【008】One Coin, One Talk: Avalanche (AVAX) - The Rapid Evolution of the Creator of the Three-Chain Architecture

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When Cornell University professor Emin Gün Sirer envisioned “a network as efficient as a ski resort cable car,” a revolution in blockchain architecture had already begun.

After exploring the cultural phenomena of various Meme coins, today we return to the technical fundamentals, focusing on a public chain project renowned for its innovative architecture and extreme performance—Avalanche (AVAX). As a third-generation blockchain platform adopting a unique three-chain architecture, Avalanche consistently leads in transaction speed and scalability, with transaction volume and ecological activity remaining at the forefront of the market.

From academic research to commercial deployment, from the Avalanche consensus to subnet expansion, Avalanche’s development trajectory demonstrates a unique path that perfectly combines rigorous scholarly theory with large-scale engineering practice.

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01 Origin Story: Blockchain Innovation from the Ivory Tower

The birth of Avalanche stemmed from a computer scientist’s deep reflection and groundbreaking innovation on existing blockchain architectures. Emin Gün Sirer, an associate professor at Cornell University, created the first Bitcoin proof-of-work mining machine as early as 2015, making him one of the earliest academic researchers in the blockchain field.

In long-term research, Sirer discovered fundamental limitations in performance, scalability, and finality in blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. He vividly compared, “At that time, blockchain was like a crowded ski resort—people’s waiting in line for cable cars far exceeded their actual skiing time.”

In 2018, Sirer, along with his PhD students Kevin Sekniqi and Maofan 'Ted' Yin at Cornell, published the white paper on the Avalanche consensus protocol, creatively combining the advantages of classical consensus and Nakamoto consensus. This breakthrough research quickly gained the favor of top venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital, completing a $6 million funding round in 2019.

In September 2020, Avalanche’s mainnet was officially launched. Its unique three-chain architecture and subnet design immediately drew industry attention, providing a new solution for blockchain scalability and specialized division of labor.

02 Technical Positioning: The Modular Philosophy of Three-Chain Division

Avalanche’s core technological innovation lies in its modular multi-chain architecture, which solves the “Impossible Triangle” problem in blockchain through the cooperation of three specialized blockchains.

Exchange Chain (X-Chain)
Dedicated to creating and trading digital assets, using Avalanche’s original Snowball consensus, achieving transaction finality within one second. It is particularly suitable for DeFi applications and high-frequency trading scenarios.

Contract Chain (C-Chain)
Compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing developers to seamlessly migrate DApps from Ethereum, while enjoying lower transaction fees and faster speeds. This has been a key factor in Avalanche’s ecological explosive growth.

Platform Chain (P-Chain)
Coordinates network validators, tracks active subnets, and supports the creation of new subnets, serving as the metadata management layer and governance core of the entire Avalanche network.

This clever division of labor among the three chains enables Avalanche to maintain high decentralization while achieving over 4,500 TPS throughput and transaction finality within 2 seconds, far surpassing most competitors.

03 Ecological Progress: Institutional Adoption and On-Chain Metrics Breakthroughs

Recently, Avalanche’s ecosystem has shown strong momentum in institutional adoption and on-chain activity, especially making significant breakthroughs in the tokenization of traditional financial assets.

Institutional RWA Deployment
In early 2024, major financial giants like Citibank and JPMorgan chose Avalanche as the pilot platform for fund tokenization, testing through its dedicated institutional asset subnet. This cooperation validated Avalanche’s technological advantages and compliance capabilities in enterprise-level applications.

DeFi Ecosystem Revival
According to DefiLlama data, the total value locked (TVL) on Avalanche increased to over $1.2 billion in Q2 2024, with a 45% quarter-over-quarter growth. Decentralized exchanges such as Trader Joe and lending protocols like Benqi continue to dominate the ecosystem, with Trader Joe’s liquidity pools ranking among the top five in the entire market.

Subnet Ecosystem Expansion
Avalanche’s unique subnet architecture continues to attract vertical application domains. Active addresses on game-specific subnet DFK Chain and institutional asset subnet Spruce are both steadily growing. Currently, more than 30 active subnets have been deployed across the network, forming a diversified application ecology.

04 Technological Evolution: Avalanche Vista and Future Roadmap

Avalanche continues to push forward in technological upgrades and ecological construction, demonstrating a clear development path and strong execution capability.

Tokenization Special Fund
In July 2023, the Avalanche Foundation announced the launch of Avalanche Vista, a $50 million dedicated fund aimed at promoting the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) on blockchain. The program has already supported several real estate and private equity tokenization projects.

Cross-Chain Interoperability Upgrade
By integrating the Hyper SDK development framework, Avalanche greatly reduces the barriers and development cycles for creating subnets. Meanwhile, the launch of its cross-chain communication protocol Teleporter enables seamless asset transfer and information exchange between different subnets.

Performance Optimization Roadmap
According to the 2024 technical roadmap, Avalanche plans to increase network throughput to over 10,000 TPS through parallel processing enhancements, introduce zero-knowledge proof technology to enhance transaction privacy, and reduce transaction fees by an additional 30%.

05 Future Outlook: Leading the Modular Era

Looking ahead, Avalanche faces broad development opportunities but also needs to contend with increasingly fierce competition among public chains.

Core Opportunities

· Institutional Adoption Wave: As traditional financial institutions’ acceptance of blockchain technology increases, Avalanche’s institutional subnet solutions are expected to gain a first-mover advantage in the RWA tokenization wave.
· Modular Architecture Advantages: Its unique three-chain architecture and subnet design perfectly align with the trend of specialization in blockchain, providing customized solutions for different application scenarios.
· Developer Friendliness: Full EVM compatibility and comprehensive development toolchains continue to attract Ethereum ecosystem developers, creating a virtuous ecological growth cycle.

Major Challenges

· Intensified Cross-Chain Competition: Projects like Solana and Sui are making rapid progress in performance optimization, requiring Avalanche to continuously innovate to maintain its technological lead.
· Ecosystem Capital Outflow: Some ecosystem projects issue their own chains to pursue higher valuations, leading to capital and user drainage from Avalanche’s native ecosystem.
· Regulatory Uncertainty: The ongoing investigation by the US SEC regarding AVAX as a security may impact institutional investors’ willingness to participate.

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Avalanche’s story is a paradigm of the perfect integration of academic ideals and commercial practice—from research papers at Cornell University to supporting infrastructure for hundreds of billions of dollars in assets; from rethinking blockchain architecture to providing scalable solutions for the industry. Its unique value lies in proving that rigorous academic research can be translated into impactful technological products.

As blockchain technology moves from fringe innovation to mainstream application, Avalanche, with its institutional-grade performance, flexible architecture, and active developer ecosystem, is steadily advancing toward its ultimate vision: “building open networks for all assets.” In tomorrow’s “One Coin, One Talk,” we will continue exploring another high-volume cryptocurrency, analyzing its technical features and market potential.