MT Capital Research: DA Sector Analysis, Comparative Study of Celestia and EigenDA
By Xinwei, Severin, Ian, MT Capital
TL;DR
- Celestia currently exhibits a robust staking trend, with a staking rate of 48.88% and an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) of 15.74%. It is predicted to reach the ideal staking limit by the end of 2024. As there will be no new token unlocks before November 2024, the actual circulation of tokens is expected to continue decreasing, positively impacting the price. Currently, the Celestia network maintains 100 active nodes.
- Celestia’s current data utilization rate is only 0.1% of its total daily capacity. Despite this, its activity is growing compared to Ethereum. As data utilization increases, future costs could significantly rise. If it reaches a daily data capacity of 46,080 MB per year, the annual cost could be about 5.2 million USD, 65 times that of Ethereum’s current data fees. User demand is expected from high TPS applications and games, with numerous chains based on Celestia RaaS emerging in the coming months.
- EigenDA’s adoption of technologies like erasure coding, KZG commitments, and ACeD, as well as its decoupling of DA from consensus, enables superior performance over Ethereum’s DA solutions in terms of transaction throughput, node load, and DA costs. Compared to other DA solutions, EigenDA also has advantages in lower startup and staking costs, faster network communication, data submission speed, and higher flexibility.
- Compared to EigenDA, Celestia’s competitive edge lies in its extremely low data availability costs and higher data throughput, making it more favored by medium and small L2 and application chains. EigenDA’s advantages include potentially higher security and Ethereum orthodoxy, making it a rational choice for more significant L2 open-source throttling. In the future, Celestia could benefit from the incremental market brought by the dual trends of modularization and application chains, while EigenDA might capture a larger share of the Ethereum-centric market that demands higher security.
- The NEAR Protocol enhances scalability and decentralization through sharding technology and stateless validation, simplifying data management for L2 projects. Avail optimizes blockchain data processing and storage through a modular system, supports asynchronous interactions between application chains, improves network performance, and enables light clients to effectively verify data integrity. These technologies collectively advance the user-friendliness and development of a decentralized digital world in blockchain technology.
Introduction:
The Data Availability Layer has become an essential component of modular architecture, with DA gradually becoming one of the hottest tracks in 2024. The market is rife with discussions about Ethereum DA, Celestia, and other DA solutions. This article delves into the core mechanisms, characteristics, comparisons, and future expectations of key players in the DA track, Celestia and EigenDA. It also scans other players in the DA track, helping readers get a comprehensive view of the current development of the DA track and understand the future competitive landscape of the DA track.
Celestia
Celestia is the first modular Data Availability (DA) network designed to scale securely with the growth of its user base. This modularity allows anyone to easily launch independent blockchains.
Celestia Technical Features
- Modular DA Network
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.
2. Data Availability Sampling (DAS)
DAS is a method that allows light nodes to verify data availability without downloading the entire block. Light nodes randomly sample data blocks; if these data can be successfully retrieved and verified, it implies that the data of the entire block is available.
3. Namespace Merkle Trees (NMTs)
NMTs allow block data to be divided into separate namespaces for different applications. This means that applications only need to download and process data relevant to them, significantly reducing data processing requirements.
4. Scalability Through Light Nodes
The more light nodes participate in data availability sampling, the more data the network can process. This scalability feature is crucial for maintaining efficiency as the network grows.
5. Fraud Proofs for Incorrectly Expanded Data
To address potential data expansion errors by block producers (either intentional or unintentional), fraud proofs allow for the verification and rejection of blocks with invalid data, enhancing network security.
6. Building a PoS Blockchain for Data Availability
Celestia uses a PoS blockchain, called celestia-app, to facilitate transactions and data availability. This layer is built on top of celestia-core, which is an improved version of the Tendermint consensus algorithm, designed to handle the unique needs of the DA layer.
7. Scalability
Two decisive factors for scalability are the amount of data available for centralized sampling (the volume of data that can be sampled) and the target block header size for light nodes (the block header size of light nodes directly impacts the overall network performance and scalability).
In response to these factors, Celestia utilizes the principle of collective sampling, i.e., by having many nodes participate in partial sampling of data, it can support larger data blocks (i.e., higher transactions per second, TPS). This method can expand network capacity without sacrificing security. Moreover, in the Celestia system, the block header size for light nodes grows proportionally to the square root of the block size. This means that to maintain nearly the same security as full nodes, light nodes will face bandwidth costs proportional to the square root of the block size.
Characteristics of the Modular Celestia Stack
- Self-Sovereignty
Celestia’s Rollups are different from Ethereum’s Rollups in that when they run on Celestia, their canonical state is independently determined. This increases autonomy, allowing nodes to freely decide their operation through soft and hard forks. This self-sovereignty reduces reliance on central governance and fosters more experimentation and innovation.
2. Flexibility
The execution-agnostic nature of Celestia means its Rollups are not confined to EVM-compatible designs. This openness provides broader opportunities for virtual machine innovation, aiding in technological advancement.
3. Easy Deployment
Celestia simplifies the blockchain deployment process. Using tools like Optimint, developers can rapidly deploy new chains without worrying about the complexities and high costs of consensus mechanisms.
4. Efficient Resource Pricing
By separately addressing active state growth and historical data storage, Celestia offers a more effective resource pricing mechanism. This approach reduces the interplay between execution environments, improving user experience.
5. Trust-Minimized Bridges
Celestia’s architecture supports the creation of trust-minimized bridges, enabling different chains to securely interconnect. This enhances the security and interoperability of the blockchain ecosystem.
6. Minimal Governance
Celestia’s modular design reduces the need for centralized governance. The execution layer can develop independently and rapidly, while the consensus layer remains stable. This separation decreases the need for complex social coordination.
7. Decentralized Block Verification
Celestia emphasizes the decentralization of block verification, not just block production. This approach enhances network security and trustworthiness.
8. Simplicity
Celestia opts for simplicity, using straightforward and mature technologies like Tendermint as its foundation to avoid overcomplication. This simplicity is beneficial for system stability and scalability.
Celestia’s Data Cost
Numia Data recently published a report titled “The impact of Celestia’s modular DA layer on Ethereum L2s: a first look”, which compared the costs incurred over the past six months for different Layer 2 (L2) solutions deploying CallData on Ethereum, and the potential costs if they were to use Celestia as the Data Availability (DA) layer (assuming a TIA price of $12 in this calculation). This report, by contrasting the cost differences in these two scenarios, clearly demonstrates the significant economic benefits of a dedicated DA layer like Celestia in reducing L2 Gas expenses.
Tokenomics
Total Supply at Genesis: 1 billion TIA.
Distribution of TIA at Genesis:
Inflation Plan: Initially 8%, decreasing by 10% each year, until reaching a minimum annual rate of 1.5%.
Utility of TIA Tokens
- Paying for Data Space: Developers submit PayForBlobs transactions on Celestia, using TIA to pay fees for using its data availability layer.
- Bootstrapping New Rollups: Developers can use TIA as a gas token and currency to start new blockchains, similar to the use of ETH in Ethereum-based Rollups. This helps focus on application or execution layer development without the immediate need to issue new tokens.
- Proof of Stake: Celestia is built on Cosmos SDK and uses Proof of Stake for its consensus. Users can delegate TIA to validators and earn a portion of the staking rewards.
- Decentralized Governance: TIA holders participate in governance, voting on network parameters and managing the community pool, which receives 2% of block rewards.
Token Unlocking
Staking Situation
Celestia currently has a staking rate of 48.88% and an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) for staking of 15.74%.
Based on the current relationship between staking APR and the staking rate, the following linear relationship is fitted:
Staking APR = -0.3331 * Staking Rate + 0.3204
Given that Celestia’s staking APR is at least its own inflation rate of 7.85%, the ideal limit for the staking rate is 72.6%.
Fitting the data on the change in staking rate over time, it appears that the staking rate is expected to reach this limit around the end of 2024.
As there will be no new token unlocks for Celestia before November 2024, we can expect the actual circulating supply of Celestia to continue decreasing until then, and we remain optimistic about the token price of Celestia until November 2024.
Currently, Celestia has 100 active nodes.
Compared to the Ethereum mainnet, Celestia’s data cost has been reduced by 99.9%. Users can publish data to blobs with namespaces and access data by filtering specific namespaces. Since Celestia’s launch two months ago, users have published a significant amount of data to various namespaces, but 87% of it is concentrated in three main namespaces.
Currently, Celestia’s daily data usage rate is only 0.1%, far below its daily support capacity of 46,080 MB. Nevertheless, compared to Ethereum’s current 15 Rollups and daily data volume of 700 MB, Celestia’s activity is still growing.
Currently, Celestia’s fees are relatively low, but if data usage increases, fees could significantly rise. In the future, if Celestia achieves a daily data capacity of 46,080 MB at a TIA price of $13, the network will generate about $5.2 million in annual fees. This would be 65 times the cost of data currently published to Ethereum. The network’s fee structure might lead to bidding wars among users, further driving up costs.
Future user demand may come from various applications, such as high TPS general chains, specific applications, or games. While it is difficult to predict specific sources of demand, games and high TPS Rollups may be key drivers. In the coming months, we will see a surge of chains utilizing Celestia’s RaaS entering the market.
New Valuation Model for Celestia
Considering Celestia is the first modular public chain DA layer, and the Cosmos community has been very generous with airdrops to Celestia stakers (like the Dymension airdrop which already covered the cost of staking in Celestia), and more modular public chain-related projects will likely airdrop to Celestia stakers, the following valuation approach is proposed:
Price (TIA) = Accumulated value for DA layer + Monetary premium of TIA as a “modular currency” + Value of all future airdrops
Celestia Ecosystem Projects
Cevmos
Cevmos is a rollup stack developed in collaboration between Cosmos EVM chain Evmos and Celestia, aimed at providing the optimal settlement layer for EVM-based rollups on Celestia. The name is a combination of abbreviations from Celestia, Evmos, and Cosmos. Cevmos is designed to provide a dedicated settlement layer for rollups to reduce costs and improve efficiency, as part of its enforced settlement rollup solution. As a settlement layer, Cevmos is built on Evmos and implements EVM recursive rollups on top of it.
Unlike the existing Tendermint Core consensus engine on Cosmos, Cevmos adopts Optimint (Optimistic Tendermint), an alternative to Tendermint BFT, allowing developers to deploy rollups using existing consensus and data availability (like Celestia). Since Cevmos itself is a rollup, all rollups built on it are collectively known as settlement rollups. Each rollup is re-deployed with minimal bi-directional trust bridges to Cevmos rollup, reducing migration workloads. All rollups will use calldata on the Cevmos rollup, with Cevmos batching data through Optimint and publishing it on Celestia.
Cevmos rollup, as a constrained EVM environment, also attempts to address challenges through single-round fraud proofs. Cevmos not only avoids designing and maintaining complex consensus mechanisms but also brings the efficiency of rollups and the interoperability of EVM to the entire Cosmos ecosystem, providing a practical modular solution for widespread applications and adoption within the Cosmos ecosystem.
Dymension
Dymension is a Cosmos-based sovereign rollup platform aimed at greatly simplifying the development process of application-focused custom rollups (called rollApps) through its Dymension Chain (settlement layer), RDK (RollApp Development Kit), and IRC (rollup inter-chain communication) functionalities.
The autonomous Dymension hub settlement layer, based on the Tendermint Core state replication model and PoS consensus mechanism, enables RollApps built on Dymension hub not only to inherit its security but also to communicate with each other through dedicated module assemblies supported by RDK and the hub.
RollApps consist of two key components: client and server. The server side, as the application end of RollApp, is responsible for implementing custom business logic and constructing pre-packaged modules of the RollApp Development Kit RDK. The client component, named dymint, derived from Celestia’s Optimint, serves as a direct substitute for Tendermint, handling block production, peer-to-peer network message propagation, and inter-layer communication. Since RollApp itself does not undertake consensus tasks, dymint can provide the low latency performance required for modern applications.
Similar to Cosmos, Dymension RollApps aim to create application-specific blockchains to reduce consensus overhead. RDK adds new modules on top of Cosmos-SDK and modifies existing ones to ensure compatibility with the Dymension protocol while remaining compatible with other Cosmos ecosystem tools. RollApps can interact with any IBC-supporting chain through Dymension Hub, making them also part of the Cosmos ecosystem.
Eclipse
Eclipse is a sovereign rollup project within the Cosmos ecosystem, specifically allowing customizable modular rollup settlement layers using the Solana VM on any chain. In its early stages, Eclipse plans to use Celestia as its consensus and data availability (DA) layer, while adopting the Solana VM for execution and settlement. Eclipse’s ultimate goal is to provide customized rollup execution layers for different Layer1 heterogeneous blockchains, connecting various blockchains through a modular approach. Additionally, Eclipse plans to further evolve its Solana VM-based settlement layer rollups into Optimistic rollups and zk rollups in the future, extending its functionality and application scope.
Fuel
Fuel, while similar to Celestia, has distinct differences. Celestia focuses on data availability and consensus optimization, handling data ordering, whereas Fuel positions itself as a modular execution layer.
A key distinction of Fuel lies in its novel virtual machine architecture — FuelVM, along with the accompanying Sway language and toolchain. FuelVM, a custom virtual machine designed specifically for executing smart contracts, is capable of processing transactions in parallel and is fraud-proof by design, suitable for the transaction execution layer of Optimistic rollups.
FuelVM combines features from WASM, EVM, and Solana’s SeaLevel but uniquely adopts the UTXO model instead of the account model. This means that Fuel VM requires each transaction to specify explicitly the UTXOs it will touch. Because the execution engine can precisely identify the state involved in each transaction, it can easily identify and process non-contentious transactions in parallel. This design makes Fuel VM more efficient and secure in transaction processing.
Celestia Summary and Future Outlook
Celestia, as the first modular DA network, focuses on scaling securely with the growth of its user base. Its modular design makes launching independent blockchains straightforward. Key technologies of the network include Data Availability Sampling (DAS) and Namespace Merkle Trees (NMTs), with the former allowing light nodes to verify data availability without downloading the entire block, and the latter enabling applications to process only relevant data, greatly reducing data processing requirements.
Based on the current relationship between staking rate and APR, with no new unlocks expected for Celestia before November 2024, the staking rate is anticipated to continue rising, and the actual circulating supply is expected to decrease, suggesting a continued increase in token price. Additionally, Celestia’s data cost is reduced by 99.9% compared to Ethereum’s mainnet, with a daily data usage rate of only 0.1%, far below its daily support capacity of 46,080 MB, indicating substantial potential for expansion.
The value of Celestia’s TIA token is based not only on its applications and innovations in blockchain technology but also on the potential value of future airdrops. As blockchain technology develops and modular public chains become more widespread, Celestia and its TIA token may demonstrate even greater potential and value.
The Celestia ecosystem includes innovative projects like Cevmos, Dymension, Eclipse, and Fuel, which use Celestia’s modular features to provide customized solutions for specific applications, reflecting Celestia’s significant position and potential for development in the blockchain technology field.
Given its unique approach and technological innovations, Celestia is poised to play a significant role in the blockchain industry. Its focus on solving the trilemma of blockchain, particularly scalability without sacrificing security or decentralization, positions it as an important participant in the evolving blockchain ecosystem.
EigenDA
Introduction to EigenDA
EigenDA is the first AVS product under EigenLayer. EigenDA aims to leverage Ethereum’s security by making re-staking nodes the validator nodes of EigenDA, supporting Rollups to publish data to EigenDA for lower cost and higher transaction throughput data availability services.
EigenDA Technical Architecture
EigenDA closely follows Ethereum’s ultimate scaling path of Danksharding. Therefore, the technical path of the DA layer adopted by EigenDA is also highly relevant to Ethereum’s Danksharding scaling technical path. Furthermore, EigenDA’s adoption of technologies like erasure coding, KZG commitments, ACeD (Authenticated Coded Dispersal), and the decoupling of DA and consensus enables superior performance over Ethereum Danksharding DA solutions in transaction throughput, node load, and DA costs.
The specific implementation flow of EigenDA is as follows:
- First, after the Rollup sequencer creates the data blob, it needs to send a request to split the data blob to the Disperser. (The Disperser can be run by the Rollup itself or third parties like EigenLabs.)
- Next, upon receiving the data blob, the Disperser needs to split the data blob into different data shards and use erasure coding to generate redundant data blob shards along with corresponding KZG commitments and KZG multi-reveal proofs.
- Then, the Disperser will distribute the data shards, KZG commitments, and KZG multi-reveal proofs to different EigenDA nodes (Ethereum re-staking nodes registered as EigenDA nodes). The nodes need to use the KZG multi-reveal proofs and KZG commitments to verify the validity of the data shards. After verification, the nodes need to store the data and send signatures back to the Disperser.
- Finally, the Disperser will aggregate the signatures and submit them to the EigenDA contract on Ethereum mainnet. The signatures in the EigenDA contract will be further verified, and if valid, the process ends.
Similar to other DA solutions, the core idea of EigenDA is also to use DAS technologies to reduce the storage and verification load on individual nodes, while improving the overall throughput of global DA consensus. Erasure coding redundancy is used to ensure data security. However, EigenDA chooses KZG commitment verification technology that aligns with Ethereum upgrades for its specific technical implementations. Also, EigenDA does not rely on consensus protocols and P2P propagation, but instead uses unicast to further improve consensus speed.
Additionally, EigenDA has some more refined designs to ensure node data storage and node verification.
EigenDA uses Proof of Custody to ensure EigenDA nodes actually store the data in the data shards. Each EigenDA node must periodically compute and submit the value of a certain function, which requires the node to have stored the corresponding data shard to compute the function value. Nodes that fail Proof of Custody will have their ETH slashed as punishment.
EigenDA further safeguards the validity of DA consensus through Dual Quorum proofs. EigenDA will have at least two independent Quorums to attest data availability. For example, one Quorum consists of ETH re-stakers, another consists of native token stakers of the Rollup. The DA must be validated by both independent Quorums simultaneously to be confirmed as valid.
Analysis of EigenDA Features
To better differentiate EigenDA from Ethereum DA and other DA solutions in terms of differences and advantages/disadvantages, we can compare them separately.
Compared to Ethereum DA, EigenDA:
- EigenDA nodes do not need to download and store all data, only a small portion of data shards. This significantly reduces node operation and running costs.
- EigenDA decouples DA and consensus, so nodes don’t need to wait for serial ordering and can directly process proofs of data availability in parallel. This greatly improves network efficiency. Also, with erasure coding and KZG commitments, nodes only need to download and store small chunks of data for verification, increasing network throughput.
- Since EigenDA only inherits part of the mainnet’s security, from a
security perspective, EigenDA is still weaker than Ethereum DA.
Compared to other DA solutions, EigenDA:
- EigenDA nodes are a subset of re-staking nodes in the EigenLayer network, becoming an EigenDA node does not require additional staking costs.
- EigenDA decouples DA and consensus, using direct unicast so data shard propagation is no longer limited by consensus protocol and P2P network throughput. This greatly reduces communication, network latency and confirmation times, increasing data submission speed.
- EigenDA inherits part of Ethereum’s security, which is generally higher than other DA solutions.
- EigenDA also supports Rollups flexibly choosing different staking token models, erasure coding ratios, etc., providing higher flexibility.
- Since EigenDA’s final confirmation relies on the EigenDA contract on Ethereum mainnet, the time overhead for final confirmation will be significantly higher than other DA solutions.
Latest Progress and Use Cases of EigenDA
EigenDA launched its testnet in mid November 2023. Initially, the number of node operators on the EigenDA testnet was limited to 30, with an initial throughput target of 1Mbps. EigenDA plans to gradually expand the number of operators, so that EigenDA can eventually approach the target throughput of 10Mbps.
According to current testnet data, the number of node operators on the EigenDA testnet has expanded to 200. However, the average network throughput over the past 7 days is only 0.45Mbps, still not reaching the initial 1Mbps target.
Currently, the total TVL on EigenDA testnet is around 3.5M, with Ankr, Lido, and LST from Stader as the top 3 staked assets by share. The total number of node operators has reached 200, with total stakers reaching 29.4k.
Although EigenDA is still in testnet stage, we can make some simple comparisons between the current EigenDA testnet data and related Ethereum data, to get a sense of how far EigenDA is from its ultimate goals.
Inheriting Ethereum’s security:
- The current TVL on EigenDA testnet is around 3.5M, while Ethereum’s FDV is around 264B. In terms of asset value, EigenDA only inherits 0.001% of Ethereum’s security.
- The current number of staking validators on EigenDA testnet is 29.4k, while Ethereum has 904k staking validators. In terms of staking validators, EigenDA inherits around 3.2% of Ethereum’s security.
Improved network throughput:
- The current throughput of EigenDA testnet is around 0.45Mbps, while Ethereum’s throughput is around 0.083Mbps. Although not yet reaching the ideal levels of 1Mbps-10Mbps or eventually 1Gbps, EigenDA’s throughput is about 500% higher than Ethereum’s.
Currently, EigenDA has also launched a partnerships program, with 8 projects including AltLayer, Caldera, Celo, Layer N, Mantle, Movement, Polymer Labs and Versatus having partnered with EigenDA to use its data availability services.
Summary
EigenDA’s adoption of technologies like erasure coding, KZG commitments, ACeD, and the decoupling of DA and consensus enables superior performance over Ethereum DA solutions in transaction throughput, node load, and DA costs. Compared to other DA solutions, EigenDA also has advantages in lower setup and staking costs, faster network communication and data submission, and higher flexibility. EigenDA is poised to take on some of Ethereum’s DA services and become an emerging competitor in the DA market.
Comparison of Celestia and EigenDA and Future Outlook
Comparison of Data Availability:
Data Availability Sampling:
Celestia supports data availability sampling, allowing light nodes to randomly sample and download/verify data shards. EigenDA does not support data availability sampling. Supporting sampling enables Celestia to safely increase block size through more light nodes, without increasing node burden while ensuring minimum node verification. More light nodes can also improve network decentralization.
Encoding Proofs:
Celestia uses fraud proofs to ensure original data is encoded properly, while EigenDA uses KZG commitments for validity proofs. Celestia’s fraud proofs have lower implementation barriers and more mature technology, without needing to generate additional KZG commitments. However, EigenDA’s use of KZG commitments allows faster verification of data accuracy than Celestia’s fraud proofs, since with fraud proofs, light nodes need to wait to receive proofs from full nodes.
Consensus Mechanisms:
Celestia uses Tendermint consensus, requiring P2P network propagation. EigenDA decouples DA and consensus, using direct unicast for faster network communication and confirmation without consensus protocol and P2P throughput constraints.
However, EigenDA relies on the EigenDA contract on Ethereum mainnet for final confirmation, so for final block confirmation time, Celestia only needs 15 seconds, significantly faster than EigenDA’s 12 minutes.
Node Load:
Celestia full nodes need to handle broadcasting, consensus, and validation, requiring 128MB/s download and 12.5MB/s upload bandwidth. EigenDA nodes don’t handle broadcasting and consensus, requiring only 0.3MB/s bandwidth.
Throughput:
Celestia has ~6.67MB/s throughput. EigenDA testnet has 0.45MB/s, below its 1–10MB/s target. Currently Celestia has significantly higher throughput.
Setup Costs:
Celestia depends on its PoS network security, so nodes must stake Tia tokens, requiring setup costs. EigenDA inherits Ethereum’s security so nodes just register as re-stakers, avoiding setup costs.
Usage Costs:
Celestia currently charges $3.41/MB to Manta. EigenDA testnet costs around 0.024 Gas/Byte, much lower than Celestia.
Security:
Celestia’s security comes from its network value. The higher the value, the higher the attack cost, making attacks less likely. Celestia’s staked value is ~$1.2B, so an attack would cost >$0.8B.
EigenDA inherits a subset of Ethereum’s security based on re-staked asset value and operator share on mainnet. Currently EigenDA testnet TVL inherits only 0.001% of Ethereum’s security. To exceed Celestia’s security, EigenDA would need >0.45% of Ethereum’s value re-staked. This is expected to increase significantly on mainnet launch.
Node counts also matter for security. Celestia has ~100 validators while EigenDA testnet has 200 nodes. By node count, EigenDA may exceed Celestia’s security.
Although Celestia and EigenDA currently have different approaches for data availability sampling and encoding proofs, as DAS and KZG technologies continue maturing, their choices may converge.@sreeramkannan has hinted EigenDA may add DAS support for more light nodes in the future. @likebeckett also said Celestia could switch to validity proofs based on KZG commitments if they become more attractive than fraud proofs.
So the differences in DA technical architecture may not remain core differentiators in the future.The most notable differences going forward are more likely to be in network security, usage costs, and throughput capabilities.
Future Outlook for Data Availability
Based on the Celestia and EigenDA comparison, network security, usage costs, and throughput may become the key considerations for projects choosing between DA solutions. EigenDA’s Ethereum-native status is also a significant factor.
For network security, although EigenDA testnet currently lags behind Celestia, we believe EigenDA mainnet launch, relaxing re-staking limits, and the rise of Ethereum restaking narratives could lead to exponential growth in re-staked asset value and node counts on EigenDA. This may allow EigenDA to exceed Celestia’s network security. More security-focused projects may prefer EigenDA.
- Ethereum’s current FDV is $277B. Just 0.4% participating in EigenDA could exceed Celestia’s security, very achievable.
For usage costs, Celestia is still significantly cheaper than EigenDA. More cost-sensitive smaller L2s and application chains may prefer Celestia. Lyra and Aevo’s migration demonstrate this. Profitability is a must-have for mid-sized L2s early on. Being cost-conscious rather than blindly chasing Ethereum’s “brand premium” may better enable growth. For app chains, lower costs provide more asset flexibility for incentives tailored to their growth.
- Aevo cuts 90%+ of DA costs by migrating to Celestia.
For throughput advantages, Celestia currently has 10x+ higher observed throughput over EigenDA testnet. This may make Celestia more appealing for performance-sensitive app chains, along with the flexibility to increase block sizes. However, EigenDA testnet is just a reference point and mainnet performance remains to be seen for a fairer comparison.
For Ethereum-native status, using EigenDA will still be seen as more “legitimate” in the short term. But over time, as modular architecture and app chains gain traction, being non-Ethereum native will likely face less backlash. Ethereum legitimacy may blur in the coming waves of L2s and app chains. Still, major DeFi and L2s are unlikely to migrate from Ethereum in the near future — its narrative remains key.
In summary, Celestia’s ultra-low costs and higher throughput provide strong appeal for smaller L2s and app chains. The cost savings give them more revenue flexibility to stimulate growth. EigenDA’s advantages lie more in leveraging Ethereum’s security and legitimacy. Near term, it may be the more rational choice for larger L2s versus expensive Ethereum DA.
Therefore, we believe Celestia is better positioned to capture the incremental growth from modular architecture and app chains, while EigenDA will compete more for the existing Ethereum-native market with higher security needs.
Near DA & Polygon Avail
Currently, the competition between Celestia DA and Ethereum-native DA solutions is becoming a focus of market discussions. In addition, third-party DA solutions such as Near DA and Polygon Avail are also starting to emerge. This article will examine the major third-party DA players Near DA and Polygon Avail, to gain insights into the other development trajectories in the DA space.
Near DA
Cost Efficiency
Using NEAR DA can significantly reduce the cost of data storage and transmission. The cost of publishing calldata for a block on NEAR is only $0.0016, while on Ethereum L1 (after the Dencun upgrade), the cost of publishing the same amount of data is approximately $7.73. This indicates that NEAR is 5000 times more cost-efficient.
Technical Principles
The Blob Store contract is a key component on the Near blockchain, specifically designed for processing and storing DA blobs. Blob Store contracts use Near’s consensus mechanism to store blobs, forming consensus around the data when a block producer processes it.
Data Pruning: Once a block includes the receipt and processes it, the receipt is no longer needed for consensus and can be pruned. The pruning time is at least 3 NEAR epochs, each lasting 12 hours, typically five epochs in practice.
Archive Nodes: Once receipts are pruned, the responsibility for storing transaction data shifts to archive nodes. This data can also be obtained from indexers.
Blob Commitment Verification: By checking blob commitments, we can verify that the blob was retrieved from ecosystem participants in the submitted format. Blob commitments are created by dividing a blob into 256-byte segments and creating a Merkle tree, where each leaf is a Sha-256 hash of a segment. The root of the Merkle tree is the blob commitment, provided to the L1 contract as [transaction_id ++ commitment], which is 64 bytes of data.
Key Advantages
- Consensus Verification: Near validators provide consensus around blob submissions.
- Data Persistence: Functional input data is stored by full nodes for at least three days, with archive nodes capable of longer-term storage.
- Efficient Use of Consensus: Consensus is not occupied more than necessary for data.
- Indexer Support: This data is currently indexed by all major browsers on NEAR.
- Long-term Availability of Commitments: Commitments are easy to create and can be built by anyone with limited expertise and tools.
Currently, NEAR’s data availability layer product, NEAR DA, has integrated with developer stacks like Polygon CDK and Arbitrum Orbit, allowing developers to build their own L2 or L3 networks, etc.
The NEAR-Polygon CDK integration allows developers building their own rollups to become part of the Polygon ecosystem, marking the first integration of NEAR DA with a ZK-based L2 stack, adding options for developers seeking scalable DA solutions. This integration also builds on the NEAR-Polygon research collaboration to create zkWASM — a new prover for WASM blockchains. In the future, builders could even create zkWASM chains based on NEAR DA. NEAR DA and zkWASM technology will play a significant role in parallel scaling of the EVM and Wasm ecosystems while maximizing interoperability in a multi-chain future.
Arbitrum Orbit chains utilize the Arbitrum Nitro technology stack, a technology developed by Arbitrum for scaling Ethereum. It allows developers to create their own blockchains, which can settle transactions on Arbitrum One, Arbitrum Nova, or the Ethereum mainnet, provided the Arbitrum DAO grants an L2 license. These Orbit chains use Arbitrum’s Rollup and AnyTrust protocols, offering customization in throughput, privacy, gas tokens, and governance to meet specific use cases and business needs. For example, rollup developers looking for a cheaper data availability (DA) alternative can now utilize NEAR DA within the Arbitrum Orbit stack. In this way, developers can build self-managed, configurable blockchains with more control over their functionality and governance while benefiting from Ethereum’s security assurances.
Polygon Avail
Avail was initially a project by Polygon in 2020 and became an independent entity in 2023. Led by Polygon’s co-founder Anurag Arjun and former head of Polygon research Prabal Banerjee, it aims to provide industry-leading data availability solutions. Polygon Avail is a modular blockchain solution focused on the data availability layer, designed to build scalable data availability solutions. It employs a series of technologies, including light clients, data availability sampling, KZG (Kate-Zaverucha-Goldberg) polynomial commitments, and erasure codes, to improve on-chain data throughput and address performance bottlenecks.
Avail’s design features include:
- Consensus Mechanism: Uses BABE and GRANDPA consensus mechanisms from Polkadot SDK, combining liveness and security to provide network resilience and withstand temporary network partitions and a large number of node failures.
- Decentralization: Adopts Polkadot’s Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS) supporting up to 1000 validator nodes and reducing stake centralization risks through effective reward distribution. Avail’s full nodes and light clients use Data Availability Sampling (DAS) for verification, allowing the same security assurances as traditional full nodes while reducing dependency on them.
- Validity Proofs: Avail uses KZG polynomial commitments to reduce memory, bandwidth, and storage requirements, providing an efficient verification process. This differs from the fraud-proof technology used by Celestia, although Avail shares many similarities in data availability but differs in the method of validity proofs.
- Data Availability and Security: Avail’s design philosophy focuses on establishing a data available layer, providing a universal data availability solution. It does not rely on the honest majority assumption, as light clients can independently determine data availability through random data sampling, allowing block reconstruction from light nodes even if full nodes crash or attempt to censor data.
- Technical Implementation: Avail employs data redundancy, anti-fraud proofs, and commitment mechanisms to ensure data validity. It uses KZG polynomial commitments to ensure that data remains valid even after “erasure,” including data redundancy, anti-fraud proofs, and commitment mechanisms, enabling full nodes to incorporate all transaction data of light nodes.
Avail’s practical applications include hosting independent chains, sidechains, and off-chain scaling solutions, aiming to provide all-scenario data availability solutions for the application layer. For example, in Ethereum Layer 2 solutions, Avail can be used for transaction ordering and data availability, ensuring data availability on-chain while easing the data volume restrictions of the main chain.
Future Outlook for Near DA and Polygon Avail
The NEAR protocol, through its sharding method and NEAR DA technology, showcases its scalability capabilities and blueprint for future development. The engineering team’s recent shift towards stateless validation marks a further evolution in sharding technology, aimed at increasing the number of shards and decentralization by lowering validator hardware requirements and shifting state to memory. This will enhance NEAR protocol’s overall processing capacity, freeing projects and developers from competing for block space. As the number of shards increases, the data storage requirements for each shard decrease, theoretically allowing each account to become its own shard, enabling the running of lightweight RPC nodes. This means more efficient data management for L2 projects using NEAR DA. Although data availability sharding is still in development, it has already shown NEAR protocol’s significant advantages for various builders and the ecosystem. As the Web3 domain evolves, NEAR, by providing rapid, low-cost data availability solutions for rollups, not only addresses the scaling challenges faced by Ethereum but also prepares for a multi-chain and cross-chain future, positioning NEAR DA technology at the forefront of this transformation.
Avail’s future outlook focuses on enhancing the efficiency and accessibility of the blockchain ecosystem. Through its modular system, Avail aims to independently optimize data processing and storage, improving overall network performance. It particularly emphasizes enhancing data availability, ensuring that even if data is not directly stored on-chain, it can still be effectively verified, crucial for maintaining transaction transparency and security. Avail also plans to support asynchronous interactions among multiple application chains, similar to a microservices architecture, to increase overall flexibility and scalability. For ordinary users, Avail’s advanced technology enables light clients to verify data integrity without downloading the entire blockchain, making blockchain technology more user-friendly. Since becoming independent from Polygon, Avail has begun exploring new collaborative opportunities with a diverse range of partners, showcasing its potential in multiple application scenarios. Ultimately, Avail’s goal is to provide developers with an easy-to-use environment, inspiring them to create innovative applications while driving the construction of a more open, interconnected, and decentralized digital world.
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