Avalanche has really become a preferred choice for sovereign chains with its momentum of 74+ active L1s, 77+ blockchains, 100.89M+ transactions round-off, close to 1500 validators, and 1.57M+ addresses. A major reason behind this growth is the Etna upgrade, which has brought Avalanche9000 for faster, cheaper, and more flexible L1 development than ever before in the Avalanche ecosystem. Despite such widespread adoption, there is still a concern across projects- what’s the best way to decentralize their L1s on Avalanche? To answer that, let’s discuss from the POV of two successful Avalanche L1 projects– BeamL1 and Coqnet; the two sovereign chains that have achieved the highest level of decentralization with Avalanche L1 while managing their ecosystem with highest validator counts.
How BeamL1 and Coqnet are decentralizing their chains with Avalanche?
Decentralizing an Avalanche L1 felt complex for a lot of blockchains, especially sovereign chains. Knowing this, Avalanche has introduced a range of solid approaches, where L1 can build with legos, implement a distributed governance, setup permissionless validator system, and do a lot more to decentralize their L1 in the best possible way.
As discussed, Beam L1 and Coqnet L1 have already decentralized their L1s. In terms of traction; total transactions and validator count- Coqnet L1 has got higher numbers, however, Beam L1 holds the badge to be the first chain to setup permissionless L1 on Avalanche.
Considering this, we’re discussing Beam L1 and then Coqnet L1’s approach for decentralization, powered by Avalanche L1 stack.
Beam L1
Beam Network has built a thriving purpose-built chain, powered by Avalanche L1. Beam is mainly focused on gaming, but now it’s growing its ecosystem with new-age projects like AI apps, distributed computing, and even consumer apps. Beam has grown into an influential L1 with 7k+ daily active addresses, 6.55M + total transactions , 0.145 average TPS, and 326 as their current validator count, which is approx 21.8% of the total Avalanche’s validator.
In one of their discussions with Avalanche, the head janitor at Beam; Mark highlighted the approach that their network has been using on Avalanche to achieve pure decentralization. Here’s a close analysis of the discussion:
1. Democratizing Beam L1’s validator base:
Beam has moved beyond the initial subnet architecture which was proof-of-authority (PoA), where only some trusted parties (example, Avalanche’s existing validators) can validate the network. Post Etna, they have adopted a system that allows Beam as well as non-Beam holders to become participants.
The motivation for this approach comes from the fact that community involvement is critical for growth & decentralization of a network. Regarding this, Mark mentioned,
“…We understood the importance of community involvement long back and hence we are letting users stake $BEAM and validate the network on their own. That’s what decentralization actually means.”
This broadly means that:
- Now, retail users (i.e., regular community members) can participate directly by staking and validating on Avalanche L1s. Anyone can become a validator; there are currently hundreds live.
- Node operators can earn rewards and participate in securing the network.
- Beam’s L1 now has very less dependency on Avalanche’s Primary Network, except for some critical functions. Hence, Beam L1 identifies itself as an autonomous network.
2. Accelerated validator’s participation through novel, NFT-based staking model:
Beam L1’s definition of decentralization involves more than just giving validation control to users. Hence, Beam is offering a new NFT-based staking model. Under this, users need a specific NFT Beam token (at least one) to become a validator. This approach has contributed a lot to Beam’s decentralization by already gathering 58k+ node token holders, sees for a close record of 60k potential validators, and could set new decentralization standards for Avalanche’s multi-chain ecosystem. Here’s the tweet:
Also, the retail users (we talked above) can now participate in the network’s decentralization( separate from larger validators or parties) through delegation and re-delegation option where they do not need to withdraw any asset or re-deposit funds to become a part of the validator system.
3.NFT-based more strategic & novel reward scheme:
Beam L1 also adopted a robust & innovative validators reward plan with support from Avalanche L1’s high-level customization. Within this validator incentive grant;
- Nodes that ensure 80% uptime for a 30-day ‘season’ will be entitled to receive a certain share of the total gas fees collected throughout that period. Whereas, nodes with less uptime will also receive partial share from this gas fee.
- These rewards will be distributed separately from Beam L1’s monthly fees of sponsoring validators. The Beam community considers this reward as an essential means to repay their validations that help the network to remain secure, operational, and more importantly- decentralized.
This also allows Beam to generate revenue for their network. As per official data,, Beam L1 has already earned $1M+ from network’s validators and stakers:
Coqnet L1
Coqnet is yet another innovative and powerful Avalanche L1 chain built for memecoin communities. The project started their project with getting security from 100 validators which was 6% of total Avalanche Network at that time.
At present Coqnet has 776 active validators– 51.7% of total Avalanche. Speaking about traction, Coqnet has less traction than Beam L1, but its validator count is higher. 223.59M transactions, 1K+ daily active addresses, and 0.02TPS.
Below is the Avalanche-powered approach that Coqnet uses to decentralize its L1 network. Note that, Beam L1 is also utilizing most of these approaches, but let’s learn it from Coqnet’s perspective that their team discussed in one the recent stream.
As you might know, Etna upgrade has introduced the concept of L1-only validators, removing the need for every subnet to stake 2,000 AVAX to the C-Chain. This drastically reduced the barrier to entry for launching COQNet, allowing it to be validated directly with low monthly AVAX fees of 1.33 AVAX instead of higher upfront cost. Such an economic shift has enabled Coqnet L1 to bootstrap a large, decentralized validator set from its own meme-focused community—without reliance on external resources.
Also, Coqnet leverages customizable PoS contracts using Avalanche’s native support for PoS logics, not restricted to PoA (we discussed in this article already). This means the Coqnet network has got the ability to build custom validator logics to grow its validator set based on real stake-weighted incentives while also maintaining synchronization between security (through encouraged participation) and network’s governance. In a nutshell, Avalanche L1 has offered Coqnet a protocol-level infrastructure to operate as a sovereign, purely decentralized chain.
2. Stage-Based Maturity for Progressive Decentralization
Avalanche’s strong tech has introduced a maturity model for new L1s, where:
- Stage 0: Registration only
- Stage 1: Proof-of-Authority
- Stage 2: Hybrid PoA + PoS = Full PoS
COQNet is currently in Stage 2 and transitioning towards a permissionless validator set through community staking. This phase-based approach offers a safe spot for Coqnet to achieve decentralization without exposing the network early to any risk related to security, finance, etc attacks (e.g., a single entity getting 33% of the network’s stake).
3. Support from pluggable DeFi Services- Staking, Lending & more…
Avalanche’s modular stack and permissionless validation model allows Coqnet L1 and the projects building on Coqnet to plug into full-fledged DeFi protocols like BENQI. As of now BENQI offers 4 core products for L1s, including Coqnet:
- BENQI Liquid Staking: Designed to allow staking of AVAX in exchange of sAVAX.
- BENQI Markets: Designed to streamline lending, borrowing, as well as interest earning on the digital assets both for the isolated and core markets.
- Ignite: Introduces As You Go (PAYG) validation rental service, to drastically reducing the amount of capital needed to spin-up Avalanche validators. Ignite is ideal for L1s that need to pay a weekly fee in AVAX for their short-term use case; e.g MEV Solvers.
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- Node Voting: Designed to enable the participants to receive AVAX-based delegations and rewards.
4. Avalanche’s Builder Ethos Encourages Community-Owned Infrastructure
COQNet started as a meme network, but Avalanche’s builder-centric community allowed it to become a massive Layer 1 with economic utility and apps. Avalanche not only provides the tech—it provides a community that helps L1 shift to experimentation and innovation. Coqnet team highlights this community-owned factor of Avalanche L1 by mentioning that memes on other chains may struggle to get widespread adoption. But, with Avalanche L1s, they can evolve into sovereign, app-ready infrastructure. Avalanche doesn’t just permit this—it accelerates it.
Ready to decentralize your L1? Do it with Zeeve’s Cogitus
Now that you know the best approaches to decentralize L1s on Avalanche, your next steps should be building a powerful L1 like Beam or Coqnet. If you plan so, Cogitus by Zeeve has simplified the whole thing for you.
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