Avalanche is an open, scalable, and secure smart contracts platform. It targets three broad use cases; building application-specific blockchains, building and launching highly scalable decentralized applications (dapps), and building arbitrarily complex digital assets with custom rules, covenants, and riders (smart assets). It prides itself off on being blazingly fast, low cost, and eco-friendly.Emin Gün Sirer is the Founder & CEO of the Avalanche network. He is also a long time friend of the show, and joined us again for the 4th time after a 5 year break to share his journey since then, which led him to creating Avalanche. We also dove deep into the technical aspects of the protocol and how it fits into the blockchain ecosystem as a whole.Topics covered in this episode:Gun's journey over the past 5 years which led him to creating AvalancheThe unique features and trade-offs in the protocolA deep dive into bridging within AvalancheMEV extraction within the protocolAvalanche consensus - reliance on seed anchorsEpisode links:Episode 76 - From Selfish Miners to The Miner’s DilemmaEpisode 103 - Bitcoin-NG – Scientists Versus the ChurchEp 134 - On a Rocky DAOAvalancheAva LabsAvalanche on TwitterGun on TwitterSponsors:Chorus One: Chorus One runs validators on cutting edge Proof of Stake networks such as Cosmos, Solana, Celo, Polkadot and Oasis. - https://epicenter.rocks/chorusoneParaSwap: ParaSwap aggregates all major DEXs and makes sure you beat the market price at every single swap and with the lowest slippage - paraswap.io/epicenterThis episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/419