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Celestia, a data availability layer for blockchains, was launched last October to much fanfare. The platform takes a modular approach to blockchains, allowing developers to post data onto it without the need for smart contracts or execution. This makes it extremely useful for scaling roll-ups and other layer two technologies. 
Celestia co-founder Mustafa Al-Bassam and COO Nick White join Unchained to discuss what Celestia is and how it works, how data availability sampling allows for more scalability, how Celestia compares with other data availability layers, whether Celestia could become a data availability layer for Bitcoin, and comparisons between Celestia and Solana. 
Show highlights:

Mustafa’s background and how his project called Lazy Ledger ended up becoming Celestia

Nick’s vision for modular blockchains

Why Mustafa believes in the “10,000 roll-up” endgame

Why Mustafa thinks that gaming and NFT chains work better on a modular blockchain

What Celestia is and how it resembles the publication of an article in a newspaper

What data availability sampling (DAS) is and how it works to ensure that the data is available and accurate for validators

How DAS allows for more scalability

What types of applications can be built with this type of modular architecture

Mustafa’s explanation of the concept of Blob stream and blob space

How a roll-up can be an independent or sovereign layer, not just a layer 2 to a layer 1

How Celestia competes with other DA layers, like the future EigenDA

The role of the TIA token in the Celestia ecosystem 

How Mufasa hacked the CIA when he was 16 years old and how he transitioned into crypto

Whether Celestia could become a DA layer for Bitcoin layer 2 roll-ups

Whether Solana could end up becoming an Ethereum layer 2 using Celestia for data availability 

The proposal to extend the functionality of Celestia without smart contracts in the base layer 

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Guests:


Nick White, COO at Celestia Labs

Previous appearances on Unchained: Three Crypto Pioneers on Crypto’s Monolithic vs. Modular Debate



Mustafa Al-Bassam, cofounder and CEO at Celestia Labs

Links
Modular vs. monolithic

Alchemy: Modular vs. Monolithic Blockchains


Visa: Monolithic vs. modular blockchain


Chris Burniske’s tweet on modular vs monolithic


“The horrific inefficiencies of monolithic blockchains” by polynya

Blockworks: A spicy salvo launched in the monolithic vs modular debate


Unchained: What Is the Blockchain Trilemma?


Celestia

Celestia’s explanation of modular blockchains

Data availability

Data availability sampling

An introduction to sovereign roll-ups


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