The blockchain has been launched by Avalanche Developers “Avalanche9,000” Testnet is an upgrade to the network that will make L1 easier and cheaper to develop.
Avalanche Foundation released a press release stating that Avalanche9,000 was launched at around 1pm ET Monday. Avalanche Foundation plans to give $40 million to Avalanche builders in retroactive grants, with $2 million going to referrals. The Foundation hopes to boost the network’s adoption and growth.
Avalanche’s mainnet (also known as the C-Chain) will be upgraded in 2025.
“[This latest upgrade] focuses on making every component of the Avalanche tech stack cheaper,” Ava Labs’ Chief Protocol Architect Stephen Buttolph said Decrypt. “From reducing C-Chain fees to removing capital requirements for L1 validators, every user of Avalanche should experience reduced costs.”
Avalanche9,000 is a network upgrade that spans Etna, which includes new rules for validators, as well as the rebranding Avalanche L1s.
Avalanche L1s, or project-specific chains, are independent from C-Chain’s mainnet, and are built using the same technology stack. Avalanche L1s are operated by developers, such as those behind Off the Grid or Shrapnel. Some L1 operators focus on institutional research and small business payments, while others are developing additional verticals.
Avalanche’s ACP-77 update will provide a framework to manage validators that allows for the creation of natively-interoperable, low-cost blockchains. ACP-125 is a new upgrade that aims at reducing the Avalanche C-Chain’s minimum base fee from 25 to 1 nAVAX.
As 1 nAVAX represents one-billionth an AVAX coin, worth approximately $42 at the time of writing, these figures amount to a very small fraction. The 96% planned reduction will be significant for the developers because these costs add up.
Avalanche Foundation says that these changes will facilitate L1 launch, reduce costs of deployment by 99.9% while simplifying customization.
Avalanche Foundation announced in a press release that the Retro9,000 program submissions are listed on a public leaderboard. A community vote will be used to determine the retroactive allocation of grants. This encourages developers to develop public projects, earn community support and get rewards.
More than 500 L1s are already in development on Avalanche’s testnet and mainnet, according to the network's team. With Interchain Messaging, developers can build even more decentralized apps (dapps) that cross L1s.
Andrew Hayward is the editor