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Blockchain startup Algorand has announced the successful completion of its anticipated Staking program, a major milestone as 200M Algos were staked marking the end of the investment program. 
 
Due to limited amount of rewards, only those that qualified by block number 1618450 will be eligible for rewards - which is set to be redistributed every 6 months over 4 separate payouts. The Staking program began on 6th August, and officially ended on 31st August, 2019 as the quota was reached before the scheduled closing date. The staking program is meant to incentivize long-term holders willing to stake their Algos tokens over a 2 year period. Investors are given the opportunity to exit from the program at any given time, if they do not believe in the long-term vision and success of the Algorand Network.  


Led by an All-star Team, Algorand is founded by Turing Award and Goedel Prize-winner Silvio Micali, who is also the founder behind the incredible zero-knowledge proofs. A fundamental privacy driven consensus mechanism behind major privacy tokens such as Zcash,  Monero & Pivx.

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The Algorand Staking Program stirred up a buzz in the crypto-space, indicating that there’s demand for staking cryptocurrency which remains a viable business model, as investors are paying attention with staking touted as the best way to make semi-passive returns in a bear market. 

 
**Essentially, Staking rewards are the earnings from the proof-of-stake (PoS)** consensus algorithm, while it's not a new concept in the industry, there aren’t that many cryptocurrencies enthusiasts that have caught up with the trend.  Depending on how much an individual is willing to stake, the greater the return and the higher the odds of finding a block.

Currently, there are three main consensus algorithms used for validating transactions: Proof-of-Work (PoW), Proof-of-Authority (PoA) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS).  Algorand is introducing a new game-changing consensus algorithm known as  ‘’PPoS’’, which is similar to POS but has many distinct differences. For starters, the team spearheading the project are looking to introduce blockchain 3.0 which is set to overcome ‘’The Scalability Trilemma’’, a term coined by Vitalik Buterin, that refers to the tradeoffs that crypto projects must make when deciding how to optimize the underlying architecture of their own blockchain. With PPoS, Algorand looks to address the major problems faced previous blockchain that had to forgo one of the three components such as decentralization, security and scalability. 

With new ground-breaking tech, Algorand looks to create a digital currency to be used not only for borderless payments,, but is set to introduce a scalable network capable of supporting resource intensive dApps. It’s the world’s first Pure-Proof of Stake Cryptocurrency, designed to improve blockchain’s consensus and address issues surrounding scaling. 

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# What’s Next for Algorand
With more than 200M ALGOS tokens staked, majority of the ALGOS will remain stored in users wallet, with investors earning passive income. Only those that are committed will benefit from a higher return rate. Where investors who decide to voluntarily disqualify themselves by dropping out of the Staking program will benefit the last ones standing. There will be a set amount of Algos scheduled to be distributed and participants are entitled to more rewards if investors opt out of the staking program, as received funds are returned to the reward pool to be allocated to remaining eligible users.

This marks the end of Algorands Staking program, which ended up being a success indicating the demand for program which is bound to give investors a staggering +100% profit at the end of the 2-year period. There’s plenty of cumulative reward for holding Algos as a long-term investment, with the program aimed to incentives those interested in grand vision that the project is set out to achieve.