Celestia

Celestia is a modular data availability network that scales with the number of users. It is designed to address the scalability and efficiency issues of traditional monolithic blockchain architectures.

Data Availability Sampling (DAS)

Celestia employs Data Availability Sampling (DAS) to empower light nodes to verify block data availability without downloading entire blocks. This is achieved by randomly sampling a subset of the data within a block, which is then used to verify the availability of the entire block. This approach significantly reduces nodes' computational and storage requirements, enhancing the network's scalability and efficiency. As more light nodes join the network, it can handle larger data volumes and higher transaction throughput, enhancing overall scalability and security​​.

Namespaced Merkle Trees (NMTs)

NMTs organize and verify transaction data within Celestia. They allow execution and settlement layers to download only the transactions relevant to them, reducing the bandwidth and processing overhead required for full data verification. This feature supports Celestia's modular architecture, enabling efficient and targeted data retrieval​​.

Rollup-Centric Design

Celestia's architecture is optimized for rollups, making deploying high-throughput blockchains more accessible and cost-effective. Rollups can use Celestia's DA layer to publish and temporarily access transaction data, significantly lowering data availability costs compared to traditional monolithic chains like Ethereum. This design allows for rapid deployment and application-specific roll-up scaling, enhancing efficiency and reducing operational costs.