ALGORAND ECOSYSTEM MONTHLY ROUNDUP WITH UBONG EPHRAIM — DECEMBER 2020

8 min readDec 31, 2020

Hello everyone. I am Ubong Ephraim. A blockchain evangelist and content creator who has been in the blockchain sphere for four years now. I am an Algorand ambassador and I bring to you the ALGORAND ECOSYSTEM MONTHLY ROUND UP — OCTOBER 2020.
The Algorand blockchain keeps on evolving with so many amazing updates being churned out regularly. Partnerships are made and utility tools on the blockchain are built as well. It could be easy to miss vital information amidst all these updates and that’s what this monthly series aims to help with. Bringing all these information to everyone in the Algorand ecosystem. Summarized and coupled with links for comprehensive reports and announcements. All information cited are coupled with links to original information.

Climatetrade announces a partnership with Algorand and Investment from Borderless Capital

Climatetrade, a blockchain-marketplace for CO2 carbon offsetting, announced that it will leverage Algorand, a scalable, secure and decentralized digital blockchain technology network to bring its technology to the next level. In addition, Borderless Capital has participated in the € 1 Million seed round of Climatetrade to support the company’s strategic plan and expansion goals.

Climatetrade and its customers will be using Algorand as its primary infrastructure layer and leveraging its capabilities for carbon offsetting. The key benefits to using a public blockchain network to transact and create an open marketplace for carbon credit trading are greater efficiency, transparency and inclusivity.

Voyager Digital Announces Digital Asset Investing Solutions on Algorand

Voyager Digital Ltd., a publicly traded, licensed crypto-asset broker that provides investors with a turnkey solution to trade crypto assets announced that the Company will provide new financial offerings through enhanced integration of the Algorand Protocol. Voyager will also enable users to earn 8.5% on USDC supported on Algorand, when lent through Voyager’s services.

Voyager will develop USDC payment rails on the Algorand protocol, such that consumers will have the ability to buy, hold, trade, and self-custody their USDC, ALGO, and Algorand Standard Assets on Voyager. The Algorand Protocol will make USDC transactions more efficient and less costly for consumers, as well as bring interest-bearing benefits to customers. Going forward, this development will facilitate future ASA tokens to be bought, sold, or transferred through the Voyager platform.

This adds to the growing Decentralized Finance and new financial applications coming to the Algorand ecosystem, as well as the Voyager Platform.

Silvio Micali Honored with Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Award

Algorand’s founder, Silvio Micali, is no stranger to some of the most revered awards in science and technology. He was again decorated last week by the Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry as the recipient of the Innovation award for technology startups abroad, a testament to his work at Algorand as well as his prestigious scientific career at MIT.

Professor Micali was acknowledged for his advancements of blockchain, as well as connecting to Italian students who come to study at American universities.

The award ceremony noted the close alignment between Italy and the US in science, technology and innovation. The Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry demonstrated their commitment to supporting a healthy and cohesive community of Italians abroad.

Watch the award presentation here : https://youtu.be/ifvXm5afP1Y

Algorand 2021 Performance

Algorand is growing. Today, an average of 500,000 transactions per day are posted on our chain. More than 500 companies are busy developing applications on Algorand, taking advantage of our unique layer-1 smart contracts and the other functionalities that enrich our platform. Their applications will soon generate plenty of new transactions.

New, Long Term Algo Dynamics Model

The Algorand Foundation has proposed a revised, long term Algo Dynamics model. Designed to run for a greater than 10-year period- that is up to 2030 and beyond — this new model will focus on programs around ecosystem support, community incentives, and the decentralization of decision making and governance on the Algorand blockchain — a long-held goal of the Algorand community. Central to these programs will be a new community rewards system, benefiting the participants, existing and future, who commit to participate in the governance of the Algorand ecosystem and prove their commitment by locking their Algos for a potentially long term.

This new rewards system and ecosystem support proposal will be funded by the allocation of previously unassigned funds from within the 10B Algo minted at Genesis, and will be distributed using a new, fully decentralized decision making process.

Stablecorp Launches QCAD Stablecoin on Algorand Blockchain

Stablecorp, the firm behind the issuance and management of the QCAD (the Canadian Dollar stablecoin), announced a partnership with Algorand, the leading scalable, secure and decentralized blockchain network, to launch the digital asset on the Algorand blockchain. Stablecorp has been awarded an Algorand Foundation Grant and through this collaboration will continue to grow the fiat-backed stablecoin capability on Algorand and will be the first non-USD backed stablecoin to be issued on the network.

Algorand will provide instant confirmation, micro payments and automatic wallet support for the newly supported QCAD token. Additionally, this implementation on Algorand marks a milestone: it will allow for the first synthetic-FX trading pair between a US Dollar Stablecoin and a Canadian Dollar Stablecoin on the Algorand blockchain.

NOWPayments enables support for ALGO!

The Nowpayments platform in collaboration with ALgorand foundation recently enabled support for the Algo token.

Find Algo here : Nowpayments.io

Algorand’s Global Partner Program Announces Additional Participants to Accelerate Development and Adoption of Blockchain-powered Solutions

Following on the recent launch of the Algorand Partner Program (APP) Algorand welcomed Blockchain Australia Solutions, EMGS Group, Euranet, IBF DigiLabs, and Ulam Labs as new participants. Designed to build and curate a partner ecosystem that enables and delivers Algorand-based products to market faster, easier, and with end users in mind, the APP was designed to meet the growing demand for Algorand-based solutions.

Algorand’s program participants benefit from unique access to resources and support in building and delivering their Algorand-based offering. Algorand also provides access to the exponentially growing market of organizations seeking resources to develop or adopt Algorand-based solutions.

Introducing: The Future of Payments Report

Algorand recently brought insights for the future from across the payments industry, through a collaboration with OMFIF (Official Monetary & Financial Institutions Forum) DMI (Digital Monetary Institute), a high-level group which convenes policy-makers, technologists, financiers and regulators to explore the challenges and opportunities of digital finance.

This landmark report builds on OMFIF fields research and survey work and pulls in contributions and perspectives from Algorand, Citi, Cypherium, GrabPay, Mastercard, Novi (from Facebook), PayPal and SWIFT. It examines how the future of payments will look, and surveys central banks’ and regulators’ opinions as to the challenges and opportunities they face.

COINBASE LAUNCHES STAKING PROGRAM FOR ALGORAND

Coinbase has launched a staking program for Algorand (ALGO). Coinbase announced on Twitter saying that the initiative will allow ALGO users to earn rewards for holding the cryptocurrency on its platform.

“Starting today, eligible customers can automatically earn rewards for holding Algorand (ALGO) on Coinbase,” the exchange tweeted.

According to the announcement, all ALGO rewards gotten via the initiative will be reinvested to accrue more profits.

Unlike previous staking programs launched for a few cryptocurrencies that require users to lock up their assets for a particular period, the ALGO staking exercise does not require “lock-ups,” minimum balance, or restrictions before users can earn rewards.

End-to-End Digital Payments Powered by Algorand Launches with Participants from Across the Growing Ecosystem

Algorand is excited to share how several partners building on its high performing platform have come together to deliver seamless digital payments for both merchants and consumers. The latest implementation, driven by online retailer Planetwatch, demonstrates the power of a highly scalable and secure blockchain while also putting a spotlight on the highly effective tools and services provided by the growing number of organizations leveraging Algorand.

LATEST ALGORAND WALLET UPDATE INCLUDES DARK MODE

The Algorand Wallet’s latest update includes Dark Mode!

Download the Algorand Wallet and check out its notable features here: https://algorand.com/wallet

AVERAGE OF 500,000 TRANSACTIONS RECORDED EACH DAY ON ALGORAND

An average of 500,000 transactions per day are posted on Algorand’s chain! This is only the beginning. Looking forward to even more growth in 2021

http://ow.ly/85nn50CWYS3

500 COMPANIES BUILDING ON ALGORAND

Over 500 companies were building and developing applications on Algorand this year! Join them and take advantage of Algorand’s high performance platform, comprehensive smart contract capabilities & more.

http://ow.ly/xlr650CWvl0