Polygon Adds Data Solution Celestia as Option for New Layer-2 Developers

Celestia, a so-called data availability (DA) solution designed to provide a cheaper alternative for verifying data created by blockchains, announced Tuesday that it is “integrating” with Polygon’s Chain Development Kit (CDK), which is a set of software tools that can be used to spin up new layer-2 networks atop Ethereum.

The integration means that Celestia will plug into Polygon’s customizable software stack, which is powered by zero-knowledge technology, allowing developers to make use of the data availability solution when launching their own blockchain.

According to a press release seen by CoinDesk, Celestia’s DA solution will be available to developers in early 2024.

Celestia went live in October, and a primary business proposition for the network is that it can drastically reduce costs for layer-2 networks, since they won’t have to be constantly paying fees to Ethereum to store and verify the data.

“This is the broadband moment for Web3,” said Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal in the press release. “The ability to launch a high-throughput ZK-powered Ethereum layer 2 as easily as deploying a smart contract will do for blockchain adoption what high-speed fiber did for Web2 applications.”

Ethereum has its own roadmap for handling data, including an initial step known as “proto-danksharding,” but developers of the blockchain have been slow to realize the plan, and in the meantime several independent networks like Celestia, Avail and even the rival layer-1 blockchain NEAR have sprung up to provide their own>spun it out, writing in a press release that it wanted to align “more closely with the roadmap of Ethereum.”

“By releasing Avail, Polygon Labs becomes able to follow this principle more closely by shifting focus to Ethereum-native data availability efforts,” according to a press release at the time. “Ethereum-native data availability solutions have unique properties and represent interests of Ethereum, so Polygon Labs will support them more moving forward.”

According to a person familiar with Polygon’s strategy, Tuesday’s announcement means that builders using its Chain Development Kit, specifically building Validiums, will now have the option of using Celestia. Polygon might still eventually offer other data availability solutions, such as Avail, as an option, when they’re ready, the person said.

Avail, which is run by a Polygon co-founder, Anurag Arjun, recently launched a test network and is supposed to go live in 2024.Read more: Celestia Airdrops TIA Token as Network Goes Live, Claims Start of ‘Modular Era’