AscendEX Turns to Pollen and Avalanche to Avoid Blockchain Congestion

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Blockchain congestion continues to drive the emergence of layer-2 scaling solutions, with Ethereum and even some of its supposed ‘killers’ suffering reputational damage due to stalled and failed transactions.

Scalability challenges have long been viewed as an impediment to serious growth in the adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchains more generally, though the defi world has still managed to attract huge interest: over $250 billion is currently locked in defi protocols on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Solana and other networks.

Some commentators believe that figure could eventually reach $1 trillion.

Tackling the Congestion Challenge

Among typical crypto users’ complaints, heavy congestion and exorbitant gas fees rank high – and the expanding gamefi and NFT sector has only compounded frustrations. As a number of Ethereum alternatives have eaten into the network’s share of the defi pie, Vitalik Buterin and co have touted rollups – independent blockchains that process transactions independent of the main network – as the best solution.

Wherever the answer lies, it’s little wonder cryptocurrency exchanges are increasingly offering users the chance to transfer value on high-throughput networks like Avalanche (AVAX). The layer-1 protocol gained incredible traction in 2021, starting the year with a market cap of $281 million and finishing above $26 billion. Its parent company Ava Labs even tied up a deal with Big Four accounting firm Deloitte, who will launch a platform built on Avalanche later this year.

AscendEX is one global trading platform that is starting to embrace the Avalanche smart contracts platform: soon, the exchange will list the native asset of Pollen, a defi 2.0 asset management protocol that intends to capture the spirit of the “hivemind” to determine portfolio weights for passive investment. In fact, Pollen will be the first Avalanche token listed on AscendEX, marking an important step in the exchange’s 2022 trajectory. 

Trading of $PLN/USDT opens on AscendEX on Tuesday 11 January 2022 at 09:00 EST / 14:00 UTC. Wallets will be open for deposits approximately 12 hours before. $PLN is available to trade now on the Avalanche decentralised exchange Trader Joe.

Pollen Pools

Built around a community-powered DAO, Pollen enables communities of investors to curate fully optimized and dynamically rebalanced custom asset pools. Traders who submit successful proposals can enhance their reputation and climb the leaderboard, while communities can launch fresh portfolios and associated indexes via a DAO governance process.

In rolling out support for Pollen’s ARC20 $PLN token, AscendEX is, like many other trading platforms, giving users what they so desperately crave: the opportunity to transact value on a chain capable of handling a heavy load, without entailing eye-watering transaction fees. Avalanche is capable of processing around 4,500 transactions per second (tps), an order of magnitude faster than the likes of Ethereum (15-30 tps) and Cardano (250 tps).

The $PLN governance token has a range of functions within Pollen’s ecosystem, enabling holders to actively manage portfolios and earn rewards. Passive delegators are also able to entrust their governance tokens to high-performing traders and share the spoils for decisions resulting in a profit.

Pollen’s idea of a reimagined portfolio management model saw it raise some $5 million during a September fundraiser, with capital pledged by firms including Protocol Ventures, Fomocraft Ventures, Red Building Capital, AdventuresDAO, Rarestone Capital, and AlphaBit. Now, four months on, the protocol is gearing up for the release of its beta community release, which is set to launch in late January.

Depending on their choice of network, some defi users will probably have to accept periodic network congestion as the price of doing business. The message from major exchanges, though, is clear: there is life on other chains, and congestion needn’t be a cross we all bear.

This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.