Avalanche is a relatively new player in the blockchain space, launching its initial version to the public in September 2020. It is what is called a “Layer 1” protocol (further referred as L1), which means it processes and finalizes transactions on its own, has its own consensus mechanism and it does not depend on another chain to function.
It came out to compete with Ethereum, that was (and still is) the biggest blockchain with smart contract’s capabilities, but found itself competing with multiple other L1s that also were denominated back then as “Ethereum Killers”, such as the Binance Smart Chain (also launched in September 2020) or the Fantom blockchain (Launched in December 2019).
The Success Of Avalanche
Back when Avalanche came out there were talks about a market saturation of L1s: that meant that every new launch was seen as a cash grab until it could prove it brought something new to the table.
In that regard, Avalanche came with a promise (detailed in their whitepaper): a highly scalable, robust, energy efficient and highly decentralized blockchain without compromising on latency or throughput, by leveraging a multiple-chain infrastructure with a custom consensus protocol built on the basis of proof-of-stake instead of proof-of-work. And it delivered.
It took the space by surprise, and with a few key financial backers it grew exponentially. It never did achieve the acclaimed “Ethereum Killer” status that was, at launch, one of the main selling points, but that does not discredit its success. As the blockchain space has seen time and time again, multiple solutions can coexist and have their own communities, use cases and fill their own niches without cannibalizing on each other, one of the main advantages of decentralization.
Why Build On Avalanche
When thinking about where to develop and deploy a protocol it’s easy to get lost in the marketing buzzwords of every L1, but why build on Avalanche? Simple, because ultimately most dApps would benefit from the tech stack that Avalanche brings to the table without compromising on too many fronts, as they have a complete suite of tools that can fill almost any use case.
Want to develop a dApp in a cheap and fast way, while still providing your users an excellent experience? Want to deploy a new asset class with special economic rules? Want to create your own private or public blockchain with your own properties while benefiting from the advancements done on a major protocol with lots of contributing developers? Then, Avalanche is for you.
As mentioned before, Avalanche has a multi-chain structure that allows it to be flexible and highly functional:
Let’s cover some points:
● It’s home to an exchange chain called X-Chain, which is a decentralized platform designed to contain what Avalanche calls “digital smart assets” (a representation of real-world assets that abide by a custom ruleset designed by the creator of the digital smart asset). It was designed with the sole purpose of asset exchanging and creation. It’s also faster and more robust, and it’s the chain you want to use if you are in the market to design a new digital asset and don’t need the extra functionality that comes with smart contracts.
● It contains a platform chain called P-Chain, which is the metadata blockchain of Avalanche, and as such serves multiple purposes. It’s where the validators stake their AVAX to secure the network, and it’s in charge of coordinating them. It’s also in charge of the creation and managing of blockchains and subnets. If you are looking to develop your own blockchain with a sovereign network of validators, and control everything from the membership rules to the token economics, this is the chain you are going to be interacting with.
● It also has a contract chain, called C-Chain, which is the one people refer to when talking about Avalanche in general, as it’s an EVM-compatible chain. This means all the tooling designed to develop dApps on Ethereum works out-of-the-box to develop on Avalanche, taking advantage of the benefits that the network has over other blockchains. Building on the C-chain nets you access to almost a billion dollars of TVL and over 200 other dApps that you can leverage and integrate as building blocks in your protocol.
Final Thoughts
Being the third biggest blockchain in terms of TVL also nets you something invaluable: resources. There are lots of great tools and documentation on everything related to Avalanche and the protocols that run on its chains, which makes it easier not only to build applications on it as a developer, but also as a dApp creator to better understand the underlying functionality of your protocol.
So, are you ready to leverage Avalanche’s technology? Prepare to get your idea from the drawing board into a robust functional product, while getting the development, creative and financial expertise of an experienced team to make sure your product works as you intended it to. Be sure to reach out to us here at Rather Labs, a proficient team that can help you design, develop and launch your project fast without compromising on security or scalability.
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