The Avalanche Foundation announced a $40 million retroactive grants program on September 26, 2024, under the banner of “Retro9000.” 

The program relates to the highly anticipated "Avalanche9000" upgrade, which aims to simplify the development of layer-1 (L1) blockchains.

Retro9000: Supporting Builders on the Avalanche Network

Avalanche's Retro9000 program provides financial support to developers testing and launching projects on its testnet. This initiative is a part of the broader Avalanche9000 upgrade, which is being hailed as the most extensive upgrade to the network since its mainnet launch.

Avalanche aims to lower the economic barriers that currently exist for developers attempting to deploy L1 blockchains. The program will reward developers working on critical ecosystem components such as developer tools and L1 blockchains, offering them retroactive grants based on community voting.

The program includes a public leaderboard where developers’ submissions are ranked by community feedback.

“Avalanche9000 is the culmination of years of development work to build a platform that can support fast, scalable and connected L1s,” Luigi D'Onorio DeMeo, Chief Operating Officer at Ava Labs, said. “Leveraging this moment, the Retro9000 incentivized testnet program attempts to bootstrap an L1 ecosystem and provide the earliest and most engaging developers incentives to build their product."

Avalanche9000: What the Upgrade Brings

Avalanche9000 promises a more developer-friendly environment with technical enhancements and economic incentives for blockchain projects. Among the key upgrades is the Avalanche Consensus Protocol (ACP-77), which aims to improve scalability and interoperability for projects built on the network.

The upgrade also introduces several new features:

• Etna Upgrade: A technical improvement enhancing network performance.

• Updated Nomenclature: Simplifying how developers interact with the network.

• Developer and Community Incentives: Boosting engagement and support for ecosystem growth.

• Core Browser Hub: A unified dashboard for developers working on Avalanche.

One of the most anticipated features is the Avalanche Interchain Messaging (ICM), which enables communication between different L1 blockchains on the network. It reportedly allows for greater interoperability, as new L1s can leverage liquidity and resources from existing chains.

Avalanche's Vision for a Multi-Chain Future

Avalanche9000 is built around the idea of many L1s working together, each contributing to the scalability and growth of the overall network. Unlike traditional blockchain networks where a single L1 is responsible for all transactions and data storage, Avalanche envisions a network of interconnected L1s. 

Each new chain added to the network increases its overall capacity, allowing for greater scalability without sacrificing performance.

Since 2020, Avalanche has been working towards this multi-chain vision. With Avalanche L1s, developers reportedly have full control over staking, gas tokens, and validator sets.