Avalanche developers roll out Cortina hard fork

On April 25, the Avalanche platform team successfully activated the Cortina hard fork on the mainnet.

Cortina is live!

Cortina is the latest version of AvalancheGo, with 3 key optimizations that will provide a better developer experience on #Avalanche

✅ X-Chain Linearization
✅ Batched Delegator Rewards
✅ Increased C-Chain Gas Limit https://t.co/1ZukgJ1avm

— Avalanche ? (@avax) April 25, 2023

The update included migrating one of the platform’s three main blockchains—X-Chain—onto the Snowman++ consensus mechanism. This enabled integration of the Avalanche Warp Messaging service, the execution of complex transactions, and broader support for asset exchange.

The X-Chain protocol, which facilitates asset transactions, relies on the concept of направленного ациклического графа (DAG). This complicates interaction with fully confirmed blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as similar Avalanche subnets.

The Cortina hard fork enables the “linearization” of transaction confirmations on the X-Chain to address the issue and ease support for Avalanche by crypto exchanges.

Among other features activated by the update:

• batched distribution of validator rewards;
• increase of the gas limit in the C-Chain smart contract network block from 8 million to 15 million to support deploying more complex dapps.

As reported, a group of Wall Street firms, including T. Rowe Price Associates, WisdomTree, Wellington Management and Cumberland, announced testing of the Evergreen subnet on Avalanche for on-chain currency trades.