Polygon research lead quits to join its spin-off blockchain project Avail

Ethereum scaling project Polygon has bid adieu to research lead Prabal Banerjee as he joins its spin-off Avail, a modular blockchain project.

Banerjee has joined Avail as a co-founder, Avail said Friday. Avail was spun off from Polygon last month, with Polygon co-founder Anurag Arjun leaving to manage Avail as a separate entity by acquiring it.

"I had been working on Avail with Anurag since joining Polygon in 2020, starting with the first design to creating proof of concept and then launching testnet," Banerjee told The Block. "I believe in the Avail mission and the team behind Avail, and it only made sense for me to target my entire focus to it."

Banerjee had decided to join Avail when Arjun left last month but completed his pending duties at Polygon and quit the company on April 14, he said. Polygon declined to comment on Banerjee's departure.

Avail, a modular blockchain project 

Polygon initiated the Avail project in late 2020 and introduced it publicly in mid-2021. Avail is a modular blockchain that allows developers to build customizable and scalable applications. Unlike monolithic blockchains — such as Ethereum and Solana — modular blockchains break down the essential functions of consensus, security, data availability and execution, and handle them separately.

"This enables developers to design fast, efficient, and scalable applications," Avail said.

The project hopes to cater to standalone chain developers as well as scaling projects with its platform.

"Blockchain development is a very niche space due to various complexities that involve spinning up a chain, and it shouldn't be," Banerjee said. "That's why we want to offer a robust and secure data availability API so that chain developers can bootstrap security in minutes and concentrate on business and execution logic."

Polygon's Avail team moves

Avail is currently live on a testnet and its mainnet is expected to launch around the fourth quarter of this year, according to Banerjee. There are currently 20 people working on the project. Last month, the entire Avail team at Polygon moved to the new entity.

While Avail is currently under development by the team, it intends to create a not-for-profit body called the Avail Foundation in the future and eventually hand over governance to a community. That suggests Avail could launch its own token, but Banerjee declined to comment.