BREAKING: El-Salvador Signs Agreement to Develop Blockchain Infrastructure on Algorand
Takeaways
- Koibanx–built on Algorand–will be leading the effort
- Says Algorand technology “robust enough to handle the needs of an entire nation
- Koibanx has been leveraging Algorand across Latin America for “various smart contract financing platforms”
- Koibanx helps “banks and financial institutions integrate crypto into their banking cores while connecting financial products through Blockchain infrastructure.”
- El-Salvador already spoke to Algorand and Cardano in July about leveraging their chains.
A major announcement was made today about El-Salvador’s expansion into the crypto space. Koibanx, a leading Latin American asset tokenization and Blockchain financial infrastructure company, announced today that they have “signed a cooperation agreement with the government of El Salvador to develop the government’s blockchain infrastructure on Algorand.” Algorand is a Layer 1, Proof-of-Stake blockchain developed by MIT professor Silvio Micali in 2019.
Koibanx already uses Algorand in “national public and private initiatives across Latin America” according to the press release. These include Covid related projects, point of sale credit issuance systems, and “various smart contract financing platforms. Koibanx said they chose Algorand because they “provide the performance, scalability, security, and functionality required to implement large scale projects around the world.”
Speaking of the announcement, CEO of Koibanx Leo Elduayen said: “El Salvador is paving the way for other countries to make the promise of blockchain a reality. We are honored to be working with the government to enable Salvadoreans to access a global digital economy and the potential for a more prosperous future.” Leo then touched on the robustness of Algorand, saying their L1 will be able to handle “the needs of an entire nation.” He said that Algorand meets the needs of “rigorous requirements for speed, security, and stability.”
This is not really surprising as El-Salvador’s President and his team were reported to have spoken to Cardano and Algorand in July about leveraging their chains. It was reported that Ibrajim and Yusef Bukele, the brothers of the country’s president, told investors in July they were planning on releasing a stablecoin, called the Colon Dollar, and spoke to reps from Algorand and Cardano about implementing it.
They mentioned it would be coming to fruition in 2021, but there are conflicting sources about what is happening in that realm. This announcement is a clear sign that El-Salvador is looking beyond Bitcoin and into native smart contract chains like Algorand. Apparently, they met with Algorand reps on June 7th, and told the press that the president was “in a hurry” to implement the Colon Dollar.
Suggested Watch: Solving the Blockchain Trilemma with Silvio Micali, Founder of Algorand
This would not be the first time Algorand has worked with a nation-state to implement their tech. The Marshall Islands has been planning to release their ‘Marshall Island’s SOV’ digital currency on Algorand since 2020. Also, early this year the City of Brixton, UK, announced they would use the Algorand blockchain “to develop a tokenized version of their innovative Local Currency, the Brixton Pound.”
Algorand has clearly been targeting governments, corporations, and more traditional modes of business since the beginning. Likely due to their institutionalized founding out of MIT. They have even claimed they have solved the blockchain trilemma, of speed, security, and scalability. This theory was posited by Vitalik and theorizes that blockchains must sacrifice one of the three. Algorand believes through their groundbreaking use of cryptographic sortition, the fulcrum of their consensus mechanism, they have solved this trilemma.
President Bukele has yet to speak of the announcement, as the news just broke minutes ago, but it will be interesting to see how he juggles his laser eyes with what is considered an “alt-coin” in Algorand. The good news is, there is space for Bitcoin and other chains, because the world needs crypto, and that means leveraging the best protocols. Nothing will replace BTC as a storer-of-value, but clearly, smart contract blockchains will provide the infrastructure for companies, cities, and countries to build on.
The post BREAKING: El-Salvador Signs Agreement to Develop Blockchain Infrastructure on Algorand appeared first on CryptosRus.
Text source: CryptosRus
