The explosive popularity of the modular blockchain Celestia has sparked a heated debate about the legitimacy of Ethereum’s data availability (DA). Even Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has started speaking out frequently. So, what exactly is DA, and what does the debate about its legitimacy mean?
DA, or data availability, is an important component of modular blockchain architecture like Celestia. Unlike a monolithic blockchain, a modular blockchain splits different parts of the blockchain network into corresponding functional layers, such as execution, data availability, consensus, and settlement.
Execution: Responsible for processing transactions and updating the state.
Data Availability (DA) layer: Responsible for storing the data required to verify the validity of transactions.
Consensus: Responsible for determining the order of transactions within a block and final confirmation, including which transactions from the memory pool are included in which block.
Settlement: Responsible for validating Rollup L2 state data and handling fraud proofs/validity proofs.
With the escalating L2 war and the unfolding narrative of modularity, projects focusing on execution like Rollup and projects focusing on data availability like Celestia continue to emerge. In the modular world, the core function of data availability (DA) is to ensure that data on the chain is available and accessible to all network participants, thus reducing costs and expanding the suite of blockchain applications.
Firstly, modularity allows for greater specialization. For example, in a modular architecture, one set of nodes can be dedicated to DA, while another set (or multiple sets) of nodes can be dedicated to execution. This division of labor not only achieves higher throughput but also improves interoperability and reduces costs.
Secondly, modularity greatly enhances scalability, making each blockchain like a Lego block. Developers can build more scalable blockchains by combining specialized modular chains. Service providers like Caldera, AltLayer, and Conduit make it easier to deploy new L2 solutions.
In the case of Ethereum’s modularity, L1 mainnet is used as the settlement and data availability layer, while various L2 solutions like Rollup are used as the execution layer to achieve scalability. This roadmap represents Ethereum’s transition towards a modular blockchain stack, allowing users to benefit from L2 solutions while still enjoying the security of the Ethereum base layer.
So why has there been a recent debate among Vitalik and the community regarding DA? The reason is simple: the mainstream projects in the data availability layer, besides Ethereum (which directly submits state data and proofs to Ethereum L1), have introduced new solutions like Celestia, EigenLayer, and Avail.
With the development of Celestia, it has become a competition to Ethereum in terms of data availability, attracting general-purpose L2 solutions like Manta and ZkFair to adopt Celestia due to its scalability, sovereignty, flexibility, and shared security. The migration of the data availability layer from Ethereum to Celestia by Manta Pacific has had a significant impact and triggered extensive discussions within the Ethereum community.
For Manta Pacific, the motivation behind this migration is undoubtedly to reduce the cost of data availability. According to official disclosures, the cost has decreased by 99.81% compared to using the Ethereum mainnet, a staggering reduction. While Celestia as a third-party DA solution sacrifices a certain level of security compared to Rollup as the DA layer on Ethereum, the cost impact is undoubtedly more critical for these L2 solutions.
Therefore, new projects like Aleo, Dymension, ZKFair, and even Polygon have turned to new DA solutions like Celestia to reduce costs. Polygon has even chosen to switch to NEAR and openly stated that it is “8,000 times cheaper than Ethereum.”
It is foreseeable that as long as the cost advantage continues to exist, there will be more and more L2 solutions integrating new DA solutions like Celestia. This poses a significant challenge to Ethereum, especially in terms of defining the authority of Ethereum L2 between the Ethereum community and the Celestia team.
In conclusion, the proliferation of related DA solutions like Celestia has indeed weakened the competitiveness of Ethereum’s DA to some extent. The impact on Ethereum’s “legitimacy” is not limited to Celestia. Looking at the macro level, the current DA race can be roughly classified into four categories (excluding centralized solutions):
– Ethereum blob/Danksharding
– Independent decentralized DAs like Celestia
– EigenDA/MantleDA (DA utilizing ETH restaking)
– Newcomers like NEAR
Celestia is considered a “must-have” for many community users due to its significant economic benefits for L2 gas fees. Projects like Manta, ZKFair, Arbitrum Orbit, general L2 Eclipse, decentralized API data service protocol Pocket Network, and modular blockchain network Movement Labs are already using Celestia.
Once it reaches critical mass, it could continuously erode Ethereum’s fee revenue and become a dominant DA giant, attracting a high valuation premium (the share of Ethereum’s loss). Additionally, EigenDA leverages Ethereum’s existing infrastructure and relies on Ethereum, thereby maintaining the “legitimacy” of Ethereum’s DA and enhancing Ethereum’s DA capabilities. NEAR is also a newcomer with Polygon and Arbitrum Orbit integrating NEAR DA and allowing developers to launch their own configurable Rollups based on Arbitrum’s technology.
In summary, the DA race, along with the new landscape of L1&2, is increasingly entering the mainstream view and will become a major narrative in 2024. It may even give rise to new “Ethereum killers,” and we eagerly anticipate the emergence of new projects in this space.
Related articles:
– Monolithic Chain vs. Modular Blockchain: Ethereum, Solana, and Celestia Competition Map What’s Next?
– A detailed explanation of Celestia’s core and economic model, the burst of the modular blockchain narrative?
– Celestia is live! Token TIA breaks 2 USD, follow two steps to “update Keplr wallet” and claim the airdrop.