Avalanche's "largest" network upgrade can make chain deployment 99.9% cheaper

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Avalanche9000 is a big deal for the network

Avalanche has been around for a number of years, but its recently unveiled Avalanche9000 network upgrade is going to be pivotal for the chain and L1s building on top of it, according to executives at Ava Labs (the team building out Avalanche).

“This is the largest upgrade that’s ever happened to the Avalanche network, and there has been many,” Ava Labs COO Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo, said during the Avalanche Quarterly Webinar with Token Relations.

(Listen in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube.)

Avalanche L1s, formerly known as subnets, launched in the spring of 2022, D’Onorio DeMeo noted.

That was just a “soft launch” effectively for subnets, which have now grown to about 37 active L1s. After the Avalanche9000 upgrade, it will be “the cheapest solution for somebody who wants to launch their own blockchain,” he added.

How cheap, one might ask?

Well it depends on some elements, but for every validator for an Avalanche L1 is approximately 1 AVAX, or about $24 at the time of writing, per month, per validator.

Prior to this shift, it cost about 1,000 AVAX, about $24,000, per validator. “That’s just a big upfront commitment,” D’Onorio DeMeo said.

That’s a 99.9% decrease and difference in price.

The new fee is “not a ton” and can go up over time, D’Onorio DeMeo noted. “I think it creates a much more robust environment for developers, the previous model was very capital intensive.”

Now, Avalanche can compete with Cosmos, layer-2 blockchains or other app-chain architectures, while also connecting to other L1s within Avalanche’s ecosystem, he added.

“This has the opportunity to be another unique moment in time where a bunch of different important catalysts come together at once,” D’Onorio DeMeo said.

Ava Labs Chief Business Officer John Nahas shared during the webinar that from a business perspective previous blockchain technology had a high barrier to entry and “it was expensive.”

But now, the focus is on making the deployment easier — and in turn, the rollout of these chains have gotten easier over time, too, alongside interoperability, Nahas said.

“It’s time to drop the barrier to entry and let anybody, whether an institution or enterprise, but more importantly the innovators on the crypto native side is building all kinds of great stuff,” Nahas added.

Check out the next section for more details and the full episode.

The latest Talking Tokens podcast 🎙️

For this week’s Tuesday episode, we’re sharing the Avalanche quarterly webinar with Token Relations and Ava Labs Chief Business Officer John Nahas and COO Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo.

We discuss developments within the Avalanche ecosystem this past quarter, the Avalanche9000 network upgrade, stablecoins, institutional adoption and future outlooks.

Talking Tokens episodes are released on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at 6AM EST or YouTube at 10AM EST every Tuesday and Thursday. Listen in!

Make sure to subscribe to keep up with the latest episodes. Feel free to leave a review and tell us your thoughts.

Monitoring blockchains

Looking at some of the biggest developments onchain.

• EigenLayer plans to release 86 million tokens in an airdrop for its Season 2 Stakedrop

• Libre Capital joins Aptos Ascend, opening the door with funds from Brevan Howard, BlackRock and Hamilton Lane on Aptos blockchain

Taking on the tokens 

The total crypto market cap increased 2.55% in the past 24-hours to $2.01 trillion. It is down about 3% over a 7-day period.

As for the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap…

These metrics were taken prior to publication Tuesday morning EST.

Money and people moves

Latest updates on crypto startups that secured funding and industry players who are starting something new.

1. Karthik Senthil joined Matter Labs as head of ZKsync Era

2. Tze Donn recently joined Brevan Howard Digital Assets to invest in liquid tokens

3. Crypto Payments Firm BCB Group Has Received Takeover Interest: Sources (CoinDesk)

   1. Meanwhile…BCB Group's Chief Compliance Officer to Exit in Latest Senior Management Departure

4. Drip Labs announces $8M seed round to build out its collectibles platform

5. Ammalgam raised $2.5M for its decentralized lending exchange in a round led by Lightspeed Faction and Framework Ventures

Talking points for the road 

Here’s some headlines and topics that you can talk about at your next dinner party, crypto event or on a first date to look smart (results may vary.) 

1. US Bitcoin ETFs Bleed $1.2 Billion in Longest Run of Net Outflows (Bloomberg)

2. The once-popular Friend.tech is essentially shutting its doors as its creators walk away with $44M

3. Bernstein predicts a bitcoin price of $80-90k if Trump wins presidential race, or $30-40k if Harris is elected (The Block)

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Please note that this content is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Any views shared should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research. We may have a direct or indirect financial interest in content mentioned in this newsletter.