Algorand, the pure proof-of-stake Layer-1 blockchain network, has announced its latest protocol upgrade to enhance performance and streamline app development. This upgrade reduces block time to approximately 3.3 seconds, increasing speed by over 10%. Algorand’s instant transaction finality and other performance enhancements allow for a user experience comparable to traditional Web2 applications while leveraging blockchain’s security and decentralization.
In addition to the protocol upgrade, Algorand is celebrating the four-year anniversary of its Mainnet and approaching its 30 millionth block milestone. Notably, Algorand has experienced zero downtime since its launch in 2019.
The latest technical release incorporates feedback from the developer community and aims to make application development faster, more accessible, and cost-efficient. Some of the new features for builders on Algorand include “Simulate,” a powerful simulator for smart contracts that allows developers to test and identify issues before deploying to Mainnet. There are also new developer capabilities such as group resource sharing for application calls, devmode timestamp control for testing dApps, and new Algod endpoints for transaction group state updates. Additionally, Algorand introduces “Conduit,” a new tool for flexible and lightweight data access.
Algorand continues to strengthen its position as a leading blockchain protocol, with speeds of 10,000 TPS and support for quantum-secure interoperability through State Proofs. This protocol upgrade follows the recent launch of AlgoKit, a comprehensive developer tool suite for building Web3 applications on Algorand.