N1, a layer 1 blockchain backed by Founders Fund, has announced the launch of its first testnet and is inviting developers to request access. Designed to support applications and horizontal scalability, N1 aims to streamline performance by avoiding consensus in most cases. This allows for unordered and asynchronous transactions by default, enhancing scalability as the number of validators increases. Consensus is only introduced when bridging between applications. N1 also features built-in sharded data availability, a native Solana bridge for high liquidity, and a virtual machine-agnostic environment.