DA Track Core Project Review

Author: Snow

Translator: Viper

Article Reviewers: Edward, Piccolo, Elisa, Ashley, Joyce

Copyright: Gate.io

Introduction

With the development of blockchain technology, decentralized data availability has become one of the important directions to solve one of the three major challenges of blockchain. In this context, projects such as Celestia, EigenLayer, Avail DA, and NEAR DA have emerged, attempting to address the scalability and performance issues of blockchain through innovative technologies and designs, thereby promoting the development of the blockchain ecosystem.

Data Availability Issues

Introduction to Data Availability

In today's blockchain architecture, data availability (DA) is a crucial component. Unlike traditional single blockchains, modular blockchains break the network down into different functional layers, including execution, data availability (DA), consensus, and settlement. Among these layers, the data availability (DA) layer is responsible for storing the data required to verify the validity of transactions.

Source: https://docs.celestia.org/learn/how-celestia-works/data-availability-layer

Data Availability Issues

In blockchain and distributed ledger technology, data availability issues are a critical challenge. The core of this issue lies in ensuring that all transaction data can be publicly accessed and verified on the network, which is essential for maintaining the integrity and security of the blockchain system.

In a blockchain system, the transaction data of each block needs to be verified by network nodes. However, ensuring that this data can be reliably distributed across the network and that all participants can access it equally is a key issue.

Why is Data Availability Important?

Off-chain transactions: L2 solutions aim to handle transactions outside the main chain to improve the overall scalability of the system. However, this approach may bring some challenges, as L2 does not immediately record all transaction data on the L1 blockchain, which may lead to difficulties in verifying the integrity and accuracy of all transaction data.

Reliance on Layer 1 security: Although L2 networks have the capability to operate independently and process transactions, they still rely on the L1 network to ensure overall security. Ensuring that data transmission from L2 to L1 is complete and accurate is crucial for maintaining the integrity of the entire network.

Dependency of resolution mechanisms on data: L2 networks can apply mechanisms such as fraud proofs to resolve potential disputes. The effectiveness of these mechanisms relies on the availability and accessibility of transaction data.

Transparency and trust issues: In blockchain technology, transparency is a critical principle. In L2 networks, any issues regarding data availability may trigger a trust crisis, as users may not be able to independently verify the authenticity of transactions.

Increased complexity of verification: The introduction of L2 increases the complexity of ensuring the accuracy of data returning to the main chain, which also brings risks to data availability issues, thereby affecting the reliability of the network.

DA Solutions

DA layer solutions are diverse and can generally be divided into two main types: on-chain and off-chain.

Data availability in L2 solutions typically adopts two different approaches:

• On-chain data availability: All transaction data is stored on the L1 chain, which offers higher security but also comes at a higher cost. This means that L2 still relies on Ethereum as the DA layer and depends on Ethereum to reduce the cost of data availability.
• Off-chain data availability: Data is stored off-chain, with only the cryptographic hash of the data stored on-chain. This approach is more cost-effective but requires reliance on external entities to retrieve the data. In other words, it no longer uses Ethereum as the DA layer but seeks more economical ways to achieve data availability. Depending on the degree of decentralization and security, off-chain solutions can be divided into four types: Validium, Data Availability Committees (DAC), Volition, and general DA solutions.

Overview of DA Track Projects

Participants in the data availability (DA) field are relatively few. In addition to Ethereum, there are several key projects such as Celestia, Eigenlayer, Avail, and Near DA, each with its own characteristics in project progress. In DA projects, factors such as security, customizability, interoperability, and cost are crucial.

Celestia

Celestia is the first project to adopt a modular data availability (DA) network, aiming to securely scale the growth of user numbers. Its modular design allows anyone to easily launch independent blockchains.

As a leader in modular public chains, Celestia is developed based on the Cosmos SDK and is committed to enhancing data availability. On the mainnet, Celestia has already achieved significant competitive advantages.

Technical Features

Celestia's design separates execution, consensus, settlement, and data availability. This modular structure allows for specialization and optimization at each layer, improving the overall efficiency and scalability of the network.

Source: https://docs.celestia.org/learn/how-celestia-works/monolithic-vs-modular

Data Availability Sampling (DAS)

Data Availability Sampling (DAS) is a method that allows light nodes to verify data availability without downloading the entire block. By randomly sampling data blocks, light nodes can verify whether this data can be successfully retrieved and validated, thereby inferring whether the data of the entire block is available.

Source: https://docs.celestia.org/learn/how-celestia-works/data-availability-layer

Namespace Merkle Trees (NMTs)

NMTs allow block data to be divided into separate namespaces for different applications. This means that each application only needs to download and process the data relevant to it, significantly reducing data processing requirements.

Source: https://docs.celestia.org/learn/how-celestia-works/data-availability-layer

Feature Analysis

Celestia's Rollups differ from Ethereum Rollups in that their operation on Celestia independently determines the normative state, increasing the autonomy of nodes. Nodes can freely choose their operational methods through soft and hard forks, reducing reliance on centralized governance and promoting more experimentation and innovation.

Celestia's Rollups have execution-independent characteristics, meaning they are not limited by EVM-compatible designs. This openness provides broader space for innovation in virtual machines, helping to drive technological advancement.

Celestia simplifies the blockchain deployment process. Using tools like Optimint, developers can quickly deploy new chains without worrying about the complexities and high costs of consensus mechanisms.

Celestia separates the growth of active state and the storage of historical data, providing a more efficient resource pricing mechanism. This approach reduces the interdependence between execution environments, improving user experience.

Celestia's architecture supports the creation of trust-minimized bridges, allowing different chains to securely interconnect, thereby enhancing the security and interoperability of blockchain clusters.

Celestia is the first modular design DA network, with the primary goal of securely scaling as the number of users grows. Its modular structure makes it simple to launch independent blockchains. With its unique approach and technological innovations, Celestia is expected to play an important role in the blockchain industry. It focuses on addressing the challenges faced by blockchain, especially scalability issues, while maintaining security and decentralization, making it an important participant in the ever-evolving blockchain ecosystem.

Eigen DA

EigenLayer is a restaking protocol that allows users to restake ETH, lsdETH, and LP Tokens on other sidechains, oracles, etc., and earn validation rewards as nodes. Eigen DA is a decentralized data availability (DA) service built on Ethereum, leveraging EigenLayer Restaking, and will become the first Active Validation Service (AVS) on EigenLayer.

Technical Features

Enhanced data availability capabilities for Ethereum: Eigen DA enhances Ethereum's data availability capabilities by utilizing Blob block data and KZG commitments, aided by the post-Cancun upgrade Blob block data and KZG commitments. Node validation work is carried out by Ethereum's Validators, and the entire process is completed around Ethereum's existing infrastructure.

No autonomous consensus and P2P network: Eigen DA nodes restake ETH in the EigenLayer contract on Ethereum L1, becoming a subset of Ethereum validators. Through hosted proofs, each operator must regularly compute and submit a function's value, which can only be computed if they have stored all blob blocks allocated to them within the specified storage period. If they prove a blob without computing this function, anyone with access to their data items can slash the ETH held by that node, ensuring the security and reliability of the network.

EigenLayer consensus mechanism: ETH stakers can choose to validate the Eigen DA network and accept Eigen DA-specific slashing conditions. They then act as POS validators, proving the network state.

Data availability layer: Eigen DA breaks down data calls into small chunks and performs erasure coding and KCG polynomial commitments on these chunks, allowing each node to download only a small portion of the system. Even if half of the nodes leave, the system will not be affected. They can do this because even if some chunks are lost, the erasure code can reconstruct the complete data state, and the KZG proof ensures that the chunks they receive are the same as those claimed by the nodes.

Source: https://www.blog.eigenlayer.xyz/intro-to-eigenda-hyperscale-data-availability-for-rollups/

Feature Analysis

Eigen DA nodes are a subset of the restaking nodes in the EigenLayer network, and becoming an Eigen DA node does not require additional staking costs.

Existing DA solutions use P2P networks to transmit Blobs, where operators receive Blobs from their peers and then rebroadcast the same Blobs to others. This greatly limits the achievable DA rate. In EigenDA, dispensers send blobs directly to EigenDA operators. By relying on direct communication to distribute data, data propagation is no longer constrained by consensus protocols and P2P network throughput, thus shortening communication, network latency, and confirmation times, and improving data submission speed.

Eigen DA inherits part of Ethereum's security, offering higher security compared to other DA solutions.

Eigen DA also supports Rollups in flexibly choosing different staking token models, erasure coding ratios, etc., providing greater flexibility.

Since the final confirmation of Eigen DA relies on the Eigen DA contract on the Ethereum mainnet, the cost of Eigen DA in terms of final confirmation time overhead is significantly higher than that of other DA solutions.

Eigen DA employs advanced technologies such as erasure coding, KZG commitments, and ACeD, decoupling data availability (DA) from consensus, allowing it to excel in transaction throughput, node load, and DA costs, far surpassing Ethereum's DA solutions. Compared to other DA solutions, Eigen DA offers lower startup and staking costs, faster network communication and data submission speeds, and greater flexibility. Therefore, Eigen DA is expected to become an emerging competitor in the DA market and is poised to carry a portion of Ethereum's DA services.

TNA Protocol

Source: https://tna-btc.com/

TNA Protocol is a Bitcoin asset and security protocol that integrates full-chain domain asset issuance and DA solutions. Based on in-depth research on Bitcoin data availability, TNA Protocol has launched TNA Core, a BLOB-based DA framework that can synchronize states between the Bitcoin mainnet and layer two networks, as well as between multiple Bitcoin layer two networks, while ensuring security and cost-effectiveness. TNA Core's solutions can be well integrated into major Bitcoin DA solutions, such as Nubit and B Squared, assisting in achieving more efficient data availability.

Additionally, TNA Core's DA solutions and its fully chain-issuable domain asset Tapnames can closely integrate, directly defining cross-chain interoperability standards, allowing users to seamlessly transact across various networks using domain names, with security provided by TNA Core.

The narrative upgrade of TNA Protocol is significant, reflecting dual benefits for token prices and products. Firstly, the narrative upgrade and the accompanying new economic model are conducive to TNA Protocol seeking new liquidity and trading scenarios for its tokens, making the potential price growth opportunities for the tokens larger and clearer; the cross-chain interoperability standards defined by domain names and DA layer solutions will also increase the usage scenarios for TNA Protocol-related tokens, thereby helping to enhance the value of the tokens.

Secondly, this narrative upgrade will also bring significant benefits to the products. The new Bitcoin cross-chain interoperability standards will enhance the competitiveness of Tapnames domain names by promoting improved user experience and greater adoption of more layer two networks, attracting more users to participate and use them.

Therefore, this narrative upgrade not only has a direct positive effect on the community and token prices but will also drive product development and ecosystem prosperity, laying a solid foundation for the long-term sustainable development of the entire ecosystem.

Avail DA

Avail DA aims to meet the needs of next-generation trust-minimized applications and sovereign rollups. Its standout advantage lies in its innovative security approach, allowing light clients to easily verify data availability through peer sampling. With the unparalleled data availability interface and robust security features provided by Avail DA, developers can create blockchain applications based on zero-knowledge or fraud-proof technologies more efficiently and easily.

Source: https://blog.availproject.org/the-avail-vision-reshaping-the-blockchain-landscape/

Avail DA Analysis

Avail is a blockchain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), characterized by efficient transaction ordering and recording, as well as providing data storage and feasibility verification. Compared to traditional smart contracts and foundational layer dependencies, Avail allows Rollups to publish data directly to it and verify through a light client network. This modular design enables developers to store data on Avail and choose other networks for settlement, providing more flexibility and options.

Avail's consensus mechanism inherits from Polkadot SDK's BABE and GRANDPA consensus mechanisms and employs Polkadot's Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS), supporting up to 1000 validator nodes. In addition to a robust consensus mechanism, Avail also features decentralization, providing efficient and reliable backup mechanisms through light client P2P networks to ensure data availability, even in the event of failures.

Avail excels in transaction ordering, recording, and data feasibility verification, supporting EVM-compatible blockchains. Its light client network verification mechanism allows Rollups on Avail to verify state through the light client network without relying on smart contracts and foundational layers. Due to its modular nature, developers can store data on Avail and choose other networks for settlement.

Node Types

Full nodes: These nodes are responsible for downloading and verifying the correctness of blocks but do not participate in the consensus process. Their role is crucial for ensuring the integrity of the network.

• Validator nodes: These nodes are the core of the Avail DA consensus mechanism. They are responsible for generating blocks, determining the transactions included, and maintaining the order of the network. Validator nodes earn incentives through consensus participation and are the foundation of DA layer operations.
• Light clients: Operating under resource constraints, light clients rely on block headers to participate in the network. They can query full nodes for specific transaction data as needed, which is crucial for maintaining decentralization and network accessibility.

Near DA

On November 8, 2023, the NEAR Foundation announced the launch of the NEAR Data Availability (NEAR DA) layer, providing powerful and cost-effective data availability for ETH rollups and Ethereum developers. The first users include StarkNet's Madara, Caldera, Fluent, Vistara, Dymension RollApps, and Movement Labs.

Source: https://docs.near.org/zh-CN/concepts/basics/protocol

Technical Architecture

NEAR DA leverages a key part of the NEAR consensus mechanism, known as Nightshade, which parallelizes the network into multiple shards.

Each shard on NEAR generates a small part of the block, called a chunk. These chunks are aggregated to produce a block. When a block producer processes a receipt, consensus must be reached for the corresponding receipt. Once the block is processed and included in the block, the receipt is no longer needed for consensus and can be removed from the blockchain's state. Therefore, NEAR does not slow down its consensus speed when data exceeds what is required, but any user of NEAR DA will have ample time to query transaction data. Thus, scalable and cost-effective data availability is crucial for any rollup solution. As the NEAR protocol shifts towards stateless validation, it will further reduce the hardware requirements for certain types of validators (block validators). By storing state in memory, NEAR can support more shards, thereby enhancing the decentralization of the system.

Advantage Analysis

In NEAR DA, consensus validation is provided by NEAR validators, who reach consensus when processing blob submissions. In terms of data persistence, full nodes store functional input data for at least three days, while archive nodes can store data for longer periods.

The design of NEAR DA ensures efficient utilization of consensus without wasting excessive data. Additionally, this data has already been indexed by all major browsers on NEAR to provide support for indexers.

Finally, for the commitment to long-term availability, NEAR DA adopts an easy-to-create approach, allowing anyone to build commitments with limited expertise and tools.

The NEAR-Polygon CDK integration allows developers to build their own rollups and become part of the Polygon ecosystem.

This marks the first integration of NEAR DA with zero-knowledge-based Layer 2 stacks, providing developers seeking scalable data availability solutions with more options.

Conclusion

In the blockchain field, competition among DA projects such as Celestia, EigenLayer, Avail DA, and NEAR DA is intense. Although DA layer projects are emerging rapidly, their core technologies are not complex, and each project has its unique technologies and competitive advantages. These projects showcase the diversity and innovation in the field of blockchain technology. In the future, as these projects continue to develop and mature, they are expected to make significant contributions to the further growth and development of the blockchain ecosystem.