Launched in September 2020, Avalanche describes itself as an "open, programmable smart contracts platform for decentralized applications." It aims to provide a higher transaction output of up to 4,500 transactions per second, while other blockchains such as Bitcoin claim around 7 TPS in 2023. The Avalanche network is composed of three individual blockchains: the X-Chain, C-Chain, and P-Chain, each serving a distinct purpose, allowing Avalanche to handle a variety of use cases with different consensus mechanisms. Avalanche is compatible with Solidity, the programming language used by the Ethereum network, which means developers from one of the largest and most engaged communities in crypto can build on Avalanche and use it to deploy custom private or public blockchains as "subnets." And just like Ethereum, Avalanche can power a wide variety of applications like stablecoins, DeFi protocols (lending, savings, decentralized trading), and NFTs. Like many other decentralized protocols, Avalanche has its own token called AVAX, which is used to pay transaction fees and can be staked to participate in the network (Proof-of-Stake mechanism). There will only ever be 720 million AVAX coins in circulation.