Algorand Foundation has appointed Marc Vanlerberghe as Chief Marketing Officer. Marc will lead Algorand Foundation's global marketing efforts, overseeing teams in communication, branding, content, marketing campaigns, social media, and events. Marc Vanlerberghe founded and built the Android brand and developer ecosystem at Google, and has over 20 years of executive marketing experience. Most recently, he served as Chief Marketing Officer at customer experience software company Medallia and as CEO of early-stage AI company Rulai.

According to official sources, Algorand Foundation has announced the key initiatives and developments for its governance and xGov plan for 2024. The foundation prioritizes decentralization and security, and thus will reallocate funds from governance reward programs to directly incentivize consensus participation. Once consensus incentives begin (aiming to launch in Q3 2024), Algorand governance and DeFi incentives will be discontinued. If consensus incentives launch later in 2024 (i.e. Q4), governance reward payments will be extended to avoid incentive gaps.

Algorand (ALGO) is a smart contract platform employing a variant of the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, termed Pure Proof-of-Stake (PPoS). The protocol was founded by Turing award-winning computer scientist Silvio Micali, also known for co-inventing Zero-Knowledge proofs, Verifiable Random Functions (VRF), and probabilistic encryption.

Algorand Developers announced on X platform that they will release the Algorand technology roadmap on January 17, including the following:

Algorand was founded in 2017 by computer scientist Silvio Mical, winner of the Turing Award in 2012. Algorand positions itself as a leap in intelligent contract blockchain technology. Micali, renowned for co-inventing zero-knowledge proofs alongside Shafi Goldwasser and Charles Rackoff, has been a pivotal figure in cryptography.

Senior members of the Algorand proof-of-stake blockchain ecosystem have come together to launch a new open-source code version called Voi, which is currently in the test network. Chris Swenor leads the project and is also the co-founder of the blockchain development platform Reach and the Algorand decentralized exchange (DEX) HumbleSwap.

Quantoz Payments, a pioneer in the field of digital currency and financial technology, announced that it has obtained an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license under the supervision of the Dutch central bank and has been authorized to issue the first regulated and programmable Euro fiat currency EURD on the Algorand network. It is expected that by the end of this year, all businesses and consumers in the European Economic Area will be able to use EURD and electronic currency services, regardless of whether they have traditional bank accounts.

Algorand Ventures has announced an investment in the game Fracctal Monsters, with the amount undisclosed. In Fracctal Monsters, players have the opportunity to breed, battle, explore, train, and evolve virtual pets. With this investment, the team plans to continue creating immersive online pVp experiences, developing a Steam version of the game, and expanding beyond the digital realm.