Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that aims to function as a means of exchange and is independent of any central authority. Bitcoins are transferred electronically in a secure, verifiable, and immutable way. Network validators, whom are often referred to as miners, participate in the SHA-256d-based Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism to determine the next global state of the blockchain.

Avalanche is an umbrella platform for launching decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, financial assets, trading and other services. It aims to be something of a global assets exchange, allowing anyone to launch or trade any form of asset and control it in a decentralized manner using smart contracts and other cutting-edge technologies. Developers at Ava Labs claim that Avalanche is the first smart contracts network to offer transaction finalization in under one second as standard.