Modular blockchain Celestia has officially rolled out its beta mainnet following the issuance of its native TIA token to 580,000 wallet holders.
The decentralized protocol which describes itself as a “modular data availability network that securely scales with the number of users” addresses the scalability and stability issues commonly encountered by monolithic blockchains like Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL).
In a blog post celebrating Celestia’s launch, the Celestia Foundation, which supports the development of the network, wrote that it is the start of a new “modular era” of blockchain technology with “new values, defined by verifiability, abundant block space, and collaborative blockchains”.
Celestia Debuts Modular Blockchain to Address Scalability and Stability Issues Faced by Ethereum and Solana
While monolithic blockchains often compromise decentralization and security for scalability, modular blockchains like Celestia provide specific channels for speed and execution. Celestia enhances its data transfer speed with the help of data availability sampling (DAS), which is a mechanism that allows light nodes to verify available data without downloading all the information contained in the blockchain for creating a single block transaction, reducing strain on the network and helping it scale faster and more efficiently.
According to Ekram Ahmed, a spokesperson for Celestia Foundation, the Celestia mainnet beta launch marks the arrival of the “first live modular data availability network” with data availability sampling and can be considered a “giant leap” in the organization’s mission to deploying chains the same way smart contracts are deployed.
In beta, other rollups and modular blockchains will be able to use the Celestia mainnet as a data availability and consensus layer. Initially, each block on the network will have storage of 2 MB, with plans to extend the capacity to up to 8 MB. The due upgrade will be made following an on-chain governance process. The Foundation hopes to support 1 GB blocks in the future “to provide abundant data availability for the modular ecosystem”.
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Celestia Targeting Users of Layer 2 Scaling Networks with Token Launch
On launch day, TIA tokens were changing hands at around $2.29, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
In a note to subscribers on October 31, Sean Farrell, an analyst at market strategy and sector research firm FundStrat, estimated the Celestia airdrop to distribute about $120 million in on-chain value based on TIA’s current market price. He added that Celestia could target the users on Cosmos (ATOM) and Ethereum’s layer-2 ecosystems. Farrell also noted that the airdrop could either “stimulate on-chain activity or flow into related assets”, ultimately benefitting the asset’s price.
Since its inception in 2019, the Celestia Foundation has sought to seamlessly integrate data availability layers and execution engines on the Celestia blockchain. The mainnet beta will provide features including a data availability layer with DAS-powered light nodes, a Celestia node API for efficient data blob publishing and retrieval, and support for 2-8 MB blocks that can be scaled further based on demands.
Before its launch, TIA was trading at around $2 on the decentralized perpetual market Aevo, with an open interest of about $130,000. Cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin noted that it received over-the-counter bids for the token before the mainnet went live.
At the time of writing, Celestia (TIA) is trading at $2.23 – up 7.2% in the last 24 hours. TIA has a total supply of 1 billion tokens and a market capitalization that currently stands at $314.89 million. The network had a 24-hour trading volume of $329.67 million.
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