Avalanche Blockchain - Crypto Academy / S5W8 - Homework post for pelon53.
Good day steemians and happy new year, This is season 5 week 8 of the crypto academy and I'll be doing the intermediate task assigned by crypto professor @pelon53
TASKS
1.- Explain in detail X-Chain, C-Chain and P-chain.
2.- Explore the Avax Network platform. Screenshots are required.
3.- Show the last contract verified in the C-Chain network and show the Smart Contrat that was generated in that direction. Screenshots required.
4.- Explore the last block generated in the C-Chain network. Screenshots required.
5.- Explain in detail the Avalanche consensus protocol and the Snowman consensus protocol.
Image designed with canva
1. Explain in detail X-Chain, C-Chain and P-chain.
Avalanche is a decentralized smart contract-based blockchain Founded in 2019 by Dr. Emin Gun Sirer and designed in 2020 by Ava Labs Team with a clear purpose of being an advancement over the current smart contract meta "Ethereum". The avalanche network has proven to be more than capable as a result of its eco friendliness, high transaction speed and scalability.
The scalability of the avalanche network far outperforms that of the current ethereum network having a transaction speed of nearly 4,500 Transactions per second as opposed to the 30 transactions per second of ethereum. Since its development in 2020, avalanche has grown progressively to a $230 million ecosystem and a rank of 11 on the global cryptocurrency rankings by coinmarket cap. Also, when considering finality, avalanche is the fastest smart contract in the blockchain industry.
It's core innovation is comprised of three blockchains instead of the usual one we are all familiar with. They include:
- Exchange (X) chain
- Platform (P) chain
- Contract (C) chain
source
This chain is responsible for the creation and exchange of digital assets by making use of smart contracts for execution. It's a linear instance of the avalanche virtual machine which allows traders to create and trade assets with sets of rules governing its behavior.
One tradeable asset on the X chain is the native token Avalanche (AVAX). Similar to the way gas fees are paid on ethereum, transacting on this chain would incur some fees to be paid in the form of AVAX.
The contract (C) chain on the avalanche network is responsible for allowing developers to create smart contracts for all Dapps on the platform. This chain is a customized version of the avalanche snowman's consensus protocol and it's compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) which allows developers the ability to fork Dapps on the avalanche network compatible with EVM.
The platform chain is a metadata blockchain on the avalanche network which runs the snowman consensus protocol. This chain is responsible for keeping track of active subnets around the network and coordinates validators. It allows anyone to create an l1 or l2 blockchain which are also known as subnets and these subnets are responsible for validating the P chain.
2.- Explore the Avax Network platform.
In exploring the Avax Network Platform, I'll have to visit it's official website AVvax.net.
image gotten from avax network platform
The first interface which is the landing page informs users of the benefits of utilizing the avalanche network as well as offers the option to build a project on the blockchain. A link to the official discord channel of the avalanche project is also displayed on the homepage.
The first interface is filled with useful information about the avalanche project. If you scroll down a bit, a comparison was made between the avalanche blockchain and other similar blockchains like Polkadot, bitcoin and ethereum highlighting its high performance in various metrics such as its transactional throughput and finality, sybil protection, safety threshold, number of validation etc.
image gotten from avax network platform
Exploring the validators tab nested within the developers section.
Users on the network are incentivized to stake the native tokens to help in validation. The process of staking attracts rewards up to 11% APY. In the validators section, useful information pertaining to the staking such as the total stake, staking ratio, staking rewards, total validators etc can be seen.
image gotten from avax network platform
Next is the start building tab under the developers section. This tab contains information required to start building a project with avalanche such as how to launch an ethereum dapp on avalanche, the process of validation, minting a token, etc.
image gotten from avax network platform
Next is the roadmap tab under the individuals section. The project roadmap contains all information about the project and its intended plans for the future since launch.
image gotten from avax network platform
The ecosystem of the project is really broad-ranging from NFTs, wealth management gaming, DeFi, Trading bots etc. Any project created using the avalanche network can be submitted to any of the categories it falls into on the avalanche ecosystem.
image gotten from avax network platform
Next, I navigate towards the process of creating a wallet on the avalanche blockchain by clicking the wallet option shown above in the ecosystem. Avalanche wallet is a noncustodial wallet used for storing avalanche and avax based tokens.
In order to create a wallet, all that needs to be done is to click the create new wallet option for new users and click on generate seed key in the next interface.
A set of phrases known as the seed key would be presented. It's advised to write down this seed and store it somewhere safe as they'll be required for confirmation later on.
image gotten from avax network platform
The avalanche network also possesses a block explorer which is nested under the Individuals section. This explorer is used for viewing and validating different P chain and X chain transactions around the avax blockchain. Here important details relating to recent transactions are displayed.
image gotten from avax network platform
The individuals' section also contains the avalanche bridge which allows users to connect using external wallets such as metamask, wallet connect and coinbase wallet in order to use its services.
image gotten from avax network platform
I explore the open grants tab under the Avalanche-x section next. Here users can create various decentralized applications such as custodial lending solutions, derivatives and synthetics, stable coins and applications that measure volatility (volatility indexes).
image gotten from avax network platform
Under the Avalanche-x section, the option to submit a general proposal exists. In order to ensure the continuous growth of the avalanche platform, the developers behind the project allows users on the network to submit proposals upon meeting certain requirements. These proposals are then reviewed by the team. If the proposal submitted was successful, the team at ava labs will reach out and send information regarding the amount of grant that would be issued to finance the project. A member of the Ava labs team would also work with issuers of successful proposals as a grand ambassador.
image gotten from avax network platform
3.- Show the last contract verified in the C-Chain network and show the Smart Contrat that was generated in that direction.
In order to check information relating to contracts verified on the C-chain network, we have to make use of snow trace which is the avalanche explorer for C-chain transactions.
Upon loading up the explorer, on the first interface, I navigate to the section named blockchain and select verified contracts in the list of options.
A list of recent verified contracts was displayed and then i clicked on the most recent verified contract shown below.
Image gotten from snowtrace
This contract contained the following information
hash - 0xa8dD1C30396a03f58383962DDCb917466d3536FB
contract creator
Contract name - TimeBondDepository
Image gotten from snowtrace
4.- Explore the last block generated in the C-Chain network
To explore the last block generated in the C-chain network, I'll again be making use of snow trace.
I navigate to the section marked blockchain again on the first interface and this time click on view blocks
Image gotten from snowtrace
This would display recent blocks in the avalanche blockchain. The first block (block number - 9309019) would be selected for this analysis.
Image gotten from snowtrace
The details of this block are as follows
Timestamp - Jan-08-2022 07:04:06 PM +UTC
Burned fees - 0.212138374206505954 AVAX
Gas used - 6,465,783 (80.82%)
Block hash - 0xbc80ac56de69f7ff5c7e1dcb5725d8621b7678321e168724717e2086df6248bc
Image gotten from snowtrace
A total of 41 transactions and 29 contract internal transactions have been validated on this block.
5.- Explain in detail the Avalanche consensus protocol and the Snowman consensus protocol.
The avalanche consensus protocol is unique when compared to other consensus protocols. Transactions are validated and processed by nodes using Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), this consensus allows validators to process transactions on the network in a parallel manner. Here the process of validation is spread across different nodes each granted with independent decision-making ability. There is no leader in this protocol therefore there is no need to wait upon a node for confirmation.
As a result of this, the network is able to immediately finalize transactions without waiting for confirmations. This is how the avalanche blockchain is able to achieve transactional finality in less than 2 seconds. Avalanche nodes unlike the proof of work consensus nodes only work when there is work to be done, it doesn't require any mining to generate new blocks.
Avalanche works around a voting consensus. Here validators are required to vote upon transactions and decide whether they will be accepted or rejected. Virtuous transactions are accepted and conflicting transactions are rejected. The process of voting in this consensus makes avalanche unique as each validator is an independent decision-maker
snowman consensus protocol is a consensus protocol powered by the avalanche blockchain. It's a chain-optimized protocol that functions to achieve high throughput around the entire network. This protocol is utilized in both the P-chain and the C-chain on the avalanche protocol for smart contracts and this protocol orders transitions linearly. It's also used in the creation of new blocks.
Conclusion
The avalanche protocol has grown to be a very promising one in the crypto ecosystem especially in the area of smart contracts. Its high transaction throughput and finality make it a better alternative to the ethereum blockchain.
Thanks to the steemit team for the crypto academy, It's done far much in helping me tackle the markets one knowledge at a time.