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Layer one blockchain Avalanche serves as a platform for decentralized applications and custom blockchain networks. It is one of Ethereum’s competitors, with the goal of dethroning Ethereum as the most popular blockchain for smart contracts. It intends to achieve this by having a higher transaction output of up to 6,500 transactions per second while maintaining scalability.
The unique architecture of Avalanche allows for this. The Avalanche network is made up of three blockchains: the X-Chain, the C-Chain, and the P-Chain. Each chain serves a specific purpose, which differs significantly from the approach used by Bitcoin and Ethereum, which requires all nodes to validate all transactions. Avalanche blockchains use various consensus mechanisms depending on their use cases.
Avalanche has been working on developing its own ecosystem of DApps and DeFi since the launch of its mainnet in 2020. SushiSwap and TrueUSD are two Ethereum-based projects that have integrated with Avalanche. Furthermore, the platform is constantly working to improve interoperability between its own ecosystem and Ethereum, such as by developing bridges.
Ava Labs, founded by Cornell University professor Emin Gün Sirer and Cornell University computer science PhDs Kevin Sekniqi and Maofan “Ted” Yin, launched Avalanche. Gün Sirer is a cryptographic research veteran, having created a conceptual peer-to-peer virtual currency six years before the Bitcoin whitepaper was published. Prior to the infamous The DAO hack in 2016, he was also involved in work on Bitcoin scaling solutions and Ethereum research.
The whitepaper that resulted from that research led to the establishment of Ava Labs in 2018. In February 2019, the project closed a seed round led by Polychain, Andreessen Horowitz, and Balaji Srinivasan. Avalanche completed its initial coin offering (ICO) in 2020 in less than 24 hours, raising $42 million.
You can trade Avalanche on Coinbase Exchange, Dcoin, and BTCEX. Popular trading pairs for Avalanche in the market includes AVAX/USD, AVAX/CAD, AVAX/EUR, AVAX/PHP, AVAX/INR, and AVAX/IDR.
