Avalanche started off as a protocol for solving consensus in a network of unreliable machines, where failures may be crash-fault or Byzantine.[1] The protocol's fundamentals were first shared on InterPlanetary File System (aka IPFS) on May 2018 by a pseudonymous group of enthusiasts going by the name "Team Rocket[2] It was later developed by a dedicated team of researchers from the Cornell University.[3] The research was led by Emin Gün Sirer,[4] a professor of computer science and software engineer, assisted by doctoral students Maofan "Ted" Yin and Kevin Sekniqi.[3][5] Following the research stage, a startup technology company was founded to develop a blockchain network that would meet complex finance industry requirements.[6][7] As a number of sources indicate, "the project was in the realm of academic circles interested in exploring consensus protocols that serve the same purpose of proof-of-work — securing transactions — but are more energy-efficient and have the potential to provide a basis for democratic development and the inclusion of more users in the consensus process".[5][3] In March, 2020, the AVA codebase (Developer Accelerator Program or AVA DAP) for the Avalanche consensus protocol became open-source and available to public.[8]