The Avalanche token (AVAX) performs various tasks within Avalanche's Proof of Stake blockchain network. The Avalanche token functions as a rewards and payment system for users. The network is designed to be an open-source platform for launching highly decentralized applications, enterprise deployments, and decentralized financial instruments. The Avalanche ecosystem is meant to be smore scalable and interoperable than other blockchain platforms. Unlike Bitcoin and many other networks, transaction fees are “burnt” in order to increase token scarcity. This process is offset by the release, or “minting,” of new coins.
Avalanche was launched by Ava Labs, whose founder Emin Gün Sirer is a veteran computer scientist that has been very influential in the Blockchain space. Gün Sirer is a computer science professor at Cornell University and has written extensively about scaling blockchain networks.

Blockstream is a private, for profit, blockchain technology company, that has played a key role in helping to develop, and fund, many of the key features of the Bitcoin Core platform. Blockstream is focused on developing bitcoin applications and has raised significant funding from several large investment funds. The company also employs several developers that are very influential within the Bitcoin Core development project. This, as well as being of Bitcoin's largest donors, has led to some criticism about conflicts of interest.
Blockstream is developing a number of Bitcoin applications that are intended to encourage adoption and improve transaction times on the bitcoin network. Their primary focus is on Sidechains, which are are extensions to existing blockchains that improve their functionality. The company is also working closely with industry leaders to create the Bitcoin Lightning system that will support higher trading volume and faster transactions on the bitcoin network. Blockstream is also developing a data feed, satellite network, and other applications that they hope will make blockchain more accessible.

High Performance Blockchain (HPB) is a Chinese company that is developing an improved blockchain infrastructure. Their goal is to dramatically improve the speed of transactions and throughput of existing blockchain systems. HPB has been called the EOS of China.
Similar to EOS, HPB uses a delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus algorithm that will enable parallel processing. It will also aid in improving the performance of their blockchain, and they hope that it will enable the creation of an ecosystem for the creation of decentralized applications.
HPB's platform is based on hardware accelerator chip drivers. The accelerator chips can be customized and will aid in the performance of the blockchain. HPB has the ambitious goal of enabling 1 million transactions per second.
The company's founders are well connected in the blockchain and payment sector in China. NEO is one of the chief investors in the company, and they also works with Union Pay; which is an influential payment network that connects banks in China.