Perspectives: Diverse Development of Data Availability Layer Competition
NingNing, a researcher on the blockchain, recently expressed his views on the future competition of Data Availability (DA) layer on Twitter. After the upgrade in Cancun, modular competition will directly come to the forefront. Celestia, EigenDA, and Covalent each have their unique advantages and positioning.
The article, compiled and translated by Chain News, serves as a reference for the original text if there are any doubts.
Table of Contents:
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DA Competition Catalyst: Cancun Upgrade
Reduced Data Storage Costs for Rollups
Modular Competition Brought by Cancun Upgrade
Multi-dimensional Competition in Block Data Availability
Providing the Safest DA Layer: Ethereum
Providing the Most Efficient DA Layer: Celestia
Providing the Definitive DA Layer: EigenDA
Providing Permanent Data Storage DA Layer: Covalent
Intense Competition in the Data Availability Layer
Currently, the fuel fees consumed by Layer2’s verification and settlement account for 10-20% of Ethereum’s total consumption. Among them, about 95% of the fees are paid to Ethereum’s mainnet for DA services. This shows that data storage for data availability is very expensive and is a current challenge that Rollups urgently need to overcome.
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Changes in the proportion of Ethereum fuel consumption
Currently, Layer2’s state data is stored in the blocks of Ethereum’s mainnet in the form of CallData. However, after the Cancun upgrade, Layer2’s state data will be stored in the newly added Blob space, which will significantly reduce costs.
However, in the era of Cancun upgrade, a new narrative has already emerged: DA War. After Ethereum completes the Cancun upgrade in the first half of this year, Ethereum will enter the prototype stage of transitioning from a monolithic blockchain to a modular blockchain.
After the Cancun upgrade, Ethereum can be seen as a modular public chain system composed of L1 Ethereum mainnet and L2 based on Ethereum (Arbitrum, Optimism, ZkSync, Starknet, Scroll, Taiko, Metis, etc.). The profound changes can be seen from Optimism’s slogan “Ethereum, scaled” in pursuit of Ethereum’s full equivalence.
After the Cancun upgrade, the Ethereum stack will be more “significantly” divided into execution layer, consensus layer, settlement layer, and data availability layer. The execution layer will partially outsource its functions to Layer2 based on Ethereum. The settlement layer ensures the security of Layer2’s assets, the consensus layer is responsible for finality, and the data availability layer guarantees the reusability of Layer2.
Data availability refers to the state data of L2, including complete transaction information, which used to be stored in L1 mainnet, that is, Ethereum, after verification and consensus, providing fraud-proof for Op-Rollup and ZKP verification support for ZK-Rollup.
Before the launch of Celestia, a modular blockchain that focuses on providing DA services, Ethereum mainnet monopolized 100% of the DA market.
Celestia uses Data Availability Sampling (DAS) and Namespaced Merkle trees (NMT) technologies to enhance network consensus security and scalability. The former allows lightweight nodes in the Celestia network to participate in the verification process of data availability, increasing security. The latter reduces the load on the Celestia network and Rollups by naming storage space, allowing specific Rollups to only read relevant data.
After the launch of Celestia mainnet, it has begun to positively compete with Ethereum mainnet in the DA market with its characteristics of low cost, security, and high trustlessness. Projects such as Manta, Lyra, and Dymension have also joined Celestia.
(How will the privacy-focused Layer2 project Manta Pacific break through the competition of zk Rollups as a latecomer?)
Therefore, Celestia has made the Ethereum community and Vitalik very unhappy. It is not only because Celestia’s competition damages Ethereum mainnet’s value capture ability but also because its behavior damages the integration, equivalence, and interoperability between Ethereum and L2, making the Ethereum ecosystem incomplete.
(Celestia Mainnet Launch: Opportunities and Challenges for the Future of Modular Blockchains)
However, it’s not just Celestia that covets the DA market. EigenLayer also urgently needs an AVS project to find real-world use cases for its platform with a TVL of over one billion dollars. Facing the temptation of the blue ocean market of DA services, EigenLayer decisively launched EigenDA as its first AVS project.
(How will the staking project EigenLayer change the infrastructure of Web3?)
However, the architecture of EigenDA is different from Celestia. It uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) such as KZG (Kate-Zaverucha-Goldberg) commitments to verify the state data submitted by Layer2 and ensure finality. Ultimately, the state data of Layer2 still needs to be submitted and saved to the Ethereum mainnet.
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Operation architecture of EigenDA
(Data source)
EigenDA functions as a subcontractor in the verification and finality process of the DA service on the Ethereum mainnet, rather than just competing with Celestia in providing data availability.
After the Cancun upgrade, the Ethereum mainnet will only save the state data submitted by Layer2 for one month before discarding it. Celestia, in order to maintain the decentralization and operation of the lightweight node verification mechanism of the network, will also regularly discard the state data submitted by Layer2.
Therefore, Covalent, a data API provider in the Ethereum ecosystem, launched the long-term data availability layer service EWM (Ethereum Time Machine) at the end of last year, permanently storing the Layer2 state data discarded by Ethereum.
Covalent will structure this data and integrate it into its platform’s on-chain data indexing API service to provide data investigation services and support for professional blockchain data websites, government regulatory departments, artificial intelligence research teams, or other projects.
After the Cancun upgrade, modular blockchains will become the mainstream paradigm, and the DA layer will become the most fiercely competitive area in the modular stack. The DA War will be staged vigorously.
Whether it is Celestia, EigenDA, or Covalent, they each have their unique advantages and positioning. The future competition in the data availability layer may replicate the diverse development of Layer2 and bring a more robust foundation to the Ethereum ecosystem.
Celestia
Covalent
DA
EigenDA
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Further reading:
Vitalik’s Post Praises, ENS Skyrockets 90%, and the Political Maneuvering Behind Tweets
Intense Competition in the Modular Race: Polygon CDK Integrates Celestia to Enhance Competitiveness
