What is Avalanche?

Avalanche is an open, programmable smart contracts platform that launched its mainnet in September 2020. Its native token is AVAX, a hard-capped digital asset used for the platform’s payments, security, and connection functions. It gained recognition as a popular platform for DeFi (decentralised finance) applications such as Pangolin and TraderJoe.

A brief history of Avalanche

Launched in September 2020 by Ava Labs, Avalanche aims to deliver a scalable blockchain solution that’s faster and cheaper than other layer-1 smart contract protocols. The three people behind Avalanche are Kevin Sekniqi, Maofan ‘Ted’ Yin, and Emin Gün Sirer.

At launch, 360 million AVAX were minted and sold through private and public sales, and the tokens hit the market with the initial price set at about US$5. During the first public sale of its digital currency token, Avalanche raised $42 million in less than 5 hours. In 2021, Avalanche grew close to 3,000%, breaking into the crypto top 10 and emerging as a credible opponent to Ethereum.

How Avalanche works

Avalanche’s fast blockchain platform boasts top speed ranks in terms of time-to-finality, with speeds of over 4,500 transactions per second, as well as low costs and environmental friendliness. It is compatible with the Solidity programming language used by Ethereum and is also capable of supporting the creation of custom private or public blockchains called subnets. It uses three blockchains, one for coordinating validators and making subnets, one for creating smart contracts, and one for exchanging assets.

What is Avalanche used for?

As the native token of Avalanche, AVAX provides a basic unit of account between multiple subnets. It is also used for paying network fees and securing the blockchain through staking.