Starkware Allies with Celestia Rival Avail Amidst Blockchain Data Competition

• Avail Collaborates with Starkware for Ethereum Data Solutions
• The Starkware Deal: Providing Data Availability to Madara
• Rising Importance of Data Availability Solutions in Ethereum
• The Madara Sequencer: Enabling Customizable Appchains and Layer-3 Blockchains
• Competition and Collaboration in the Ethereum Ecosystem
• Promising Faster Transactions with the DA Layer
• Avail's Data Attestation Bridge
• Update on Celestia's Partnerships

Avail Collaborates with Starkware for Ethereum Data Solutions

Avail, a strong contender against Celestia in providing data solutions for the Ethereum$2,315 -2.42% blockchain, has entered into an agreement with leading developer Starkware. This alliance will position Avail as a crucial player in the launch of new networks in the coming year.

The Starkware Deal: Providing Data Availability to Madara

The agreement, announced on Wednesday, indicates that Avail will lend its data availability solution to new application-chains created using Starkware's Madara, a decentralized sequencer of repute. Starkware is renowned for being the primary developer behind StarkNet, a leading layer-2 blockchain in the Ethereum network.

A sequencer plays a pivotal role in a layer-2 network, it collects transactions from users and forwards them to the primary Ethereum blockchain. Avail, currently in its testnet phase, is expected to go live in the first quarter of the upcoming year, with Madara anticipated to follow suit in the second quarter.

Rising Importance of Data Availability Solutions in Ethereum

These developments occur against the backdrop of data availability (DA) solutions gaining momentum in the Ethereum ecosystem. Designed to drastically cut costs for new layer-2 networks generating large volumes of transaction data, these solutions are becoming integral to the industry's shift towards modular blockchains.

In these modular blockchains, developers are abandoning the one-size-fits-all strategy in favor of a more flexible à la carte model. In this model, individual components can be integrated to serve different purposes.

The Madara Sequencer: Enabling Customizable Appchains and Layer-3 Blockchains

Starkware asserts that the Madara sequencer enables the creation of customizable application-chains (appchains) and even layer-3 blockchains. This provides builders of new, smaller networks the autonomy to select their own components or features, instead of depending on an extant network with pre-set properties.

As Starkware maintains in its July blog post, Madara will offer developers a wide range of data availability (DA) schemes to choose from.

Competition and Collaboration in the Ethereum Ecosystem

Avail's chief rival, Celestia, became operational in October. Since then, it has entered into an agreement to make its DA solution accessible to the layer-2 developers Polygon$0.967 -3.65% and Arbitrum. Initially part of Polygon Labs, Avail became independent in March.

Promising Faster Transactions with the DA Layer

Alongside cost reductions, the teams believe that speed could be another significant advantage. As stated in a press release, Madara rollups could achieve finality approximately within one minute when using Avail's DA layer.

Anurag Arjun, Avail's founder, praised the collaboration with Starkware and Madara, emphasizing their shared interest in creating a scalable, decentralized, and affordable data availability solution.

Avail's Data Attestation Bridge

Back in July, Avail unveiled its data attestation bridge on testnet, with the aim of enhancing off-chain data security.

Update on Celestia's Partnerships

As of December 20, it was reported that Arbitrum, alongside Polygon, has also chosen Celestia for its data availability solution.

Edited by Jonathan Stoker