Steven Kokinos is the CEO of blockchain protocol Algorand, a public and permissionless platform that uses proof-of-stake as its consensus mechanism. Its native cryptocurrency is ALGO. Kokinos is also the co-founder and chairman of Fuze, a cloud software company and a natively-developed platform that caters to enterprises. Fuze combines various communication services (videoconferencing, voice calls, texts, instant messaging, content sharing and apps) via a cloud service.
Kokinos also previously founded BladeLogic Inc., a data solutions provider catering to Fortune 500 clients such as Microsoft, GE, Time Warner, Sprint and Walmart. Back in the 1990s, he was also the founder, president and CEO of WebYes Inc., a web hosting and application service provider. WebYes provided Java’s electronic software distribution platform, along with all of Sun Microsystem’s other software products. It was eventually acquired by Breakaway Solutions in 1999, with Kokinos also briefly running the business component of its application service provider (ASP).
At Breakaway Solutions, Kokinos drove the company to success within just 18 months. Breakaway achieved the top-two worldwide ASP industry ranking and earned $120 million in revenue during his term. Kokinos is a graduate of McGill University, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics.
As CEO, Kokinos is in charge of Algorand’s overall business vision and strategy. The year was filled with milestones for the company in the form of upgrades, partnerships and integrations.
Algorand launched the Algorand Virtual Machine in late 2021. AVM is a layer-1 protocol upgrade that seeks to improve DApp scalability for organizations and developers. The upgrade will allow for the development of more complex smart contract-based DeFi apps, Web3, and the NFT marketplace. Meanwhile, Wall Street veteran Matt Zhang made headlines as he launched a $1.5 billion crypto fund and chose Algorand as his first partner. The fund, called Hivemind Capital Partners, is a multi-strategy fund that seeks to prioritize projects focused on crypto infrastructure.
United Kingdom-based tech firm Glitter Finance also announced plans regarding integrating Algorand with Solana to achieve better interoperability. Glitter Finance aims to allow traders using its platform to transfer cryptocurrency from Algorand to other layer-1 blockchains. Kokinos also tweeted information about the launch of Algorand’s upcoming project, C3 Protocol, saying it’s “a decentralized layer for cross-margin trading across derivatives and spot markets.”
Rounding off the year, Algorand founder Silvio Micali announced the improvements carried out on the Algorand blockchain during 2021, including a block proposal time of 0.5 seconds despite the growth of transactions from 5,000 to 25,000, a decrease in block finalization time from 4.5 to 2.5 seconds and finalizing the growth in transactions per second from 1,000 to 46,000.
Kokinos announced Algorand’s partnership with eMerge Americas for the 2022 Startup Showcase, which boasts a $420,000 prize pool. Algorand will be presenting the competition alongside eMerge, Panoramic Ventures and Florida Funders.
Algorand has also partnered with Day By Day to develop and build a decentralized insurance platform for real-world assets. Using the Algorand blockchain, Day By Day can build the world’s first decentralized insurance platform as well as an NFT policy manufacturing platform, among other solutions.
According to Kokinos, “Algorand is becoming the modern infrastructure for serious blockchain-based initiatives.” He is expected to continue his work building upon the developments and upgrades that took place in 2021 by securing more partnerships for Algorand and increasing the rate of network adoption.
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