Silvio Micali & Steven Kokinos: Algorand – In Pursuit of the Blockchain Trilemma

The blockchain trilemma is the generally accepted concept that it's not possible to scale public and permissionless blockchains without compromising on security, decentralization, or both.

While the industry seems focused on building Layer 2 solutions to scale the transaction capacity of public networks, Algorand believes it has solved the trilemma, offering a network that scales without compromise to security or decentralization.

Silvio Micali, Algorand's Founder and Head of Research, as well as the company's CEO, Steven Kokinos, discuss the project's background, recent protocol upgrades, and how Algorand will create a great ecosystem for developers.

Topics covered in this episode:

Silvio’s path from academia to blockchain entrepreneurshipWhat Algorand addresses that other blockchains don’tThe blockchain trilemma: security, decentralization, scalabilityHow Algorand mitigates risk present on other blockchainsThe TEAL smart contract language and how it's uniqueBuilding primitives: atomics swaps, asset issuance, and a smart contract language called TEALApplications and use-cases for AlgorandThe Algorand FoundationWhat’s next for Algorand

Episode links:

Algorand WebsiteWhitepaperAlgorand on TwitterAlgorand on MediumAlgorand on YouTubeAlgorand Year in Review (YouTube)

Sponsors:

Status: A multi-purpose communication tool that combines a peer-to-peer messenger, secure crypto wallet, and web3 browser - https://status.im/Cosmos: Compete to win 100,000 ATOM by building and running Cosmos Zones - https://cosmos.network/goz/Pepo: Meet the people shaping the crypto movement - https://pepo.com/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/323