Avalanche blockchain network to launch full mainnet

Avalanche, a new blockchain protocol and cryptocurrency backed by Cornell's Emin Gün Sirer, will finally go live in a few days.

According to an announcement, Avalanche will roll out the full mainnet on Monday, Sept. 21.

With the mainnet launch, the Avalanche token, the platform's native token, can be listed on crypto exchanges, although Ava Labs did not specify which ones.

As previously reported, the AVAX token will serve as a tool to secure the AVA network through staking, pay for operational fees, transfer value peer-to-peer and create new networks.

Alongside the Avalanche network, Ava Labs will also launch an open-source platform for building decentralized finance applications and enterprise blockchain tools.

With the launch, Ava Labs aims to solve major DeFi issues like over-congestion on the Ethereum network by providing a highly scalable blockchain network.

Ava Labs co-founder and COO Kevin Sekniqi told Cointelegraph that DeFi has always been the core focus of Avalanche.

"There's no known limit to the number of full, block-producing validators who can participate in Avalanche consensus without any loss in performance. We've tested upwards of 2,000 of these full validating nodes without any drop-off in performance or downtime."

According to Ava Labs' representatives, the Avalanche network is capable of confirming transactions in under one second, with a capacity of over 4,500 transactions per second and security thresholds "Well-above the 51% standards of other networks."

As the Avalanche platform is designed to help current DeFi projects scale further, the network needs to provide a sufficient level of interoperability with other networks.