Quant, the blockchain for finance pioneer, has announced its connectivity to the Avalanche blockchain via a new release of its Overledger platform.

The development is part of Quant’s push to make blockchain simple, trusted, and future-proof, allowing firms to launch projects that can work alongside their legacy systems without disruption, as well as across different blockchains.

This new release of Overledger – the world’s first blockchain-agnostic API gateway – encompasses C-chain, Avalanche’s main smart contracts chain, opening up another area of functionality for customers. Smart contracts are programs on a blockchain that execute the terms of an agreement or contract, helping to automate workflows.

Martin Hargreaves, chief product officer, Quant, said: “Adding to our supported blockchains will enable our customers to issue, manage and interact with assets on Avalanche and its ESG-friendly innovative consensus protocol.”

Public blockchains can offer advantages in terms of speed and cost. Private equity pioneer KKR, whose funds manage $496 billion worth of assets, recently opened its $4 billion Health Care Strategic Growth Fund to distribution via Avalanche. Avalanche claims to be the fastest smart contracts platform in the blockchain industry, as measured by time-to-finality. In 2022, transactions on its blockchain increased 1,500 per cent year-on-year and its enterprise users also include CME Group, payments company FIS and Mastercard.

Quant is chain-agnostic and its core focus is interoperability, both between different blockchains and between blockchains and legacy systems. The other chains its technology supports include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Polygon, Polkadot, XDC, Fabric, and Besu.