The Avalanche Snow Report: March 2023

Welcome to The Avalanche Snow Report! This monthly newsletter brings you highlights from across the Avalanche ecosystem, including DeFi, Enterprise & Institutional, NFTs & Culture, Gaming, and Infrastructure & Enablement.

Have feedback or want to learn more? Please contact luke.chmiel@avalabs.org.

Network Highlights

Avalanche is upgrading the X-Chain to use Snowman++ Consensus Engine

The X-Chain migrating to Snowman++ means the entire network has moved to a single consensus engine, which will enable faster development and more broadly-applicable innovation. The existing semantics of the X-Chain block the integration of Avalanche Warp Messaging (AWM), the addition of complex X-Chain transactions, the enablement of state syncing, and broad exchange support. AWM integration requires Snowman++ to verify the BLS Multi-Signature of incoming messages from other Avalanche Subnets. This limitation means the X-Chain, in its current form, cannot interact with Subnets and that the DAG-based consensus it runs cannot be broadly applied to Subnets, which overwhelmingly wish to communicate seamlessly with other Subnets. Through the Cortina upgrade, the X-Chain will now run Snowman++ consensus and operate as a totally-ordered blockchain in a process called “linearization”. This will enable the X-Chain to be interacted with in a much broader array of use cases, hopefully expanding its role within the Avalanche ecosystem in the future.

The HyperSDK now supports Avalanche Warp Messaging

With AWM integration complete, the team at Ava Labs will begin deploying the first cohort of HyperSDK public devnets (short-lived Avalanche Subnets). This will enable truly revolutionary scalability and performance of blockchain systems that is an important tool to bring in the next million users.

DeFi

Uniswap V3 is coming to Avalanche

After noting rapid growth and increasing demand for concentrated liquidity AMMs and strong DeFi on Avalanche, Blockchain at Michigan saw it as the ideal opportunity for Uniswap V3 to establish a foothold in the Avalanche DEX market. The forum proposal emphasized that large chains like Avalanche can help stay ahead of competitors. This was with the expiration of BSL looming (April 1st) where there will possibly be an impending influx of Uniswap V3 copycats. Avalanche's growing ecosystem and liquidity can set the stage for a robust, multichain future Uniswap.

Balancer is coming to Avalanche

The 4th largest AMM DEX by TVL in the crypto market is in the process of being integrated onto Avalanche, as noted in a governance forum proposal. Avalanche was praised for its strong performance during the bear market and its growth trajectory in DeFi. Balancer's integration onto Avalanche will bring unique tools such as boosted pools and liquid staked tokens. A majority of voters, 99.9%, voted to bring value to Avalanche's DeFi. In the future it is possible we see integrations with Aave V3 pools and BenqiFinance for liquid staking product sAVAX. Additionally, new DeFi strategies for users such as LPs earning from boosted pools on top of their compounding Aave tokens.

Enterprise & Institutions

DEFYCA is launching Tokenized Private Debt markets on Avalanche

DEFYCA's new protocol aims to tokenize traditional debt securities & loan portfolios, democratizing access to the $1.6T private debt market. It bridges institutional and decentralized finance, enabling faster trading while reducing costs and time. Securitized assets are structured into liquid pools that can be traded instantly, making smaller notional deals more affordable for small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individual investors. According to DEFYCA, fund issuance is now 10-20 times cheaper for asset issuers who have traditionally utilized conventional methods. As a result, smaller notional deals may be made more affordable for SMEs and individual investors.

TYB and Shopify bring Web3 Loyalty Platform to major brands on Avalanche

TYB is now available on the Shopify App Store, making it the first end-to-end Web3 community-powered loyalty solution available to Shopify’s millions of merchants through an Avalanche-based platform. The app allows Shopify merchants to implement TYB’s community-integrated-commerce tools to directly connect with and reward fans for taking valuable actions, like referring friends to the brand, writing reviews, and creating and sharing social media content.

Gaming

Esports Giant TSM Forges Ahead With Web3 Gaming on Avalanche

Esports organization TSM (Team SoloMid) and Ava Labs have announced a partnership to bring Web3 gaming experiences to TSM's 30 million fans. TSM plans to create games that reward players with cryptocurrency, NFTs, and other digital assets (all via Core Wallet). The partnership with Ava Labs will enable TSM to build their Blitz.gg Subnet, leveraging Avalanche's high throughput and low latency blockchain network. The new partnership is expected to bring Web3 gaming features to a mainstream audience and help drive adoption of blockchain technology.

Avalanche shows up in a BIG way at GDC 2023

Avalanche made a significant impact at GDC this year with a huge booth and a mission to onboard the next wave of gamers into Web3. The event also saw live announcements from two games built on the Avalanche blockchain. DefiKingdoms announced the launch of their pre-Alpha combat testing grounds system, while Raini Studios revealed that their game Raini: The Lords of Light will be one of the first Web3 games on the Epic Games Store, launching in June 2023. On top of these announcements, Shrapnel showcased an exclusive in-development gameplay demo to over 200 different gamers throughout the week.

NFTs & Culture

Ava Labs launches @ArtOnAvax, a dedicated Twitter channel for NFTs, Arts, and Culture on Avalanche

To better serve the growing NFT community on Avalanche, Ava Labs has launched a dedicated channel on Twitter, @ArtOnAvax. The new account brings regular updates on upcoming events, featured content creators, and the latest in Avalanche's creative community. This official channel is able to give the creative community a dedicated home where artworks, community, and conversations can receive the attention they deserve. Read the channel announcement and follow Art on Avalanche on Twitter.

OOPA NFT launches collection with unique minting experience

The largest NFT drop on the platform this month belongs to OOPA by PM Studios. The new 6,500 piece collection features dynamic NFTs, allowing users to add, remove and trade the various traits on their OOPA. The collection also sports a staking feature and a roadmap of upcoming developments. Follow the official OOPA Twitter and visit their immersive website for more.

Infrastructure & Enablement

Infura’s NFT API + SDK launches on Avalanche, allowing for easy NFT creation

Infura’s NFT API has 14 different endpoints, giving developers access to all the necessary metadata. The NFT API comes with three pre-audited ERC-721 and ERC-1155 templates that cover 85% of all NFT use cases. Through the integration creators now have a simple way to create new collections using the templates.

Arkham Intelligence launches Avalanche integration

The popular data platform will enable Avalanche users and builders to have deep on-chain analytics to see exactly what communities, entities and users are doing along with the token flows behind those behaviors.

ICYMI: Avalanche Sessions