Avalanche is a layer-1, proof-of-stake blockchain, posing as a direct rival to Ethereum given its focus on smart contracts and aim to accommodate a plethora of decentralized applications. Launched in 2020, Avalanche’s network offers high transaction throughputs. It also offers blazingly fast finality times (the time before a transaction can be considered complete or ‘finalized’) of around one second compared to Ethereum’s one minute. All this has put its native token AVAX up there with the speediest cryptos in the game. Its ‘Avalanche Bridge’ (AB) also aims to open a channel to Ethereum, allowing for easy passage of assets on the rival chain.
