Ethereum ‘killer’ Avalanche nears mainnet with Everest release candidate

Will Avalanche live up to the DeFi-fueled hype? Everest introduces a core feature-complete version for final testing ahead of mainnet.

Ava Labs’ Avalanche, an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible blockchain network that made waves this summer thanks to a $42.5 million public token sale, is getting closer and closer to showing whether it warrants all the hype.

Today, the company announced that it has launched the Everest release candidate, the final testing ground for Avalanche before the proper mainnet rollout. Everest, which now has all core Avalanche features included, follows the release of the Denali testnet.
Everest implements several key features of Avalanche that developers should be eager to see in action, especially enhanced smart-contract functionality between Avalanche’s default test chain and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

It’s that EVM support that has helped fuel Avalanche’s surge in interest, as the blockchain can easily accommodate Ethereum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) apps and promises transaction speeds several hundred times faster than Ethereum. As Ethereum becomes more and more congested, and upgrades to the network suffer delays, alternative options like Avalanche undoubtedly become appealing.

Everest also enables full support for creation, use, and custody of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which is good news for the partnership inked with Polyient Games last month to establish an NFT decentralized exchange on Avalanche for crypto collectibles.

Avalanche also sees improved distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack support with Everest, as well as the implementation of fees and a memo field for transactions.

"Everest showcases the best of Avalanche, and marks the next step toward a new era of decentralized finance defined by velocity, efficient use of capital, and innovation in new products and services for people around the world," said Ava Labs co-founder and COO Kevin Sekniqi, in a release.