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Could Algorand be the Future of Blockchain?
What is the future of blockchain and cryptocurrency? That’s one of the most common questions on the minds of many crypto investors or enthusiasts. While many believe Bitcoin will become the world’s reserve currency, others predict privacy coins like Zcash will take over. But there may be another contender who could be one of the biggest blockchain technology breakthroughs. That is Algorand, an innovative platform based on proof-of-stake algorithm and security deposits. A Review of Smart Contracts What is a smart contract, really? It is a computer program that controls financial assets or property and executes exactly as programmed. It’s to digitally facilitate, verify or enforce negotiation or performance of an agreement. So, there is no need for a third party (like a bank). Essentially, the intention is to replace trust in humans with trust in code. But what does that actually mean for you and me in practice? How will smart contracts change everything for blockchain technology? How do we decide which ones are best for our own needs—whatever they may be? Let’s take a closer look at some potential use cases of blockchains when it comes to smart contracts. One of the most useful applications of smart contracts in decentralized file storage. For example, suppose someone wants to store data on IPFS but can only commit small amounts of money at a time due to constraints set by their employer or university. A simple algorithmic script running on the blockchain allows them to store that piece of data on IPFS without actually owning any cryptocurrency while still gaining credit for other contributions made during their workday. In this way, everyone involved gets access to decentralized storage without needing any cryptocurrency themself! How does Algorand Work? Algorand is a new blockchain architecture that focuses on solving several problems that exist in existing blockchain models. The primary goal is to achieve security guarantees like those run by classical Byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT) consensus algorithms. However, unlike PBFT and Tendermint, Algorand requires just 16 nodes to agree on every block. Furthermore, it does not rely on third-party services to run its network. This implies that no single party may withhold service, disrupt processes, or manipulate results without majority consent. Simply put, there’s no way for a bad actor to take advantage of their position and tamper with data. Furthermore, each node validates all transactions locally and must decide on each one independently before acting. Even if an attacker temporarily controlled several of Algorand’s sixteen consensus participants, he would have minimal leverage. His ability to perform future transactions would be limited. He wouldn’t have access to information about prior transactions until they were recorded into blocks. Therefore, he would be unable to predict their effect on his reputation score reliably or otherwise corrupt them. The Problem with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Other Cryptocurrencies The problem with cryptocurrencies is that they don’t scale. For example, Bitcoin currently carries out 7 transactions per second, while Ethereum can only handle 15. This means that you can’t support a truly global economy with either cryptocurrency as a foundation, not even on a regional level. Many other cryptos are attempting to fix scaling problems. However, few have gained enough popularity for their use cases even to matter yet. And if the use of cryptocurrencies isn’t widespread, how will businesses or governments fully use them? Or do we want them to make full use of them? Besides, all of these cryptocurrencies run off some form of blockchain technology. So there must be something better than blockchain technology for us to get true scalability and better usability. The Problems Algorand Identifies From Other Blockchains There are two core problems concomitant with today’s blockchain applications: scalability and security. Scalability is a matter of size related to how many transactions per second an application can handle. On the other hand, security is a big deal for financial institutions and companies who don’t want careless sharing or compromise in sensitive data. Traditionally, having multiple computers confirm every transaction addresses these issues. The idea is to create redundancy by dividing those transactions among several devices rather than one mega computer. Then, if something goes wrong on one device (or gets hacked), others pick up where that device left off. That strategy has some pretty serious limitations, though. First, because everyone needs to process every transaction, scalability remains on a tight leash no matter how many computers you add-in. Another issue is that only one group can process all those transactions. It’s not very private when everyone knows exactly what everyone else is doing. And finally, there’s latency or lag time. As more people join a network, it takes longer for your transaction to appear as part of that network. This is because each computer must first verify everything before adding its approval on top of everything else. That makes … Continued
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Metaverse Opening Doors For Artists
Our globe has seen countless historical shifts and transformations in technology domains in the past, all of which have aided in the development and advancement of human existence. In the same vein, the term ‘Metaverse‘ has now been added to the list as the most recent technological advancement. The Metaverse is a notion for a virtual world that will be available in virtual reality (VR). People will be able to connect, communicate, and build their businesses in a whole new way in the metaverse, thanks to the newest virtual reality and augmented reality technologies. Working from home would become more advanced. People who work online from anywhere in the world could potentially meet up with their coworkers in the metaverse in their virtual form. And this technology has only started to spread its branches. While the concept of the metaverse as a virtual mirror of the real world may appear exaggerated and largely fictitious, several key players have begun to experiment with the use of virtual spaces for the visual arts, pushing the boundaries of how digital and physical art can be discovered, viewed, shared, and experienced to new heights. Metaverse and the Art World The metaverse is increasingly extending its linkages with the traditional world of high-end art, NFTs, and the metaverse. Sotheby’s (the Fine Arts Company) Metaverse, the auction house’s new platform developed particularly for digital collectors and including NFTs curated by art experts, was just launched. Following partnerships with crypto artists and collectors, this is Sotheby’s newest foray into the digital art world. The issue around non-fungible token art was thrust from relative obscurity into the spotlight after digital artist Beeple sold his everyday piece for $69.3 million in March 2021. The boom has benefited artists all around the world, allowing them to get access to lucrative new prospects through a worldwide audience while avoiding the conventional gatekeepers of the commercial art industry and instead of forming direct relationships with their collectors. Artists now have extraordinary digital property rights thanks to the ability to mint their creations as NFTs, with blockchain-enabled smart contracts allowing them to collect a pre-programmed and automatic royalty on any future sales of their work via secondary marketplaces. Since 2008, digital work has been around and grabbing attention, and the metaverse has just added another exponential layer on top of that. Several individuals are being hired here to work on constructing metaverse games, which reminds me of the early days of the internet when people were jumping at the chance to work on dot-com ventures. And that’s only one component; folks are also finding success by remaining independent and developing their own NFT initiative. What is Meta’s Vision For Virtual Art? The company formerly known as Facebook has recently been subjected to a great deal of scrutiny. Unfortunately for Zuckerberg and his colleagues, their virtual art concept is doomed from the start. Many critics argue that the company’s vision of the future of digital art is too narrow and simplistic, despite the company’s recent release of a film encouraging viewers to ‘enter a realm of creativity with Meta and explore endless possibilities in 3D.’ Even the biggest skeptics, as ArtReview’s Orit Gat put it, can’t help but be attracted by the themes in Meta’s video. He said: “A young woman walks through a museum and stops by a Henri Rousseau painting, Fight between a Tiger and a Buffalo (1909), only to get sucked into the painting and see it turn into something closer to Where the Wild Things Are: an animated tiger asserts ‘This is the dimension of imagination,’ while toucans and flamingos bob away to the beat.” The Door of Opportunities For Artists The computerized world provides artists with their laboratories to investigate various aspects of online personas and genuine identities. Even actual works of art have made their way into the digital sphere. Many artists used the Nintendo Switch’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons to turn their virtual homes into makeshift galleries during the early months of the pandemic, using a gaming function to digitize photographs of their artworks into pixelated images that could be arranged to look like canvases on the walls.
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