In mid-April 2023, Avalanche developers from Ava Labs announced that they would be rolling out a major network update on Tuesday, April 25;
update called Cortina. The update is a protocol optimization which is not compatible with versions older than v.1.10.0.
If you don’t update your node before Cortina activates, you will not be able to confirm new blocks, and you will be offline for all other participants, putting you at risk of receiving steaking rewards.
The Avalanche team tentatively tried out the update on the Fuji Test Network on April 6, 2023. Everything went well.
It is worth noting that the developers continue the mountain theme: Fuji – a mountain in Japan, and Cortina – a reference to the Italian ski resort Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Unlike Ethereum’s Shapella, which allowed tokens to be withdrawn from steaking, Avalanche’s update is technical in nature.
X-Chain will be transferred from Avalanche Consensus to Snowman++ Consensus. Now all the structures (also P-Chain and C-Chain) of the ecosystem will be on a single protocol.
There will be so-called linearization in the X-Chain. This will reduce the amount of computer capacity involved and increase the efficiency of R&D.
The Avalanche Warp Messaging (AWM) mechanism will be implemented, which will simplify the process of transferring coins from X-Chain to various exchanges.
Another innovation will be the Batched Delegator Awards feature. It will allow simplify the award distribution system for validators with a large number of delegates.
Batched Delegator Awards will be implemented on P-Chain. In addition, Cortina will increase the maximum block size on the C-Chain.
And how will the update affect the value of the AVAX token?
Avalanche Technical Analysis
Cortina should have a positive impact on the Avalanche platform itself. It does not involve, like Shapella, token withdrawals and a large increase in supply.
As such, we can assume that the price of AVAX will go up. Well or at least stop falling. Since April 19 the coin has lost more than 20% in value.
However since the beginning of the year the dynamics is still positive – the growth is more than 57%.
From March 5 to April 16 the number of active addresses in Avalanche network was growing day by day.
This was accompanied by an increase in AVAX. However, from April 16 to 22 the dynamics were negative. Perhaps a recovery in activity will restore investors’ faith in Avalanche.
From a technical analysis point of view AVAX is now in a downtrend. So far, there are no signs of a trend change.
The price has recently fallen below its 50-day moving average (marked in yellow), which should not encourage the bulls..
A return to growth is possible if it overcomes the resistance level of $17. The nearest support level is $16.2.
Avalanche has a market capitalization of about $5.5 billion as of April 24. The cryptocurrency ranks 16th between TRON and Dai.
Strengthening partnerships
Back in January, it became known that Avalanche would partner with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos on cloud computing.
Avalanche is about to launch a test Spruce subnet Evergreen to attract institutional investors.
It is already known that at least four investment companies will participate in the trial: T. Rowe Price, Cumberland, Wellington Management Group и WisdomTree Investments.
The test network will allow third-party investors to use the Avalanche platform without the risk of losing their investment.
Initially, investors will use the DeFi app to exchange currency and trade interest rate swaps.
At the next stages it is planned to implement additional functionality: credit insurance, trading, third-party financing.
However for this just need the above designated institutional investors, who will give feedback. They will help make the service quality and convenient.
In favor of bringing its initiative to life, Avalanche cites a report by Uniswap Labs, the company behind the exchange of the same name and Circle Internet Financial, which is best known for its USDC stablecoin.
The report indicates that about $2.2 trillion in customer funds were at daily risk on conventional exchanges last year.
The figure is trending upward, as only $1.9 trillion was at risk of loss every day in 2019. This is why Ava Labs considers the introduction of Spruce appropriate;
“This pioneering collaboration will create a safe, controlled and exhilarating prospect for the world’s financial institutions.
We look to Spruce, and more broadly to the Avalanche Evegreen sub-networks, as a meaningful step in exploring the possibilities of digital finance,” says company president John Wu with confidence.
Bottom line: Avalanche continues, technically, to evolve. Cortina update coming soon. This may help to slow the fall in the price of AVAX token.
In addition, Ava Labs continues to build mutually beneficial business relationships with large companies.