Avalanche is Getting Closer to a Major Update - Here's What's New.

Avalanche has launched the "Avalanche9,000" testnet, a major update designed to make Layer 1 (L1) blockchain development cheaper and more accessible.

The announcement by the Avalanche Foundation includes plans to distribute $40 million in retroactive grants to developers, along with $2 million earmarked for referrals to help drive network adoption.

The testnet went live today, marking a significant step toward the upgrade's eventual deployment on Avalanche's mainnet, known as C-Chain, scheduled for 2025.

"This latest update focuses on making every component in the Avalanche technology stack cheaper," said Stephen Buttolph, Chief Protocol Architect at Ava Labs. "From reducing C-Chain fees to removing capital requirements for L1 validators, every user of Avalanche should experience lower costs."

The Avalanche9,000 initiative includes the Etna Upgrade, which brings a number of improvements such as rule changes regarding validators and the rebranding of Avalanche subnets as "Avalanche L1s."

Two critical components of Avalanche9,000, the ACP-77 and ACP-125, focus on reducing costs and increasing interoperability:

• ACP-77 introduces a new validator governance framework that enables the creation of low-cost, natively interoperable blockchains.

• ACP-125 will reduce the base transaction fees on C-Chain from 25 nAVAX to 1 nAVAX.

With 1 nAVAX equal to one billionth of an AVAX token (AVAX is currently worth $42), the cost reductions are individually small, but significant when added up over time. The 96% reduction in fees is expected to make deploying and maintaining applications on Avalanche more cost- effective for developers.