Avalanche Foundation introduces Gross Chain Income to measure blockchain economy

The Avalanche Foundation has built its own version of national income accounting, complete with a metric called Gross Chain Income (GCI) that tracks how value flows to participants across its ecosystem. The Foundation’s Economic Research Agenda, published on July 30, 2026, lays out a structured framework organized around three themes: Measure, Capture, and Distribute. The intellectual architecture was built by CIO Matias Antonio and Lead Economist Eric Lu. The framework actually started taking shape back on May 7, 2026, when the Foundation introduced Gross Chain Product (GCP). That metric functions as an economy-wide output measure for the Avalanche ecosystem, analogous to how GDP captures the total goods and services produced by a country. GCP measures what the chain produces. GCI, detailed in a follow-up paper on August 12, 2026, measures where that production ends up. GCI tracks income flows to validators, developers, liquidity providers, and other ecosystem participants, including revenue streams that originate off-chain. By tracking these flows, the metric gives the Foundation a clearer picture of who benefits from Avalanche’s economic activity. The three research streams unde...