Algorand is planning a series of upgrades to bolster the network’s privacy and speed, and developing permissioned co-chains with a trustless decentralized bridge between chains, founder and MIT professor Silvio Micali said at Blockchain Week Australia on Tuesday.

See related article: What is Algorand and why is it a blockchain to watch?

Fast facts

• Algorand is developing a layer of privacy with regulators while ensuring that privacy does not become a curtain to hide nefarious activities, Micali said.

• The permissioned co-chains can help developers build ecosystems independent of the main Algorand blockchain and could be used for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

• Algorand is also trying to increase its speed and scalability — the first planned upgrade will increase the network speed 10 times.

• Launched in June 2019, Algorand is an open source public blockchain network that uses a pure proof-of-stake (PPoS) algorithm that randomly and secretly selects block validators.

• Algorand, which has a market cap of US$5.4 billion, was trading at US$0.816 at press time — growing over 15% in the past week, according to CoinGecko data.

See related article: Why Algorand’s price is on a two-year high right now