01 — Gas
Native ECX gas
Fees paid in ECX via BIP-301 blind merged mining.
SNOWSIDE TOUR
Bitcoin Security
at Avalanche Speed
The eCash Sidechain on Avalanche
Native ECX Gas • Native USDC Liquidity
Snowside Tour
What Is Snowside?
A dedicated Avalanche Layer-1 blockchain built to host Paul Sztorc’s upcoming eCash hard-fork. It runs as a clean EVM sidechain where the native gas token is ECX — no new tokens, no pre-mine, just eCash security via blind merged mining.
02 — Finality
Sub-second finality
Avalanche Snowman consensus settles in under a second.
03 — Bridge
USDC bridging
Native Interchain Messaging from the Avalanche C-Chain.
04 — EVM
Full EVM
Remix, Hardhat, Foundry work out-of-the-box.
05 — Validation
Community-run validators
Community-operated validator set with low operational cost.
06 — Token
No token. No ICO.
Infrastructure, not an investment vehicle.
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Snowside Tour
Two Native Assets, Zero Friction
Bridging eCash and stablecoin economies in one network.
Asset 01
⚡ Native ECX Gas
Transaction fees paid in real ECX via blind merged mining. No new token, no pre-mine, no inflation.
Asset 02
🌉 USDC Bridging
Avalanche Interchain Messaging (ICM) bridges USDC from the C-Chain natively. Stable liquidity from day one.
No competing token. Just ECX for gas and USDC for liquidity.
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Snowside Tour
How It Works
Four layers of technology, one cohesive sidechain.
01
BMM
eCash miners commit to Snowside blocks without running them. They earn ECX fees while securing the chain with existing hash power.
02
Avalanche L1
A dedicated validator set runs Snowside with sub-second finality. Validators are community-operated.
03
ECX Gas Flow
Users pay gas in ECX. Miners collect fees through BMM commitments. The loop closes entirely within eCash.
04
ICM USDC Bridge
Avalanche ICM trustlessly bridges USDC from the C-Chain — no third-party bridges, no wrapped assets.
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Snowside Tour
Why Avalanche Is the Perfect Substrate
01
Sovereign validation
Snowside runs its own validators, ensuring dedicated throughput for eCash operations.
02
Native interoperability
Avalanche ICM allows trust-less bridging of USDC from the C-Chain without third-party bridges.
03
Low operational cost
Avalanche9000’s subscription model makes community-run validation cheap and feasible.
04
Tooling maturity
Full EVM compatibility — Remix, Hardhat, The Graph, Foundry all work out-of-the-box.
05
Proven L1 track record
Multiple Avalanche L1s are already live in production. The infrastructure is battle-tested.
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Snowside Tour
Agentic Payments
Snowside’s low-fee ECX gas and native USDC bridging make it ideal for autonomous, machine-to-machine payments.
Protocol
x402
An open payment protocol built on the HTTP 402 Payment Required status code. Agents pay per-request, natively over HTTP — no gateways, no intermediaries.
Settlement
USDC, low fees
Stablecoin settlement via native ICM USDC. Sub-cent transaction fees and no price volatility — predictable per-call economics for agents.
Autonomy
Machines pay machines
Autonomous AI agents discover, negotiate, and pay for services without human-in-the-loop approvals or custodial wallets.
Finality
Instant settlement
Sub-second Avalanche finality means a payment is confirmed before the response is served — no waiting on block confirmations.
Composability
Full EVM
x402 payment flows compose with any EVM contract — escrows, streaming, programmable spend policies — all on one chain.
No token tax
ECX, not a toll token
Gas is paid in ECX. No protocol token skim on every agent transaction — just the eCash security fee.
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Snowside Tour
How Snowside Compares
Snowside vs. Lightning Network vs. Base
| Feature | Snowside | Lightning | Base |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consensus mechanism | Avalanche PoS + BMM | Off-chain channels | Ethereum PoS |
| Finality time | < 1 second | Instant (payment) | ~ 2 seconds |
| Gas token | ECX | BTC | ETH |
| Smart contracts | Full EVM | Limited (scripts) | Full EVM |
| Stablecoin support | Native USDC via ICM | None | Native USDC |
| Node operation | Community-run | Manual | Manual |
| Maintenance burden | Low | Medium | Medium |
| Validator sovereignty | Dedicated set | N/A | Shared with Ethereum |
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Snowside Tour
Risks & Mitigations
RISK
Low initial validator count
FIX
Launch with community validators. Low operational cost via Avalanche9000 reduces technical barriers to participation. Validator incentives funded by ECX gas fees.
RISK
BMM adoption by miners
FIX
BMM fees are denominated in ECX. Miners earn real revenue with zero additional hashing cost. The economic incentive is straightforward and self-sustaining.
RISK
USDC bridge security
FIX
ICM is a native Avalanche protocol, not a third-party bridge. It uses the full security of the Avalanche consensus — the same mechanism securing billions in TVL on the C-Chain.
RISK
eCash specification changes
FIX
Direct coordination with Paul Sztorc ensures the L1 configuration tracks the eCash spec. Smart contracts are upgradeable during the initial testnet phase.
RISK
Long-term maintainability
FIX
EthSide was retired because manual operation was unsustainable. Community-run validators and low operational cost eliminate the maintenance burden that killed the predecessor.
RISK
Regulatory uncertainty
FIX
Snowside uses existing, established assets (ECX, USDC) — no new token issuance. The chain is fully open source and community-operated.
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Snowside Tour
From Devnet to Mainnet and Beyond...
-
1
Devnet
Internal development network. Genesis configuration, precompile integration, and BMM coordination precompile validation against the Subnet-EVM fork.
-
2
Alphanet
Federated federation bootstrapping. eCash Alphanet BIP-300/301 deposit and withdrawal flow validation; NativeMinter and DeployerAllowList precompiles live.
-
3
Betanet
Public testnet with community validators. Security audit of peg smart contracts; ICM USDC bridge integration with the Avalanche C-Chain; block explorer deployment.
-
4
Mainnet
Mainnet launch with community validators; public RPC endpoints; developer documentation released; first eCash dApp deployments.
-
5
Ongoing
Validator growth, protocol maintenance, ecosystem development. Continuous BMM adoption and USDC liquidity expansion.
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Snowside Tour
Opportunities
Revenue streams and yield for participants in the Snowside network.
Revenue Stream
Validator Staking
ECX gas fees
Run a Snowside validator and earn a share of every transaction’s ECX gas. Sovereign PoS with sub-second finality means consistent, predictable revenue.
Revenue Stream
Miner BMM Yield
Sidechain fees
eCash miners commit to Snowside blocks through Blind Merged Mining — earn ECX fees from the sidechain with zero additional hashing cost. Pure incremental revenue on existing hash power.
Revenue Stream
USDC Liquidity Provision
Bridge fees + yield
Provide USDC liquidity via the ICM bridge from Avalanche C-Chain. Enable stablecoin commerce on Snowside and capture bridging fees plus DeFi yield opportunities.
Three ways to earn. Zero new tokens. All revenue denominated in ECX or USDC.
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Snowside Tour
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Snowside?
An Avalanche L1 for Paul Sztorc’s eCash hard-fork. ECX gas, USDC bridge, community-run validators.
Is there a token?
No. No token, no pre-mine, no ICO, no airdrop. The network runs on ECX and USDC only.
How does ECX gas work?
eCash miners commit to Snowside blocks via BMM. Users pay gas in ECX. Miners earn the fees.
How is USDC bridged?
Trustlessly from Avalanche C-Chain via Interchain Messaging — a native Avalanche protocol, not a third-party bridge.
How do I run a validator?
Deploy via NodΞRunr — one-click setup, 24/7 monitoring, automatic updates.
When does mainnet launch?
Targeted for the Mainnet phase of the roadmap, following Betanet and security audits.
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Connect with Us
Open source. No token. Powered by Avalanche. Supported by the eCash sidechain community.
📘 Read the Whitepaper
💻 View on GitHub
🐦 Follow on X
💬 Join our Discord
🌐 Visit snowside.network
🏃 Run a Validator
Snowside is an independent open-source project.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by the Avalanche Foundation.
Powered by Avalanche. Secured by eCash. Open to all.