State of the Modular Union
Full Summary of the Talk by Mustafa Al-Bassam CEO of Celestia Labs
📺 Access Mustafa Al-Bassam’s full talk at Modular Summit 3.0 here:
Introduction
The Modular Ecosystem and Innovation in Shenzhen, China
Mustafa Al-Basam began his talk by showing a photograph of an electronics market in Shenzhen, China, using it as an analogy for the modular ecosystem. He explained how this city has become an electronics hub where different hardware manufacturers collaborate closely, allowing prototyping of devices such as phones and laptops to happen in days, rather than months or years. This collaboration is made possible by the diversity and number of manufacturers complementing each other.
Comparing this to the blockchain ecosystem, Mustafa described how different layers (execution, settlement, consensus, bridging) work together. He imagines an ideal future where this modular marketplace operates optimally, overcoming current shortcomings.
THE THESIS: WHY WE ARE HERE
The Cryptocurrency Innovation Cycle
Mustafa criticised the repetitive cycle of new L1 blockchains that offer only incremental improvements on previous ones. Since Bitcoin in 2008, there has been a succession of new blockchains (Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, Avalanche, etc.) that attempt to recreate complete Ethereum ecosystems. For the cryptocurrency industry to mature, he suggests breaking this cycle and promoting a positive ecosystem that is not fragmented into rival tribes.
Evolution of Rollups
Mustafa highlighted the evolution of rollups, from theory to implementation. Three years ago, the idea of rollups and the modular stack was mainly theoretical. Over time, frameworks for rollups and bridges were developed, and implementation of this infrastructure began. Last year was a turning point with the emergence of application-specific rollups.
MODULAR EXPANSION AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
This year’s theme is modular expansion, reflecting the explosive growth of rollups. In 2022 and early 2023, we saw a proliferation of infrastructure projects, frameworks, bridges and service providers. This year, although there are fewer new projects, there has been a significant increase in the number of developers and rollups.
Proliferation of Full RaaS Providers
Mustafa attributed the growth in the number of rollups to the emergence of full-service rollup providers. During 2023, numerous general purpose and application-specific rollups were deployed. This increase is due to developers preferring to deploy their own infrastructures through new rollups rather than using smart contracts on existing chains. This independence allows developers to have more control over the infrastructure, generating more visibility and capturing more revenue, which makes application development more sustainable.
Future of Rollups and the Modular Ecosystem
By 2025, Mustafa predicted a significant expansion of application-specific rollups, although he considers it ambitious to envisage 1,000 rollups. However, he emphasises the importance of modularity to avoid the proliferation of hundreds of unnecessary rollups, arguing that users prefer a single, efficient solution that eliminates current complexity.
ANTITHESIS: WHY MODULARITY SUCKS?
Alluding to criticisms of this modular approach for complexity and friction in the user experience, Mustafa made the following reflections:
User Experience Challenges
He highlighted the need to simplify the user experience in transactions and bridging between chains, criticising the current complexity. Users want a straightforward and uncomplicated experience, similar to web browsing, where there is no need to worry about the underlying infrastructure.
Importance of Light Nodes and Decentralised Trust
Mustafa mentioned the relevance of nodes as integrated elements in the infrastructure, so that users are not dependent on centralised providers. The goal is for light nodes to be a fundamental part of the application infrastructure, not simply elements for recreational use.
“The goal of light nodes is not just to run them for fun. It’s about integrating them into wallets so people don’t have to rely on centralised RPC providers.” _ Mustafa Al-Bassam
Duplication of General Purpose EVM Chains
He criticised the unnecessary duplication of general purpose chains, comparing it to copying and pasting applications into different chains. Mustafa advocates a synthesis that solves problems of visual and user experiences, string abstraction and interoperability between contracts and transactions.
SYNTHESIS: WHERE ARE WE GOING?
Progress and Problem Solving
Mustafa acknowledged that there is progress in solving these problems, and underlines the need to move away from the monolithic layered mentality to create a truly interoperable ecosystem. Examples such as Skip API demonstrate that a good user experience is possible, enabling transactions across different chains in a way that is transparent to the user.
Vision for the Future
The ultimate goal is to create a world where interactions between different chains are as seamless and transparent as surfing the web. Users should not worry about the underlying infrastructure, but enjoy an integrated and frictionless experience when using different services and applications across multiple chains.
Collaboration and Ecosystem Mobility
Mustafa emphasised the need for collaboration to enable broad adoption of innovative solutions. When creating a new rollup, it is essential to consider ecosystem mobility from the outset. Moving forward, it is crucial that blockchain and wallet developers work together, supporting functionalities such as chain-specific addresses and interoperability between contracts and chains.
The Importance of Light Nodes
Mustafa stressed that nodes should not just be decorative elements and showed us that it is already possible to run Celestia light nodes from the browser, which facilitates their integration into wallets such as Kepler or MetaMask.
This development is an important step towards making light nodes more useful and accessible, allowing users to operate them directly from their devices.
Role of Rollups in the Evolution of the Crypto-industry
Mustafa mentioned the importance of rollup frameworks and their contribution to a new era of decentralised applications. Projects such as Rollkit (Cosmos SDK), Movement (Move) or Linux container rollups (Cartesi) are taking the technology to new levels. He also highlights the developments at Solana and its move towards a more modular architecture with rollups.
Overcoming Fragmentation and Promoting Collaboration
To avoid getting stuck in a cycle of incremental improvements and tribal ecosystems, it is crucial to move towards a positive, collaborative ecosystem. Mustafa stressed the importance of overcoming maximalism and getting all components to work together harmoniously. This will allow transactions and bridges to be as seamless as if a single chain were being used.
MODULAR EXPANSION AND THE FUTURE OF ROLLUPS
The theme of the year is modular expansion, with the aim of making rollups more useful and accessible. Mustafa concluded his talk by highlighting the importance of these developments for the future of the crypto industry and the need to continue conversations on these topics at the Modular Summit.
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