This article goes over the impending updates on the Avalanche Network. Avalanche has long since been one of our favorite networks, and for good reason.
Avalanche Recap
We wrote an article on Avalanche last year, you can read it [here]. We also have a guide for setting up their user-friendly [wallet]. Now that you are up to speed, you will notice we are generally attracted to chains that bring about fast speeds, and cheap fees. This is after all, why these chains have become so successful. Another important aspect of any popular chain is developer interest, this is the foundation of a blockchain’s ecosystem. This can be imagined as a small town among many, part of a larger state, and even larger country. Each decentralized application starts off as a small town.
Projects then become interconnected as the applications grow in popularity and user base. Certain projects become large enough to be compared to a state, with the country (in this example) being Avalanche or another large cap network. Avalanche has been successful at creating an ecosystem and drawing in developers. This is largely because Avalanche starts with Ethereum compatibility, meaning you can send it right to your Metamask wallet and interact with ERC-20 applications (Ethereum applications). Avalanche can also be sent to the wallet I listed above; users can stake it directly for passive income. There are a few gaming projects we invest in on Avalanche and we see these growing tenfold in the coming months. The problem with gaming on Avalanche currently is that games drain the network and highly increase fees while slowing down the network.
Avalanche Subnets
Ethereum suffers from this issue, and this is why so many other blockchains have risen to the top 25 over the past year. Games and NFTs clog blockchains and make them nearly unusable if solutions are not developed. Avalanche offers a unique solution for this problem, they have long since planned the launch of their “Subnets”. What makes subnets so important to the ecosystem is that any validator participating must secure the primary network Avalanche by staking tokens. This increases the demand for buying and holding Avalanche. Validators then can function as a subnetwork to achieve consensus on a set of blockchains[1]. In this case, a validator can pool with other validators and focus purely on the gaming ecosystem on Avalanche.
Avalanche has proven how important subnet growth is for the future of the network by investing 290 million on an incentive fund. Two gaming projects we are interested in already have plans for subnets. One project Defi-Kingdoms plans on using its native token Jewel as the gas fee for transactions, a portion of these fees will be burned, lowering the total supply. Users who wish to validate for Defi-Kingdoms will need to stake 2,000 AVAX along with staking JEWEL to participate [2]. Since validators will become specific, this will highly reduce the fees on the Avalanche network in general. Games will be less draining as they will have dedicated pools of validators that specialize in certain transaction types.
Avalanche Growth
Avalanche is the only chain currently boasting 1 second transaction finality. The ecosystem already has over 340 projects built within 1 year. Avalanche bridges are aiming to bring users from other chains in mass. Users who bridge at least 75$ in funds will receive some free AVAX for gas fees[2]. Avalanche has implemented upgrades that highly reduce fees already, the snowman upgrade assists in smoothing out the volatility of fees on the daily. Avalanche will be implementing on chain voting soon. The AVAX token recently made it to Coinbase also making it much more accessible for Americans and other users.
Avalanche is working with Paypal regarding a future stable coin. The network is discussing the possibility of tokenization of gold and other valuable assets including stocks and commodities. The Avalanche wallet is coming to mobile soon, further increasing adoption for users. Avalanche has partnered with AAve, Curve, and Sushiswap, 3 leaders within the decentralized finance space. Over 15 million in AVAX fees have already been burned. Developer interest continues to rise, along with network transactions on the long-term scale. Remember, none of this is financial advice. Stay safe out there!
[1] https://support.avax.network/en/articles/4064861-what-is-a-subnet
[2] https://cryptoseq.medium.com/avalanche-looks-set-for-exponential-growth-with-subnets-enterprise-partnerships-defi-blue-chips-2ede71f62d35
