A full breakdown of Celestia: modular blockchain is the next trend?

Celestia, formerly LazyLedger, is the first modular blockchain network. It is a pluggable consensus and data availability layer that enables anyone to rapidly deploy a decentralized blockchain without the overhead of bootstrapping a new consensus network. Celestia's Nick White explained in an interview that Celestia is a cloud computing for Web 3.

In Web 2, cloud services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) enable users to launch websites on virtual machines that share physical machines (physical servers). Celestia enables users to launch decentralized applications on specific Lisks that share a consensus layer.

Problems with monolithic blockchains, L2 scaling solutions, and EVM


Data already has extended solutions such as Optimism, ZKsync, and Starknet. However, data availability for these scaling solutions relies on Ethereum. The bad news is that Ethereum is still expensive, which explains why L2 gas fees can be high.

There is a limit to what developers of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) can deploy, and the gas costs are high. Unless you use a tool like Tendermint to develop your blockchain, developers can't build complex applications that the EVM doesn't support.

The overhead associated with creating a blockchain is considerable. Developers must create a consensus layer (usually proof-of-stake, PoS) and initiate a token sale. Celestia saves builders from all these troubles.

Most blockchains today are monolithic. The core functions of the blockchain, execution and consensus, occur simultaneously and are performed by the same set of validators. Monolithic architectures are difficult to scale because each transaction must be executed by a full node, causing bottlenecks.



How Celestia Works


Celestia uses a modular architecture that decouples the blockchain stack into specialized components. Core functionality, consensus and execution, is divided into different layers