The developers of the Algorand blockchain protocol raised $ 4 million in seed funding.

Financial support comes from venture capital firms Pillar and Union Square Ventures, the start-up behind the protocol announced today.

Algorand is a trading platform and digital currency, with its underlying protocol co-written by MIT professor and Turing Prize winner Silvio Micali. As previously reported by CoinDesk, the evidence-based system of a game was on display at the conference on financial cryptography and data security in Malta last year.

Algorand represents the latest effort to build an entirely new blockchain system, and aims to tackle some of the perceived governance issues associated with distributed systems. The project plans to use the funds to strengthen its development team and support further work on the protocol.

"Just as the strength of the Algorand network comes from the diversity of its participants, the strength of the Algorand community comes from the diversity of its contributors," said Micali about funding. "We are an open community bringing together end-users, developers and researchers in cryptography, economics and computing."

While an exact launch date has not been fixed, Algorand developers are eyeing this version "in the year," according to statements.

Image of Silvio Micali via the CoinDesk Archive



Leader in the blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media company that strives to achieve the highest journalistic standards and adheres to a strict set of editorial policies. Do you have any breaking news or a tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at news@coindesk.com.

