Turing Award Winner's Blockchain Opens Test Network to Public

The test network for the Algorand blockchain platform has been made publicly accessible, the company behind the project announced Tuesday.

The proof-of-stake based Alogrand was first unveiled by MIT professor and Turing Award winner Silvio Micali in 2017. Over the course of 2018, the initiative netted some $66 million in funding, with backers including venture capital firms Union Square Ventures and Pillar, both of which funded Algorand’s $4 million seed round in February of last year.

Alogorand’s technological approach aspires to create a decentralized system that affords both scalability and security, as well as the elimination of the risk of “forking” or splitting into separate networks, as Micali detailed in a blog post published earlier this month.

According to the startup, the public release follows a private test period in which several hundred users took part. The then-invitation-only testnet first launched last July.

Now, Algorand hopes to attract a wider population of users to “ engage with TestNet and provide feedback on the quality, function, and overall experience of the TestNet protocol,” according to a press release.

“Opening TestNet to the public is a major milestone on our journey to the open source release of the technology, CEO Steve Kokinos said in a statement. “Today marks the latest step forward in our overall mission to enable the broader Algorand community to collaborate, innovate and contribute to the evolution of our public, permissionless blockchain platform.”

Computer cables image via Shutterstock