CHAPTER 8
Avalanche
“The measure of speed for a blockchain is *latency*. The time from
submission to completion, also known as time to finality.. Latency, a
measure of speed, is measured in seconds, not TPS. High capacity
doesn’t necessarily imply low latency. If someone says they are the
*fastest*, and offers numbers measured in TPS, they are either
trying to pull a fast one on you or they don’t know what they are
talking about.” - Emin Gün Sire, Founder & CEO Ava Labs.
Launched: September 2020
Native token: AVAX
Market Capitalization: $14.66B
Smart Contract languages: Solidity
In this chapter, we will explore Avalanche, one of the hottest names
among the Layer 1 Blockchains, and especially DeFi market today.
Avalanche claims to be capable of processing 10,000 TPS with
4000 validators. In terms of time, to reach the finality, Avalanche
Blockchain claims to be the fastest among all contemporaries as it
takes just 1-2 seconds for finality.
8.1 Consensus Model – Proof of Stake
Internally, Avalanche is configured with three different Blockchains,
namely Exchange Chain (X-Chain), Platform Chain (P-Chain), and
Contract Chain (C-Chain), as shown in Figure 8.1, as follows: