Layer 1 blockchain
Avalanche ticker AVAX
Summary
Proof-of-stake Primary Network; a node becomes a Primary Network validator by staking at least 2,000 AVAX. The C-Chain uses Snowman consensus: each node repeatedly polls a small sample of validators, drawn in proportion to stake rather than uniformly, and accepts a block after enough consecutive agreeing polls. AvalancheGo's shipped defaults are sample size k 20, quorum alpha 15 and decision threshold beta 20 (the consensus explainer page uses alpha 14). Avalanche describes safety as probabilistic up to a threshold and accepted blocks as final and irreversible. The Helicon upgrade activated on Mainnet on 2026-09-22 at 15:00 UTC (AvalancheGo v1.15.0) and added Continuous Execution on the C-Chain, which decouples consensus from execution through a queue; the docs activation table still read 'Scheduled' on 2026-09-27. 1256789
Design
- System
- Layer 1 blockchainThis profile covers the Avalanche Primary Network, focused on the C-Chain (EVM, chain ID 43114). The Primary Network also runs the P-Chain (validators, L1 operations) and X-Chain (native assets). Avalanche L1s (formerly subnets) are separate chains with their own validator sets and rules and are not described by these cells.
- Settlement family
- Its own design
- Scarce resource
- Stake (proof of stake)
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Other
- Who makes blocks
- Primary Network validators staking at least 2,000 AVAX; each C-Chain block is decided by repeated sub-sampled voting, with validators sampled in proportion to stake.
- Fork choice
- Nodes keep a preference and switch based on sub-sampled polls; a vote for a block also counts for its ancestors. Avalanche describes this as combining classical and Nakamoto-style ideas; it is not a longest-chain rule weighted by work.
Qualifications
- Avalanche l1s · Not applicable. Avalanche L1s are sovereign chains with their own validator sets, not rollups settling to the C-Chain; they are not listed as scaling layers of this profile.
- State model · Partial. Account model describes the C-Chain; P- and X-Chain state models are not characterized in this profile.
- Finality · Contested. Avalanche documents accepted blocks as irreversible within seconds while describing safety as probabilistic; it fits neither probabilistic proof-of-work finality nor classical BFT finality, so this profile does not force it into either finality category.
- Rollup security model · Not applicable. C-Chain runs the same EVM interfaces as Ethereum but does not settle to Ethereum, so rollup settlement and data-availability models do not apply.
- Settlement family · Partial. Filed as other rather than in the ethereum-evm family: the Primary Network runs Avalanche's own client (AvalancheGo) and Snowman consensus and also includes the P-Chain and X-Chain, which do not run the Ethereum virtual machine. The C-Chain, which most cells describe, uses Ethereum's account and transaction formats and works with Ethereum wallets, so readers can reasonably place it either way.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Scalability and Decentralization
- Gives up
- The deterministic safety guarantee that classical committee (BFT-style) protocols prove: Snowman's safety is probabilistic, holding up to a configured safety threshold. Scaling out through Avalanche L1s also splits security, since each L1 has its own validator set rather than sharing the Primary Network's.Avalanche's consensus page says each query goes to the same small number of validators however large the network grows, which favours a wide validator set; the 2,000 AVAX minimum stake is a participation cost that pulls the other way. Avalanche's own speed wording is recorded in this profile only as an unclassified throughput claim, not a comparable figure.
- Full node at home
- Practical at home 10Avalanche lists low-stake Primary Network validators at 4 cores/8 threads, 16GB RAM, 1TB local NVMe (3000+ IOPS) and 100 Mbps symmetric; storage starts near 500GB after state sync and grows past 1TB. High-stake validators are listed at 8+ cores, 32GB, 2TB and 1 Gbps; archive nodes need about 12.5TB.
- Throughput claims
- Unclassified 8Unclassified; do not compare.Avalanche's docs give only the wording 'thousands of transactions per second' with about 1 second acceptance latency; no number is recorded.Vendor documentation wording with no figure, method, measurement window, transaction type or hardware; left unclassified rather than guessed as a peak, benchmark or observed rate. Says nothing about propagation, state growth or load from spam or decoy transactions; not comparable with any other chain's figure.
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | A trust-minimized swap mechanism on the Primary Network was not reviewed. |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; the earlier review found no Avalanche feature for publishing data against a commitment the chain records, and its note said absence was not exhaustively verified, so the rule that absence needs a source makes this cell unknown. Interchain Messaging (ICM) carries messages between Avalanche L1s; it is cross-chain messaging, not data publication. 3 |
| Light clients | Unknown | A Primary Network light-client verification path was not reviewed. |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | No payment or state channel layer anchored to Avalanche was reviewed. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | The C-Chain implements the EVM, so spend conditions are written as smart contracts. 12 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; Safe's deployment registry lists its version 1.4.1 smart-account contracts on the Avalanche C-Chain (chain ID 43114). A Safe account needs a set number of owners to approve each spend, lets owners be replaced and can add modules, including one that restores access under set conditions, but no cited source shows a delay or recovery module deployed there, and an owner threshold alone meets neither part of this row. Whether Safe's app supports the C-Chain was not checked. 2223 |
| Rollups | Unknown | No rollup settling to the C-Chain was verified. Avalanche L1s are separate sovereign chains, not rollups. 4 |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | Established in the ecosystemLFJ | LFJ documents a decentralized exchange and liquidity protocol with Avalanche deployments. Liquidity depth was not measured. 11 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | Established in the ecosystemUSDC (Circle) | Circle lists natively issued USDC on Avalanche C-Chain (0xB97EF9Ef8734C71904D8002F8b6Bc66Dd9c48a6E). Native means issuer-issued on C-Chain, not a protocol asset. 15 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | Algorithmic or hybrid stablecoins on Avalanche were not reviewed. |
| Bridges | Established in the ecosystemCircle CCTP (USDC), ICM / Avalanche Warp Messaging (between Avalanche L1s) | Circle's CCTP V2 lists Avalanche (domain 1). ICM supplies authenticated messaging between Avalanche L1s; it does not connect to non-Avalanche chains. Other external bridges were not reviewed. Risk: CCTP moves only USDC and depends on Circle's attestation service. ICM messages are only as trustworthy as the sending L1's validator set, which differs per L1. 316 |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemSnowtrace (Routescan), Blockscout (open-source, self-hostable) | Avalanche's Builder Hub lists Snowtrace, now operated by Routescan, as an active hosted C-Chain explorer. It also lists Blockscout as open-source explorer software that supports the C-Chain and can be self-hosted for Avalanche L1s; no hosted Blockscout C-Chain instance was verified. Other explorers were not reviewed; explorer indexing is not canonical consensus. 121314 |
| Hardware wallets | Established in the ecosystemLedger (C-Chain in Ledger Wallet; X/P-Chain via Core), Trezor (C-Chain only) | See custody rows: Ledger Wallet and Trezor Suite both support the C-Chain natively. A Ledger device reaches the X- and P-Chain, including staking, through the Core wallet; Trezor does not support the X- or P-Chain. 17181920 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | PartialCore wallet (web or browser extension) for X-Chain, P-Chain and stakingSame as native: No | Can: Manage the Avalanche C-Chain account and certain tokens in Ledger Wallet (Ledger Live) Can: Connect the Ledger device to Core web to transfer AVAX between the C-, P- and X-Chain; Avalanche Support says the Avalanche Ledger app needs a third-party wallet such as Core for the X- and P-Chain Can: Stake AVAX from a Ledger Wallet-created account through the Core extension by choosing the 'Ledger Live' derivation path Cannot: See or interact with X-Chain or P-Chain balances in the Ledger Wallet app Cannot: See a Ledger Wallet-created account through Core web's direct Ledger connection, which uses a different (BIP44) derivation pathC-Chain only in Ledger Wallet; the X- and P-Chain, including staking, are reached through Core, per Avalanche Support articles updated 2025-10-15. Ledger's own Avalanche support articles returned no content for this review. 17192021 |
| Trezor | PartialSame as native: No | Can: Manage Avalanche C-Chain assets natively in Trezor Suite (desktop and mobile) Cannot: Use X-Chain or P-Chain; Trezor warns not to send assets on other Avalanche chains to a Trezor walletNative for C-Chain only; not equivalent to full Primary Network support. 18 |
Public data
Your AI can request these lookups through the connection. The website itself runs no lookups. Networks: c-chain-mainnet.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Available | native AVAX balance, nonce and code presence at provider-reported latest state |
| Tokens and assets | Available | paginated Ava Labs Data API ERC-20 balances with exact base units and native context |
| NFTs | Available | separately paginated ERC-721 and ERC-1155 token-ID evidence with exact ERC-1155 balances |
| Transactions | Available | C-Chain transaction and receipt through fixed public JSON-RPC |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 25, 2026; next review was due Oct 5, 2026, 20:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
-
Helicon activated on Avalanche Mainnet
Avalanche Builder Hub reports Helicon active on Mainnet at 15:00 UTC, including Continuous Execution on C-Chain and Primary Network staking changes. ACP-285 phases in over 90 days rather than completing at activation.
- Proposal:six referenced ACPs
- Implementation:included-in-avalanchego-1.15.0
- Release:Stable release
- Activation:mainnet-active; ACP-285 progressive rollout
Sources: Avalanche Builder Hub — Helicon Upgrade (external site) · Avalanche Builder Hub — Helicon: Improved Staking Economics and Continuous Execution (external site) · Ava Labs — AvalancheGo v1.15.0 (external site)
-
AvalancheGo v1.15.0 released for Helicon
Ava Labs published AvalancheGo v1.15.0 and identified it as the Helicon-capable mainnet release. Release publication is implementation evidence and is kept separate from the later activation record.
- Proposal:six referenced ACPs
- Implementation:Released
- Release:Stable release
- Activation:scheduled-at-release; see later activation record
Sources: Ava Labs — AvalancheGo v1.15.0 (external site) · Ava Labs — AvalancheGo releases (external site)
-
Granite activated on Avalanche Mainnet
Avalanche's incident review records Granite v1.14.0 as active on Mainnet and as the permanent resolution for a disclosed stateful-precompile delegatecall issue; the review says it was not exploited on Mainnet or a public Avalanche L1.
- Implementation:Released
- Release:Stable release
- Activation:Mainnet active
Source: Avalanche Builder Hub — Delegatecall Incident Overview (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Avalanche through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- No primary-source throughput figure with a stated class and window was found; Avalanche's 'thousands of transactions per second' wording is recorded only as an unclassified claim with no number.
- P-Chain and X-Chain state and ecosystem surfaces are not characterized; custody coverage of those chains is described only through the Ledger and Trezor rows.
- No rollup or channel layer anchored to the C-Chain was verified, so no scaling options are listed in this profile.
- Ledger Wallet's Avalanche scope rests on Avalanche Support articles updated 2025-10-15; Ledger's own support articles returned no content, so a later change on Ledger's side would not be reflected.
- The Helicon docs page still showed Mainnet activation as 'Scheduled' on 2026-09-27; Mainnet activation is taken from the AvalancheGo v1.15.0 release and the builders-hub change marking Helicon live.
- Trust-minimized atomic swaps, external bridges beyond CCTP, other explorers, light-client paths and algorithmic stablecoins were not reviewed.
- The Avalanche Bridge run through Ava Labs' Core app, historically the main route for assets bridged from Ethereum, was not reviewed, so its current status and trust model are not described in the bridge row.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- Primary Network (external site)
- C-Chain API (external site)
- What is ICM? (external site)
- What to Expect After the Etna Upgrade (external site)
- Helicon Upgrade (external site)
- AvalancheGo v1.15.0 - Helicon: Continuous Execution & Auto-Renewed Staking (external site)
- chore(blog): mark helicon as live on mainnet (PR #4549, merged 2026-09-22) (external site)
- Snowman Consensus (external site)
- AvalancheGo Config Flags (external site)
- System Requirements (external site)
- Welcome to LFJ (external site)
- Blockscout (external site)
- SnowTrace (external site)
- Snowtrace: Avalanche C-Chain Explorer (external site)
- USDC contract addresses (external site)
- CCTP supported blockchains (external site)
- Avalanche wallet (external site)
- Avalanche (external site)
- How do I see my Avalanche C-Chain assets natively in Ledger Live? (updated 2025-10-15) (external site)
- How to use a Ledger Nano S or Nano X with Avalanche? (updated 2025-10-15) (external site)
- How do I transfer AVAX Between the Avalanche X, P, and C-Chains? (updated 2025-10-15) (external site)
- SafeL2 v1.4.1 deployments by chain ID (safe-deployments registry) (external site)
- How Safe Smart Accounts work (external site)
Report an error
Found something wrong or out of date? Reporting is free, and every chain goes through the same process. Published corrections appear in the public log.
Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding