VMC Deployment Options
Decide whether to deploy the Validator Manager on your L1 or on Avalanche C-Chain
With Avalanche’s validator-management upgrades, validator set management is handled by smart contracts called Validator Manager contracts and this contract can be deployed and manage your validator set from any chain in the Avalanche Ecosystem.
This is posible via the p-chain, which keeps a registry of all of the validators in the Avalanche network. Despite being able to deploy in any L1 on Avalanche, the 2 most common options will be:
Deploying on your L1
- Pros: Self-contained validator management; no dependency on C-Chain; no AVAX-on-C-Chain requirement for management actions.
- Cons: Management is only available when your L1 is running.
Deploying on C-Chain
- Pros: A failsafe if your L1 is down; better aligned with permissionless/PoS trajectories; often simpler if assets/tooling are already anchored to C‑Chain.
- Cons: Relies on C‑Chain availability; requires AVAX on C‑Chain for management actions; more cross-chain operational dependency.
Once you deploy your Validator Manager contract, you can upgrade its logic (via proxy patterns), but you cannot move its location from your L1 to C-Chain (or vice versa) without redeploying.
Why this matters more for PoS
PoA is usually managed by a small set of known operators (often one owner/multisig), so keeping the VMC on the L1 can be clean and contained.
If you plan to move to PoS, you’ll generally care more about robustness, permissionless onboarding, and long-term flexibility—which is why deploying the VMC on C‑Chain is often the better default.
For This Course’s Demo
In this permissioned L1 course, the demo deploys the Validator Manager on the L1 (PoA context) so you can manage the validator set directly as part of the end‑to‑end walkthrough.
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