Detailed explanation of modular blockchain network Celestia
Original title: "Modular Blockchains the Next Alpha? Celestia Overview"
Original author: kadeemclarke.eth, Momentum 6
Celestia (formerly LazyLedger), is the first modular blockchain network. It is a pluggable consensus and data availability layer that enables anyone to quickly deploy a decentralized blockchain without the overhead of bootstrapping a new consensus network. Celestia's Nick White explains that Celestia is a cloud computing network for Web 3.
In Web 2, cloud services such as Amazon Web Services enable users to launch websites on virtual machines that share a physical machine (physical server). Celestia enables users to launch decentralized applications on specific application chains that share a consensus layer.
The Problem with Single Blockchains, L2 Scaling Solutions and EVM
Currently Ethereum has There are scaling solutions like Optimism, ZKsync, and Starknet. However, data availability for these scaling solutions relies on Ethereum. The bad news is that Ethereum is still expensive, which explains why L2 gas fees are likely to remain high.
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) developers are limited in what they can deploy, and Gas costs are high. Unless you use tools like Tendermint to develop blockchains, developers cannot build complex applications that the EVM does not support.
The overhead associated with creating a blockchain is significant. Developers must create a consensus layer (usually PoS) and initiate a token sale. And Celestia can save developers from all this trouble.
Most blockchains today are monolithic. The core functions of the blockchain, execution and consensus, occur simultaneously and are performed by the same set of validators. Monolithic architectures are difficult to scale because each transaction must be executed by a full node, causing bottlenecks.
How Celestia Works
Celestia has a modular architecture that deconstructs the blockchain stack into specialized components. The core functions, consensus and execution, are separated into different layers.
Monolithic architecture may be restricted. Consensus and execution functions are bundled in one layer, and smart contracts are then built on top of that bundled layer. Users are tied into one execution environment, limiting the potential for optimization and specialization for specific use cases.
The modular architecture separates consensus and execution into different layers. The execution layer exists on its own blockchain, allowing optimization and specialization for specific use cases. Any developer building a decentralized application based on this architecture will enjoy better flexibility, security, and scalability.
In a modular blockchain, data availability sampling is achievable, enabling nodes to verify a block with a very small 100MB chunks of 10KB data. A machine with minimal processing power, such as a smartphone, can act as a node.
When developers build DApps directly on Celestia, they can choose which execution environment to use and run any number of them in parallel. In a monolithic environment, the consensus tightly binds the execution rules, which means that users are also bound to the execution environment supported by the underlying chain.
In the future, we will likely see Tendermint chains and Cosmos zones using Celestia as a data availability layer. These zones will provide a uniform level of security to the Cosmos ecosystem by utilizing fraud proofs to minimize trust and help reduce its reliance on community governance when dealing with bad zones.
Developer Network
Devnet (Developer Network) was launched in December 2021 and consists of three main components: Optimint, Celestia applications and Celestia nodes.
Celestia node The task of the component is to achieve consensus and networking for this blockchain. This component determines how light nodes and full nodes generate new blocks, sample data from blocks, and synchronize new blocks and block headers.
The chain's state machine is located at Celestia application. It is the application that handles transaction processing and staking.
Devnet (Developer Network) is not yet complete as the team will still be developing various features ahead of the testnet. On Optimint, there will be improvements in synchronized blocks, data availability layer integration, common tools, and indexed transactions. In the Celestia application, the team will be working on the implementation of transaction fees and evaluating upgrades to ABCI++. Ultimately, the team hopes to make its network services more robust on Celestia nodes, and improve light nodes and poorly coded fraud proofs.
Creating a modular world requires more than a scalable data availability layer like Celestia. It also required the creation of cross-rollup bridges, new execution layers, and developer tools. Teams already working on a scalable execution layer include Offchain Labs, Optimism, Fuel, Matter Labs, and StarkWare. On the other hand, there are teams creating bridges to the execution layer, such as Connext, Composable, and Axelar.
Quantum Gravity Bridge
Celestium is an Ethereum Layer 2 chain that uses Ethereum for dispute resolution and resolution and Celestia for data availability. It's worth noting that Celestia doesn't handle computation, it's just a data layer. Celestia has a cost advantage because its pricing is based on bytes rather than storage and compute. Therefore, Celestia handles the availability and ordering of transaction data, which gives it better throughput than Ethereum.
The Quantum Gravity Bridge will sit on Ethereum and various layer 2 operators will publish their transaction data on the Celestia network. Proof-of-stake validators will put this data into blocks. The data will then be relayed from Celestia to Ethereum in the form of proofs of data availability.
The job of the Quantum Gravity Bridge contract is to verify all signatures on proofs of data availability from Celestia. When a Layer 2 contract on Ethereum updates its state, it queries the DA bridge contract instead of relying on transaction data posted to Ethereum as call data. If a valid proof was previously passed to the bridge, the bridge will pass a positive response.
Team
Celestia Labs CEO Mustafa Al-Bassam holds a PhD in Blockchain Scaling from University of London. He previously co-founded the sharded smart contract platform Chainspace, which has since been acquired by Facebook . Mustafa has also authored several seminal papers on the security of sharded blockchain systems.
John Adler of Celestia Labs is a Layer 2 researcher. He previously worked at ConsenSys, working on Ethereum 2.0. Drawing inspiration from Mustafa's work on data availability, Adler created the first specification for an optimistic rollup scheme.
Ismail Khoffi is the CTO of Celestia Labs and a well-known research engineer with many years of experience. In addition to building academic research prototypes, he has contributed to bringing various non-blockchain and blockchain projects into production, including Google UK and Tendermint.
Nick White , COO of Celestia Labs, holds BS and MS degrees from Stanford University. Prior to joining Celestia, Nick White co-founded Harmony, a blockchain protocol for building scalable blockchain infrastructure to power the decentralized revolution. White worked there from June 2018 to December 2020. He is also a Senior AI Specialist at Zeroth.ai, an AI startup accelerator program.
Roadmap
Celestia is still in the early stages of development. The development team released the MVP in 2021 and the Devnet (Developer Network) in November 2021. 2022 will be even more important as the project will launch a testnet and gradually build the mainnet.
Conclusion
Scalability has been one of the biggest obstacles to the widespread adoption of blockchain technology. While some layer 1 scaling solutions exist, most are focused on block production rather than block validation. Celestia, a modular blockchain network, is helping people fully enter the Web 3 era with its scalability, security and decentralization features. Celestia is not the only solution as Polygon has Avail and Ethereum has Danksharding. However, Celestia is unique because of its focus on ease of integration, fast delivery, and user experience.
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