About

Avalanche is a blockchain and protocol that enables the deployment of decentralized applications and custom blockchain networks called Subnets. Subnets operate independently with their own validators, rules, and tokenomics while relying on Avalanche’s validator set for security. The platform supports interoperability through Avalanche Warp Messaging for cross-chain communication.

History

Avalanche began as a new family of consensus protocols first introduced in May 2018 by a pseudonymous group called "Team Rocket." Cornell Professor Emin Gun Sirer and MaoFan “Ted” Yin, later co-founders of Ava Labs, helped formalize these protocols (referred to as Snowflake, Snowball, and Avalanche), eventually creating Avalanche. The project was developed in stealth until May 2019, when the project team began open-sourcing some of its work for testing purposes.

After several testnet releases from April to August 2020, the Avalanche mainnet eventually went live on Sept. 21, 2020, featuring three interconnected layers: the Platform Chain (P-Chain), Exchange Chain (X-Chain), and Contract Chain (C-Chain). At launch, the network supported EVM-compatible smart contract execution and development tools through the C-Chain, as it is a fork of the Go Ethereum (Geth) protocol.

Avalanche’s Continued Development

• On Dec. 14, 2021, Ava Labs announced its Subnet-EVM, a custom virtual machine enabling developers to deploy new EVM-compatible blockchains as Avalanche Subnets.
• On Jan. 20, 2022, Ava Labs announced (i) a new Avalanche-native VM called SpacesVM and (ii) Spaces, a Subnet demo of SpacesVM. The new VM supported basic key-value storage with authentication.
• On Dec. 13, 2022, Ava Labs released Core Mobile, a wallet browser extension for the Avalanche ecosystem, with support for EVM-compatible blockchains and Subnets. Core was initially released on Android and then on iOS.
• On Oct. 18, 2022, the Banff network (GitHub releases) upgrade was activated on the Avalanche mainnet, which completed the launch of Elastic Validation for Subnet creators. Of note, Avalanche Go v1.9.x developments have continued under Banff updates.
• On Nov. 22, 2022, Avalanched launched a Rust SDK for developers looking to build on Avalanche with the Rust programming language.
• On Dec. 22, 2022, Avalanche Warp Messaging (AWM) launched with the release of Avalanche Go v1.9.5, enabling native, cross-chain communication between Subnets. AWM is available in the Golang and Rust VM SDKs and will eventually be rolled out to the ”subnet-evm.” A commercially reasonable search found no announcement(s) regarding an estimated rollout date.
• On Jan. 11, 2023, Ava Labs announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), allowing Avalanche to further integrate with AWS’ products for FedRAMP compliance use cases, establishing custom Subnets, or setting up Avalanche nodes.
• On Feb. 21, 2023, Avalanche unveiled HyperSDK, a framework for creating virtual machines on Avalanche. The public developer network (devnet) for HyperSDK has yet to launch but will eventually support AWM. A commercially reasonable search identified no expected release date.
• On March 1, 2023, Avalanche announced the beta launch of the Glacier API, an API service that indexes Subnets and provides real-time and historical blockchain data from Avalanche and Ethereum. Developers can access the API for free during the beta launch period and provide feedback to shape ongoing developments.
• On March 24, 2023, Avalanche introduced the Cortina network upgrade, which eventually went live on mainnet on April 7, 2023. Cortina brought improvements such as X-Chain linearization, batched delegated rewards, and an increased C-Chain gas limit.
• On April 6, 2023, Ava Labs launched Avalanche Evergreen Subnets, a suite of institutional blockchain deployments, customizations, and tooling. These Subnets enable institutions to establish private, permissioned networks for research, development, or production purposes while maintaining the ability to interact with other Subnets through AWM. The first deployment of Evergreen was on the Spruce Subnet, which went live on April 12, 2023, with institutions like Wellington and T. Rowe as early partners of the product.
• On July 25, 2023, the Avalanche Foundation unveiled Avalanche Vista, an initiative that aims to allocate up to $50.00 million to acquiring tokenized assets (real-world assets) issued on Avalanche. As of April 15, 2024, a commercially reasonable search found no further updates regarding the initiative.
• On Aug. 29, 2023, Ava Labs announced a testnet release for Teleporter, a cross-chain messaging tool built on AWM that will enable developers to call contracts on other EVM-compatible blockchains. Teleporter eventually went live on the mainnet on March 6, 2024.
• On Sept. 28, 2023, Ava Labs announced the developer preview of Firewood, a database designed for storing Merkleized blockchain states in Rust. According to the project team, Firewood is "on its way to production-readiness but is still being very actively developed." As such, a definite release date has yet to be announced.
• On March 6, 2024, Ava Labs implemented the Durango Upgrade, a major release that enabled AWM on the C-Chain and Subnet-EVM. It also implemented the first seven community-proposed ACPs (i.e., ACP-23, ACP-24, ACP-25, ACP-30, ACP-31, ACP-41, and ****ACP-62).

The project team continues to update the protocol and develop smart contracts for future Avalanche capabilities. The project has also been open-sourced on GitHub, where the latest developments can be followed. Based on a commercially reasonable search, a full roadmap for the project has not been published. Still, plans are in place to iteratively push network updates, such as Banff, Cortina, Apricot, and Avalanche Go.

Sources: Messari Intel, Ava Labs, GitHub