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Within the next 24 hours, the second period of Algorand Governance is coming to an end and I believe that this is the best moment to take a look at the Algorand ecosystem and why, in my opinion, it is welcoming for the crypto newbies.
I think that Governance is a perfect method for involving the community in deciding the future of the blockchain. It offers a mechanism that is very easy to understand and follow, even for the crypto newbies. Through linking your wallet to the official Algorand Foundation website, you can commit a certain amount of your coins, then maintain that amount in your wallet until the specified date, vote on the proposal presented for that Governance Period and you get the reward. Complicated? I didn't think so!
Let us take a look at the specifics:
The second governance period had 2,81 billion ALGO locked by 37 350 governors awarding an APY of ~10,2% (or about 2,5% for the 3 months).
For comparison, the first governance period had 1,7 billion ALGO locked by about 50000 governors and awarded them with about 10,3% APY (similarly, about 2,5% for the 3 months).
table curtesy of simplyrangel
If you are interested in the upcomming third Governance Period, here's a couple of key dates taken from the official website:
Commitment Period for G3: 31st March 2022 to 14th April 2022 (11:59:59 PM SGT).
End of Governance Period for G2: Midnight 11:59:59 PM SGT 31st March
(you must keep your account balance above your governance commit until this date to ensure eligibility to claim rewards).
Governance Reward Distribution for G2: April 1st to April 7th 2022.
In order to participate in Governance a user needs a compatible wallet. The one I would recommend as the easiest to get into and most compatible with all kinds of features of the Algorand ecosystem is the Pera Algo Wallet (previously Algorand Wallet).
If you're interested in learning more different Algorand wallets, I recommend reading this article by Adam Robertson. It's a pleasant read and should get you a general idea which of them best suits your needs.
While Algorand's price action hasn't been exactly great the last couple of weeks/months, their team led by Silvio Micali, a award winning computer scientist from Italy inspires confidence through their knowledge of the cryptocurrency space and values that lead them. If anyone is interested in learning more about cryptocurrencies, the blockchain technology or Algorand specifically, I highly recommend listening to some of Micali's lectures or interviews like this interview conducted by Lex Fridmanthis lecture from the official Algorand YouTube channel
Another example for why Algorand is such a user-friendly ecosystem are the ASAs or Algorand Standard Assets. The Algorand protocol supports the creation of on-chain assets that benefit from the same security, compatibility, speed and ease of use as the Algo. This in turn allows users to directly participate in the ecosystem and come up with their own inventions and businesses.
Obviously, not everyone will be acting in good faith creating these assets, but there are some noteworthy ones that seem legitimate. For example, there are the Algorand's versions of USDC. The most popular ASA is , a suite of DeFi apps including no-loss prize games, multi-asset staking and cross-chain swapping. Another interesting one is Akita Inu, Algorand's most popular meme coin. Once you start learning about all these different assets, it becomes a great rabbit hole.
The last thing that I would to mention is Tinyman, a decentralized application allowing users to connect their wallet and swap ASAs as they see fit.
In conclusion, I would like to recommend Algorand to all newcomers as well as more experienced cryptocurrency enthusiasts because of its' engaging ecosystem, easy to grasp features and competitive APY (judging by the last two governance periods it's about 10% and that is obviously way better than whatever banks can offer in most countries).
I hope you enjoyed reading and learned something new!
