention for Algorand as well.
So please, any questions you have, drop them in the space and we'll answer them.
And the first day of the giveaway is live now as well.
And I think if anyone asks a really good question, we might just give you a hoodie.
Did any of our speakers have any questions for each other?
Yeah, when can I get an Algorand hoodie, Mikael?
John, I assume you've got about 20 Algorand hoodies.
I need more.
But yeah, yeah, we'll get some mustard community first, John,
then we'll do a special batch for you as well.
All right, okay, I'll allow it.
Cool.
All right, Mikael, I got a question for you.
While we are waiting for the Algorand fam to send some questions in the chat,
can I just make one shout out to a community member that's in the audience today?
Yeah, yeah, you can indeed.
All right, sweet.
So I mean, I'm just like scrolling here to everybody that's listening and, you know,
all the greatest pillars of our community here today.
And unfortunately, I have the time to give a shout out to every single one of you
who have given a great impact to our community.
But there's one in particular I just want to thank for their service today,
who's listening to us live right now, which is UPASA.
And UPASA has been around our ex-feed for years now.
And, you know, very knowledgeable, very technical member of our community
that's just basically being, you know, shooting down all the other, you know,
wrong stuff that other chains are doing and other people are saying
or claiming they do when we're clearly better.
So, you know, he's just shutting down all those comments left and right
and setting people straight.
And, you know, sometimes doing the work that we cannot do here in the foundation
for various reasons.
So, UPASA, that's to you.
Thank you so much for everything that you do.
And, you know, I'm a fan.
So, keep doing the good work.
Thanks.
UPASA, please drop a DM to this account and we're going to get you a hoodie for that.
Thank you very much.
That will keep you nice and warm in winter.
We have a few questions coming in.
I think one of these might be directed to you, John.
Just want to give a shout out to Governor Hatt there.
I hear he's based as fuck.
So based.
But I think, John, one of these questions for you, which operating systems will hack do I work on?
So it'll work on all three of the major operating systems, Linux and its various distributions,
macOS and Windows.
With Windows, you need Windows subsystem for Linux installed in order to do some server kind of stuff.
So, in general, people could, I think, be best served by installing Linux.
I think that it's probably the nicest and most stable operating system on which to run something like this.
Which, by the way, is, of course, why most of the internet is run on Linux, right?
The servers at Netflix, they run Linux.
They don't run Windows.
But if you're not comfortable in Linux.
And, by the way, you should give it a try because I think things like Ubuntu, as an example.
Ubuntu, it's a very common Linux distribution.
It's gotten really easy over the years.
It used to be hard 10 years ago.
It's now.
It feels as easy to use as Windows.
So give it a try.
But if you're not comfortable in Linux environment, then I would say my next favorite is macOS,
which, again, has that Unix-style interface because it inherits from BSD from years ago.
And then if you're not comfortable in macOS, then finally, I would say Windows as a final choice.
But ultimately, the TUI will work well in all three operating systems.
Awesome.
And an interesting question.
Someone said, where do you see staking five to ten years from now?
So in five to ten years, it'll be the same as it is when we launch it, i.e.
The rewards will be the fees plus the bonus for the initial period.
And then after that initial period of a couple of years, the rewards generated by the network will be the summation of the fees in the block.
And so at that point, we need to see either a fee market or indeed a meaningful volume on the chain so that the stickers are rewarded commensurate with the security that they provide the chain.
And so essentially, we are setting it up in a way that we think will scale out going forward, and we don't think there'll be a lot of tweaks needed.
We might make some efficiency tweaks in a kind of a V2 release after the first release.
But ultimately, we think that what we have is a pretty clean solution that won't need much modification into the future.
Perfect. Thank you.
I saw a question generally about stable coins, and I wanted to ask an open question to anyone, whether it's Mark, Fred, John.
With the recent news of Coinbase notifying European consumers that, you know, non-MICOR compliant stable coins, you know, won't be supported.
Where does that position Algorand, you know, with USDCA and URD by Quantos?
I think that's one for Mark, maybe.
Yeah, I think maybe one for Mark, maybe.
Yeah, so I think it positions us really well, right?
Like we have both the URD, which is kind of designed for payments and micropayments, and then USDCA available on Algorand and easily, you know, to on-ramp and off-ramp these currencies.
So I think it positions us really well in Europe.
And, you know, I know I've been working on, like, you know, what are we going to do in Q1 in terms of, like, press announcement communications?
And I can tell you there are some really, really cool new projects that are going to come the Algorand's way in Q1.
So I can't talk about it now.
It's too early.
But I can tell you they're really, really big and they're really interesting.
And it's all related to stable coins as well.
Amazing.
Thank you so much.
Questions are coming in under the space, but I know we're tight on time here today.
But I think it's been a really great space.
And please do check out day one of the giveaway.
We're giving away 15 hoodies to people who are creating any type of content around Algorand can.
And this is going to be going on for the next 12 days as well.
The prizes get bigger and better every single day.
So please tune into that.
And we'll do another one of these spaces very, very soon.
Let us know what you want to talk about, what you want to hear.
Thank you very much.
And thank you to all our amazing speakers today.
Thanks a lot for organizing this, Mikael.
Yeah, thanks, Mikael.
Mikael.
Thanks, Mikael.
Cheers.
Cheers.
