Celestia, the first modular data availability network, launches on mainnet

Data availability blockchain Celestia is live on mainnet, making it the first modular data availability network to be publicly available. 

Celestia’s mainnet launch will consist of rollups that use the network as its data availability and consensus layer.

The team recently initiated its airdrop efforts, through which 6% of the tokens total circulating supply was set to be awarded to eligible participants.

Read More: Celestia opens airdrop for planned modular data availability network

Data availability refers to the capability network nodes have to download transaction information, store the information and ensure that participants can access the information to verify or dispute its accuracy. 

On layer-1 blockchains like Ethereum, network nodes download the data from each block, preventing invalid transactions from being executed. 

What Celestia offers is a data availability layer, which can verify transactions through data availability sampling (DAS) — without the need to download data from an entire block.

Read More: Why data availability sampling matters for blockchain scaling

Using a data availability layer can increase the efficiency of a blockchain, drastically improving transaction speeds and minimizing costs.

In this initial launch, blocks will be between 2MB and 8MB in size and will be upgradeable based on on-chain governance. 8MB of blobspace is estimated to be around 9,000 to 30,000 ERC-20 transactions every second.

The Celestia team plans to increase block sizes to roughly 1GB as part of its roadmap.

“Celestia’s mainnet beta launch marks the arrival of the first live modular data availability network with data availability sampling (DAS) light nodes,” said Ekram Ahmed, spokesperson for the Celestia Foundation.

Celestia’s mainnet launch follows the unveiling of Nexus — a network of bridges that enables developers to bootstrap liquidity across various crypto ecosystems. 

Nexus was developed by contributors from Neutron, Hyperland and Mitosis using the Inter Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC) and a modular security stack designed by Hyperlane.

---

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

• Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
• Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
• Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
• 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
• Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
• The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
• Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.