What exactly is the modular public chain Celestia?

Author: Chole, Chain Teahouse

Blockchain has always been a distributed network that executes state machine replication, divided into three layers: data, consensus, and execution. This is also the key point for creating currency based on the internet, which is to introduce a consensus system that cannot be interfered with externally. The original solution proposed by Satoshi Nakamoto was to introduce the "Satoshi Consensus" so that people all over the world could maintain and operate Bitcoin.

In these monolithic blockchains, the three layers of data, consensus, and execution are all handled by a single network, with everything from data validation to transaction execution carried out through nodes.

Moreover, since blockchain is a globally replicated distributed state machine, the higher the complexity, the higher the cost and complexity of maintaining system synchronization. Roll-up separates the execution layer, handling complex transactions and solving part of the problem. For example, Arbitrum embeds specific opcodes in L1, allowing nodes to intentionally bypass EVM calls for data, only storing the validation of these transactions without executing them.

However, Roll-up must monitor L1 and execute calling transactions for computation, then return to L1 in different ways. These transactions must actually be routed through the ETH network to be executed on Roll-up.

Currently, ETH has Roll-up-based scaling solutions like Optimism, ZKsync, and Starknet, as well as bridges based on the execution layer, such as Connext, Composable, and Axelar. However, the data availability of these scaling solutions still relies on Ethereum's consensus and execution layers, and the cost of using Ethereum's execution layer remains high, limiting the range of deployment for developers.

The first modular blockchain network, Celestia, is set to launch this year and will support Roll-up as its data availability layer.

1: Project Overview

Previously named LazyLedger, Celestia can be considered the first modular blockchain network, which features pluggable consensus and data availability layers, allowing anyone to quickly deploy decentralized blockchains without the additional costs of a consensus layer. In other words, Celestia is a public chain that stores transaction records and provides data availability.

Celestia adopts a modular architecture, deconstructing the blockchain into data, consensus, and execution. Most blockchains still bundle consensus and execution functions into one layer, where smart contracts are built. Users bound to this execution environment greatly limit the potential for optimization and specialization for specific use cases.

Celestia's modular architecture allows the execution layer to exist on its own blockchain, enabling optimization and specialization for specific use cases. Developers building decentralized applications based on this architecture will enjoy more comprehensive security and scalability on top of the original blockchain execution layer. Additionally, in Celestia's modular blockchain, data availability sampling is achievable, allowing nodes to validate a block with a small sample while using lower hardware configurations, such as home computers and mobile phones.

Developers can directly choose the execution environment they want to use to build dApps on Celestia and can run any number of execution environments in parallel. In a monolithic environment, consensus is tightly bound to execution rules, limiting users to only the execution environments supported by the main chain. Celestia has already partnered with Tendermint and Cosmos zones as a data availability layer. These public chains will minimize trust by utilizing fraud proofs, providing a unified security level for the Cosmos ecosystem.

2: Application Scenarios

Celestia-centered combination:

Sovereign Roll-ups are directly built on Celestia, using Celestia consensus to treat DA as a separate module, entirely based on Celestia to establish chains. The settlement Roll-up will occur on Cevmos, which is the best embedded EVM SDK in the Cosmos SDK, specifically designed for Roll-up settlements. The aggregations on Cevmos will publish their data to Cevmos and then to Celestia.

The goal of Cevmos is to allow Ethereum Roll-ups to launch natively on Celestia without changing the codebase. Roll-ups are no longer contracts running on Ethereum, leading to greater scalability.

Celestium, through the quantum gravity bridge, will serve as Ethereum's DA chain solution, providing data availability for Ethereum, which is a secure and low-cost Validium design for Ethereum.

Autonomy advantages:

The Celestia network itself is only responsible for verifying data integrity and does not involve a complete consensus mechanism. Therefore, Roll-ups on Celestia are essentially self-sovereign blockchains, allowing nodes to freely fork their software.

In the past, a fork in L1 meant a fork of both the execution layer and the consensus layer. If there were vulnerabilities or attacks on Roll-ups on Ethereum, it would require redeployment or a complete network fork to complete state updates. However, Celestia's technological iteration allows chains to fork without losing security, as the DA layer used after the fork remains the same, making updates easier, and the execution layer can focus on optimizing the execution environment and speed.

Easy deployment chain technology:

In the past, deploying a chain required high resources and costs, needing to establish consensus and incentivize nodes to join the network. With the development of PoS, tools like Cosmos SDK have made creating new blockchains easier, but developers still need to find validating nodes to join.

Therefore, Celestia's introduction of Optimint will help developers deploy chains more efficiently, as Celestia provides complete consensus and security. Moreover, multiple chains adopt the same DA layer, minimizing trust for bridging between the same blockchain. This enhances the security of communication between multiple blockchains. Finally, Celestia also combines the open ecosystem of Cosmos with Ethereum's shared security, providing the possibility of multi-chain openness and shared security.

3: Team Introduction

CEO Mustafa Al-Bassam holds a PhD from University College London and previously co-founded the smart contract platform Chainspace, which was later acquired by Facebook. Mustafa has also authored several pioneering papers on the security of sharded blockchain systems.

CRO John Adler previously worked at ConsenSys as an L2 scalability researcher, involved in the second phase of Ethereum 2.0. Adler found new applications for data availability from Mustafa, creating the first prototype for the Optimistic Rollup solution.

CTO Ismail Khoffi is a well-known research engineer in the industry. In addition to building academic research models, Khoffi has contributed significantly to various non-blockchain and blockchain projects, including Google UK and Tendermint.

COO Nick White holds a master's degree from Stanford University. Before joining Celestia, White co-founded the blockchain protocol Harmony, which provides scalable blockchain infrastructure, driving new momentum for the decentralized revolution. White is also a senior AI expert in the accelerator project Zeroth.ai for AI startups in Asia.

4: Investment Institutions

Celestia has launched its "Mamaki" testnet, supporting users to operate nodes, receive testnet tokens, delegate validators, and send transactions between wallets. The project is expected to launch its mainnet in early 2023.

Currently, a developer network has already launched ahead of the testnet, which includes three main components: Optimint, Celestia-app, and Celestia-nodes. The task of Celestia-nodes is to achieve consensus for this blockchain and establish the network, determining how light nodes and full nodes create new blocks, sample data from blocks, and synchronize new blocks with multi-faceted technology. In Optimint, Cosmos Zones will be directly deployed on Celestia.

5: Community Situation

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/CelestiaOrg
5.9k followers

Discord:
https://discord.com/invite/YsnTPcSfWQ
35,491 followers

Telegram:
https://t.me/CelestiaCommunity
9,580 followers

6: Chain Teahouse Review

Scalability has always been one of the biggest barriers to the widespread adoption of blockchain technology. Although there are already many L1 scaling solutions, most focus on the consensus layer rather than data availability.

The modular blockchain Celestia builds a public chain that separates the data layer, allowing developers to focus on designs above the data layer without having to worry about the underlying data records. Many believe that this modular design for data availability layers will not only provide faster solutions for scaling but will also greatly reduce the difficulty for developers to enter web3.