Avalanche is a decentralized platform for building, deploying, and running decentralized applications (dApps) and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. It aims to provide a scalable, secure, and customizable environment for developers to build on. The platform is built on a network of subnets, called "Avalanches," which can be customized to support various consensus mechanisms and token standards. This allows for a wide range of use cases, from high-performance gaming to financial services. Transactions on Avalanche are processed quickly, with near-instant finality, making it well-suited for DeFi and other applications that require fast and reliable confirmations. Additionally, Avalanche supports a variety of programming languages, including Solidity, Javascript and Go, making it accessible to a broad range of developers.