Ava Labs upgrades software to advance Avalanche’s subnet interoperability

The Avalanche developers rolled out the “Banff 5″ software upgrade to introduce Avalanche Warp Messaging. The upgrade will let Avalanche subnets easily communicate and share data.

Ava Labs has upgraded AvalancheGo – the software implementation of the blockchain in the Go programming language – to “Banff 5.”

The new upgrade is crucial for the Avalanche network as it introduces a communication protocol for Avalanche-based blockchains (subnets) called Avalanche Warp Messaging. The feature will allow subnets to share data and crypto assets in an effort to make the Avalanche blockchain ecosystem more useful for developers.

Earlier, Avalanche allowed developers to write custom blockchains or subnets for different use cases in the Go and Rust programming languages. Although communication between these subnets was unable without the use of complex bridge systems until now, so they largely remained isolated from one another. This is where Banff 5 comes in with Avalanche Warp Messaging to enable what’s described as “seamless native communication” between subnets to transfer assets or data across different subnets.

The upgrade removes the need for individual subnet projects to deploy and manage their own bridges. According to the Avalanche team, the mechanism also holds the potential to open the door for new use cases, such as cross-chain staking of tokens.

“Avalanche Warp Messaging (AWM) is the catalyst that will spark a Cambrian explosion of Avalanche subnet development,” Patrick O’Grady, head of engineering at Ava Labs, told The Block. “With this release, you can launch your own Go- or Rust-based blockchain and reward any node that stakes your own token for validating it, all while natively interoperating with an ecosystem of other builders doing the same thing.”

The subnet messaging uses an advanced cryptographic tool called “BLS multi signatures” to verify messages and data across chains. To make use of the protocol, the security validators of any subnet can generate a BLS signature that attests to the request to send assets or data over to another subnet. The same message can be verified by any other subnets in the Avalanche network to initiate the native transfer of data or assets, which made the first native subnet-to-subnet message, Ava Labs said.