What makes Avalanche special?

Avalanche attempts to solve the blockchain dilemma, which assumes that blockchains cannot achieve a sufficient degree of decentralization at scale. This results in high gas fees, as is often the case with Ethereum.

To solve this problem, Avalanche designed three interoperable blockchains.

The exchange chain (X-Chain) is used to create and exchange native AVAX tokens and other assets. Similar to Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard, these tokens follow a standardized set of rules. They use Avalanche’s consensus mechanism.

The contract chain (C-Chain) hosts smart contracts and decentralized applications. It has its own Avalanche Virtual Machine (AVM), similar to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing developers to clone decentralized applications compatible with the EVM. This chain uses the Snowman consensus mechanism.

The platform chain (P-Chain) coordinates network validators, tracks active subnets, and enables the creation of new subnets. Subnets are groups of validators, sort of like validator alliances. Each subnet can validate transactions from multiple blockchains, but each blockchain has its own subnet. This chain also uses the Snowman consensus mechanism.