With the development of blockchain technology, decentralized data availability has emerged as one of the important directions to address one of the three significant challenges of blockchain. Against this backdrop, projects such as Celestia, EigenLayer, Avail DA, and NEAR DA have emerged. They aim to address blockchain scalability and performance issues through innovative technologies and designs, thereby promoting the development of the blockchain ecosystem.
In today’s blockchain architecture, Data Availability (DA) is a crucial component. Unlike traditional single-blockchain setups, modular blockchains decompose the network into various functional layers, including execution, Data Availability (DA), consensus, and settlement layers. Among these layers, the Data Availability (DA) layer is responsible for storing the data necessary to verify the validity of transactions.
Source: docs celestia
In blockchain and distributed ledger technology, the issue of data availability is a critically important challenge. At its core, it involves ensuring that all transaction data can be openly accessed and verified on the network, which is crucial for maintaining the integrity and security of blockchain systems.
In blockchain systems, the transaction data of each block needs to be verified by network nodes. However, ensuring that this data is reliably distributed throughout the entire network and ensuring that all participants have equal access to it is a crucial issue.
There are various solutions for the DA layer, broadly categorized into on-chain and off-chain types.
In L2 solutions, data availability typically employs two different approaches:
There are relatively few participants in the Data Availability (DA) domain. Besides Ethereum, there are some key projects such as Celestia, EigenLayer, Avail, and NEAR DA, each with its characteristics regarding project progress. In DA projects, factors such as security, customizability, interoperability, and cost are crucial.
Celestia is the first project to adopt a modular Data Availability (DA) network, aiming to scale the growth of user numbers securely. Its modular design allows anyone to launch an independent blockchain.
As a leader in modular public chains, Celestia is developed based on the Cosmos SDK and is committed to enhancing data availability. On the mainnet, Celestia has achieved significant competitive advantages.
Celestia’s design separates execution, consensus, settlement, and data availability. This modular structure allows for specialization and optimization at each level, enhancing the overall efficiency and scalability of the network.
Source: docs celestia
Data Availability Sampling (DAS) is a method that allows light nodes to verify data availability without downloading the entire block. By randomly sampling data blocks, light nodes can ascertain whether this data can be successfully retrieved and validated, thus inferring data availability for the whole block.
Source: docs celestia
NMTs enable block data to be divided into separate namespaces for different applications. This means that each application only needs to download and process data related to it, significantly reducing data processing requirements.
Source: docs celestia
Celestia is the first modularly designed DA network whose primary goal is to scale amidst user growth securely. Its modular structure simplifies the launch of independent blockchains. With its unique approach and technological innovations, Celestia is poised to play a significant role in the blockchain industry. It focuses on addressing challenges faced by blockchain, particularly scalability issues, while maintaining security and decentralization, making it a vital participant in the evolving blockchain ecosystem.
EigenLayer is a re-staking protocol that allows users to re-stake ETH, lsdETH, and LP Tokens on other platforms, such as sidechains and oracles, and receive validation rewards as nodes. On the other hand, Eigen DA is a decentralized data availability (DA) service built on Ethereum using EigenLayer Restaking and will become the first Active Validation Service (AVS) on EigenLayer.
Source: eigenlayer blog
Eigen DA adopts advanced technologies such as erasure coding, KZG commitments, and ACeD, decoupling data availability (DA) from consensus. This enables Eigen DA to excel in transaction throughput, node load, and DA costs, far surpassing Ethereum’s DA solutions. Compared to other DA solutions, Eigen DA has lower startup and staking costs, faster network communication and data submission speeds, and greater flexibility. Therefore, Eigen DA is poised to become a new contender in the DA market and has the potential to host some of Ethereum’s DA services.
Avail DA aims to address the needs of next-generation trust-minimized applications and sovereign aggregation. Its standout feature lies in its innovative security approach, which allows light clients to easily verify data availability through peer-to-peer network sampling. With Avail DA’s unparalleled data availability interface and robust security features, developers can create blockchain applications based on zero-knowledge or anti-fraud technologies more efficiently and effortlessly.
Source: availproject blog
Avail is a blockchain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), featuring efficient transaction ordering and recording, data storage, and feasibility verification. Compared to traditional smart contracts and underlying layer dependencies, Avail allows Rollups to directly publish data on it and verify it through a light client network. This modular design allows developers to store data on Avail and choose other networks for settlement, providing more flexibility and options.
Avail’s consensus mechanism inherits the BABE and GRANDPA consensus mechanisms from the Polkadot SDK and adopts Polkadot’s Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS), supporting up to 1000 validators. In addition to its robust consensus mechanism, Avail also features decentralization, providing efficient and reliable backup mechanisms through light client P2P networks for data sampling, ensuring data availability even during failures.
Avail excels in transaction ordering, recording, and data feasibility verification, supporting EVM-compatible blockchains. Its light client network verification mechanism allows Rollups on Avail to verify states through the light client network without relying on smart contracts and the underlying layer. Due to its modular nature, developers can store data on Avail and choose other networks for settlement.
On November 8, 2023, the NEAR Foundation announced the launch of the NEAR Data Availability (NEAR DA) layer, providing powerful and cost-effective data availability for ETH rollups and Ethereum developers. The initial users include StarkNet’s Madara, Caldera, Fluent, Vistara, Dymension RollApps, and Movement Labs.
Source: near docs
NEAR DA utilizes an integral part of the NEAR consensus mechanism called Nightshade, which parallelizes the network into multiple shards.
Each shard on NEAR generates a small portion of blocks called chunks. These chunks are aggregated to produce blocks. When a block producer processes a receipt, consensus must be reached for the corresponding receipt. Once the block is processed and included in a block, the receipt is no longer needed for consensus and can be removed from the blockchain’s state. Therefore, NEAR does not slow down its consensus speed with more data than necessary, but any user of NEAR DA will have sufficient time to query transaction data. Hence, scalable and cost-effective data availability is crucial for any Rollup solution. As the NEAR protocol transitions to stateless validation, it will further reduce the hardware requirements for certain validators (block validators). By storing the state in memory, NEAR can support more shards, thus increasing the system’s decentralization.
In NEAR DA, consensus validation is provided by NEAR validators, who reach consensus when processing blob submissions. In terms of data persistence, full nodes store functional input data for at least three days, while archival nodes can store data for longer periods.
The design of NEAR DA ensures efficient utilization of consensus without wasting excessive data. Additionally, this data has already been indexed by all major browsers on NEAR to provide support for indexers.
Lastly, for long-term availability commitment, NEAR DA adopts an easily deployable approach, allowing anyone with limited expertise and tools to build commitments.
The NEAR-Polygon CDK integration enables developers to build their Rollups and become part of the Polygon ecosystem. This marks the first integration of NEAR DA with zero-knowledge-based Layer 2 stacks, providing developers seeking scalable data availability solutions with more options.
In the blockchain domain, competition among DA projects such as Celestia, EigenLayer, Avail DA, and NEAR DA is fierce. Despite the proliferation of DA layer projects, their core technologies are not overly complex, with each project boasting unique technical and competitive advantages. These projects showcase the diversity and innovation in the blockchain technology field. In the future, as these projects continue to develop and mature, they are expected to make significant contributions to furthering the growth and development of the blockchain ecosystem.
With the development of blockchain technology, decentralized data availability has emerged as one of the important directions to address one of the three significant challenges of blockchain. Against this backdrop, projects such as Celestia, EigenLayer, Avail DA, and NEAR DA have emerged. They aim to address blockchain scalability and performance issues through innovative technologies and designs, thereby promoting the development of the blockchain ecosystem.
In today’s blockchain architecture, Data Availability (DA) is a crucial component. Unlike traditional single-blockchain setups, modular blockchains decompose the network into various functional layers, including execution, Data Availability (DA), consensus, and settlement layers. Among these layers, the Data Availability (DA) layer is responsible for storing the data necessary to verify the validity of transactions.
Source: docs celestia
In blockchain and distributed ledger technology, the issue of data availability is a critically important challenge. At its core, it involves ensuring that all transaction data can be openly accessed and verified on the network, which is crucial for maintaining the integrity and security of blockchain systems.
In blockchain systems, the transaction data of each block needs to be verified by network nodes. However, ensuring that this data is reliably distributed throughout the entire network and ensuring that all participants have equal access to it is a crucial issue.
There are various solutions for the DA layer, broadly categorized into on-chain and off-chain types.
In L2 solutions, data availability typically employs two different approaches:
There are relatively few participants in the Data Availability (DA) domain. Besides Ethereum, there are some key projects such as Celestia, EigenLayer, Avail, and NEAR DA, each with its characteristics regarding project progress. In DA projects, factors such as security, customizability, interoperability, and cost are crucial.
Celestia is the first project to adopt a modular Data Availability (DA) network, aiming to scale the growth of user numbers securely. Its modular design allows anyone to launch an independent blockchain.
As a leader in modular public chains, Celestia is developed based on the Cosmos SDK and is committed to enhancing data availability. On the mainnet, Celestia has achieved significant competitive advantages.
Celestia’s design separates execution, consensus, settlement, and data availability. This modular structure allows for specialization and optimization at each level, enhancing the overall efficiency and scalability of the network.
Source: docs celestia
Data Availability Sampling (DAS) is a method that allows light nodes to verify data availability without downloading the entire block. By randomly sampling data blocks, light nodes can ascertain whether this data can be successfully retrieved and validated, thus inferring data availability for the whole block.
Source: docs celestia
NMTs enable block data to be divided into separate namespaces for different applications. This means that each application only needs to download and process data related to it, significantly reducing data processing requirements.
Source: docs celestia
Celestia is the first modularly designed DA network whose primary goal is to scale amidst user growth securely. Its modular structure simplifies the launch of independent blockchains. With its unique approach and technological innovations, Celestia is poised to play a significant role in the blockchain industry. It focuses on addressing challenges faced by blockchain, particularly scalability issues, while maintaining security and decentralization, making it a vital participant in the evolving blockchain ecosystem.
EigenLayer is a re-staking protocol that allows users to re-stake ETH, lsdETH, and LP Tokens on other platforms, such as sidechains and oracles, and receive validation rewards as nodes. On the other hand, Eigen DA is a decentralized data availability (DA) service built on Ethereum using EigenLayer Restaking and will become the first Active Validation Service (AVS) on EigenLayer.
Source: eigenlayer blog
Eigen DA adopts advanced technologies such as erasure coding, KZG commitments, and ACeD, decoupling data availability (DA) from consensus. This enables Eigen DA to excel in transaction throughput, node load, and DA costs, far surpassing Ethereum’s DA solutions. Compared to other DA solutions, Eigen DA has lower startup and staking costs, faster network communication and data submission speeds, and greater flexibility. Therefore, Eigen DA is poised to become a new contender in the DA market and has the potential to host some of Ethereum’s DA services.
Avail DA aims to address the needs of next-generation trust-minimized applications and sovereign aggregation. Its standout feature lies in its innovative security approach, which allows light clients to easily verify data availability through peer-to-peer network sampling. With Avail DA’s unparalleled data availability interface and robust security features, developers can create blockchain applications based on zero-knowledge or anti-fraud technologies more efficiently and effortlessly.
Source: availproject blog
Avail is a blockchain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), featuring efficient transaction ordering and recording, data storage, and feasibility verification. Compared to traditional smart contracts and underlying layer dependencies, Avail allows Rollups to directly publish data on it and verify it through a light client network. This modular design allows developers to store data on Avail and choose other networks for settlement, providing more flexibility and options.
Avail’s consensus mechanism inherits the BABE and GRANDPA consensus mechanisms from the Polkadot SDK and adopts Polkadot’s Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS), supporting up to 1000 validators. In addition to its robust consensus mechanism, Avail also features decentralization, providing efficient and reliable backup mechanisms through light client P2P networks for data sampling, ensuring data availability even during failures.
Avail excels in transaction ordering, recording, and data feasibility verification, supporting EVM-compatible blockchains. Its light client network verification mechanism allows Rollups on Avail to verify states through the light client network without relying on smart contracts and the underlying layer. Due to its modular nature, developers can store data on Avail and choose other networks for settlement.
On November 8, 2023, the NEAR Foundation announced the launch of the NEAR Data Availability (NEAR DA) layer, providing powerful and cost-effective data availability for ETH rollups and Ethereum developers. The initial users include StarkNet’s Madara, Caldera, Fluent, Vistara, Dymension RollApps, and Movement Labs.
Source: near docs
NEAR DA utilizes an integral part of the NEAR consensus mechanism called Nightshade, which parallelizes the network into multiple shards.
Each shard on NEAR generates a small portion of blocks called chunks. These chunks are aggregated to produce blocks. When a block producer processes a receipt, consensus must be reached for the corresponding receipt. Once the block is processed and included in a block, the receipt is no longer needed for consensus and can be removed from the blockchain’s state. Therefore, NEAR does not slow down its consensus speed with more data than necessary, but any user of NEAR DA will have sufficient time to query transaction data. Hence, scalable and cost-effective data availability is crucial for any Rollup solution. As the NEAR protocol transitions to stateless validation, it will further reduce the hardware requirements for certain validators (block validators). By storing the state in memory, NEAR can support more shards, thus increasing the system’s decentralization.
In NEAR DA, consensus validation is provided by NEAR validators, who reach consensus when processing blob submissions. In terms of data persistence, full nodes store functional input data for at least three days, while archival nodes can store data for longer periods.
The design of NEAR DA ensures efficient utilization of consensus without wasting excessive data. Additionally, this data has already been indexed by all major browsers on NEAR to provide support for indexers.
Lastly, for long-term availability commitment, NEAR DA adopts an easily deployable approach, allowing anyone with limited expertise and tools to build commitments.
The NEAR-Polygon CDK integration enables developers to build their Rollups and become part of the Polygon ecosystem. This marks the first integration of NEAR DA with zero-knowledge-based Layer 2 stacks, providing developers seeking scalable data availability solutions with more options.
In the blockchain domain, competition among DA projects such as Celestia, EigenLayer, Avail DA, and NEAR DA is fierce. Despite the proliferation of DA layer projects, their core technologies are not overly complex, with each project boasting unique technical and competitive advantages. These projects showcase the diversity and innovation in the blockchain technology field. In the future, as these projects continue to develop and mature, they are expected to make significant contributions to furthering the growth and development of the blockchain ecosystem.