In recent times, the phrase "Modular Blockchain" or "Celestia" has emerged in the crypto community as a technological innovation for the development of the DeFi market. So what is a modular blockchain and what is the potential for the first project - Celestia - to implement the new architecture? Let's find out with Holdstation through the following analysis!
What is Celestia?
Celestia is the first modular layer1 blockchain that assumes the role of a consensus and data validation layer allowing easy deployment of other blockchains on the Celestia network.
Before we can understand Celestia, we need to know some terms. First, each blockchain undertakes 3 main functions including: Consensus, Execution, and Data Availability.
- Consensus - the method by which everyone in the network agrees on which transactions should take place and determines the order of transactions. For example , Bitcoin blockchain with Proof-of-work consensus mechanism - using computing power to validate transactions, or Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism of Ethereum, BSC, ...
- Execution - decides which transactions are valid and updates the network.
- Data Availability - refers to the ability of transaction data to be made available to download nodes for anyone to identify on the blockchain.
Most of the current blockchains like Ethereum, BSC, Sui, Aptos,... are built on monolithic architecture which means that the core functions mentioned above all execute at the same time and deployed by the same group of validators. This limits scalability because all nodes must contain all the data and confirm each transaction.
Besides, as shown above, the blockchain is bound to a single execution environment (programming language, fork ability, community culture,...). For example, Dapps built on Ethereum need to comply with predefined rules of the EVM system - Solidity language, security priority, etc. Thereby limiting the development team can optimize to suit user needs. for your platform (for example, the game will need higher processing speed instead of strong security).
It is also the reason the market is looking to the future of multichains. Ethereum plans to do this through Rollups - enjoying the security of Ethereum but with less flexibility. Cosmos also joined in by creating an interoperable Layer1 ecosystem - cheaper and more flexible than rollups but not as secure.
For the modular model , the blockchain separates consensus and execution of transactions. That is, one blockchain is responsible for execution and the other blockchain is responsible for consensus.
As such, the Celestia blockchain assumes the role of consensus under the PoS mechanism. Instead of having to confirm each transaction that takes place, Celestia simply reads the raw data and makes sure the information is ready for deployment.
The execution layer will be implemented by the blockchain built on Celestia. From there these blockchains can freely specialize without having to rigidly follow a common set of rules.
If Polkadot also allows other blockchains to be built on top, the transaction must still be sent to the main chain for settlement. Meanwhile, for Celestia, transactions will be performed directly on the blockchain (execution layer) and apply rollup technology to collect all data from multiple transactions into a single transaction and send it back to Celestia. Blockchain.
⇒ Celestia is like a combination of Cosmos compatible zones with Rollups Ethereum technology common security center ⇒ flexible and secure.
Data Availability Sampling
The new mechanism that optimizes the data validation process is one of the highlights of Celestia. If in the traditional direction, having to download all data in one block will mean that when there is a lot of information, it will need to use more powerful resources (large storage, advanced hardware, ...) as well. such as lead to long time and cause congestion ⇒ reduce scalability.
To solve this problem, Celestia developed the Usable Data Model model. Instead of loading the entire transaction data of a block, Celestia allows only a small random sample of data to be taken and will assume that the entire information is ready.
For easy visualization, for example, the information to be authenticated includes a sequence of numbers from 1 to 100 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5,..., 99, 100). Traditionally, you need to collect all 100 numbers to be considered eligible, but with Celestia, only a small representative sample such as 4 numbers (5, 6, 7, 8) is considered as children. the rest is also ready and complete.
By applying this mechanism, you can even run a node with just your phone instead of requiring a huge set of computers ⇒ increasing the number of people who can authenticate so it's more decentralized and easy to scale.
Token
The validation project will issue tokens and the functionality may include: Staking, authorization, inflation rewards, and payments for uploading data to the blockchain.
Celestia also plans to implement a burning mechanism similar to EIP-1559 to bring about token deflation.
Celestia Ecosystem
Blockchains from any network (EVM, SVM,...) can also deploy or use Celestia for data availability and consensus to exploit security features.
There are currently 4 blockchains built on Celestia
- Cevmos - layer EVM rollup co-developed by Cosmos EVM and Celestia.
- Fuel - similar to Celestia but with the module implementation class role. Fuel builds a brand new virtual machine - FuelVM with toolchain and Sway programming language.
- dYmension - sovereign rollup (an independent blockchain) aimed at simplifying rollApp development (application designed with rollup focus) through dYmension Chain.
- Eclipse - sovereign rollup (an independent blockchain) optimized layer rollup Solana VMs.
Roadmap
Currently the project is still in the testnet stage and is expected to launch the mainnet in 2023. In particular, according to the roadmap, next year Celestia will deploy the Incentivized Testnet - this is usually a campaign to encourage people to experience the testnet and receive the airdrop. (such as Aptos once held 3 Incentivized testnet and "huge" airdrop for participants).
Guide to Experience Testnet Chance to Receive Airdrop From Celestia - The First Blockchain Modular HERE
Celestia Team
The project team with many years of experience in building and expanding blockchain comes from projects like Ethereum, Cosmos, and Harmony.
In addition, the project advisors also include some prominent names such as Ethan Buchman - co-founder of Cosmos, or deep expertise from Ethereum, Cosmos, Diem and Interchain Foundation (most likely Cosmos and Celestia have a relationship. close cooperation).
Investors
Celestia receives investment from major fund institutions in the market through the following rounds:
- Strategy Round 2021 ($1.5 million): Binance Labs, Interchain Foundation,...
- Series A and Series B 2022 ($55 million): Bain Capital Crypto, Polychain Capital, Placeholder, Galaxy, Delphi Digital, Blockchain Capital, Spartan Group, Jump Crypto,... and some other angel investors.
Summary
With a team of good expertise and invested by many large funds along with new technology to overcome scalability and security, Celestia will be a good competitor for many other ecosystems such as Ethereum - Darksharding or Polygon - Avail.