Modular thesis reading list: Celestia, EigenLayer and rollups 2022 to 2024
Thread993 words
Chronological index of the author's modular research since June 2022: Celestia and data availability sampling, EigenDA versus Celestia, sovereign rollups, RaaS, shared sequencing, plus two Castle Capital reports on modularity.
I started covering @CelestiaOrg in June 2022.
I explained @eigencloud in December 2022.
Now, while most of CT is still trying to understand modular DA layers & restaking, I provide you alpha on:
馃П How this tech will reshape Web3
馃П Projects building on it
馃У of modular alpha
1/ The modular thesis will be one of the biggest narratives in 2024!
New giants will emerge and opportunities to make generational wealth will be created.
This includes infra like @Celestiaorg & @eigencloud but also projects built on top of this tech.
Position yourself, anon!
2/ In this thread, I will not only provide you all the modular alpha you need, I will also show you how my journey down the modular rabbit hole unfolded.
Are you ready anon?
3/ I started out my journey down the modular rabbit hole with an overview of the data availability landscape.
Already back then, DA was the main limitation for Ethereum-based rollups.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1535698402939265025
4/ It was @CelestiaOrg that kickstarted the modular narrative.
Quickly, I was fascinated by their tech and started diving deep into the first modular DA layer!
x.com/expctchaos/status/1535970188012572672
5/ During my research, I came across other early-stage projects building modular DA solutions that have grown a lot in prominence since then.
This includes @AvailProject!
x.com/expctchaos/status/1537459186421772288
6/ Early on, I started experimenting with @CelestiaOrg's tech myself, for example running a light node to perform data availability sampling in one of the early testnets.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1601308723229519873
7/ At that point I had already covered rollup-based L2 scaling solutions in quite a bit of depth.
In a mega thread of threads, I put the modular building blocks together.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1601534426592071681
8/ This was around the same time I discovered @eigencloud. A general-purpose system for programmable trust powered by restaking.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1601921935662731265
9/ This really opened my eyes and I started to dive into projects that build on scalable base layer tech like @CelestiaOrg and @eigencloud.
One of the first modular execution layers I covered was @fuel_network.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1601967971705896960
10/ I quickly expanded on that and provided a broader overview of projects building on top of @CelestiaOrg.
This included projects like @dymension and @Sagaxyz__, which everyone is talking about today.
Why? Because they will airdrop to TIA stakers.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1613528731641053185
11/ In early 2023, alternative VMs on L2 started to really spark my interest.
One of the first projects I came across, was @EclipseFND.
Covering @nautilus_chain, I gave a brief glimpse of what this can enable.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1640730503035891714
12/ However, the topic of parallelized VMs remained a key focus of my research.
I hence followed up with a thread on parallelized virtual machines more broadly.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1648974791234437120
13/ I never stopped looking into DA though.
An important difference you should understand is the distinction between data availability and data storage.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1661069523024490496
14/ What really excited me, was the idea of a world in which Web3 consists of thousands of app-specific rollups.
Highly scalable, use case optimized and interoperable rollApps built through Rollup as a Service frameworks to abstract complexity.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1661666059190161409
15/ At this point it was evident that @CelestiaOrg would play a key role in this vision.
I hence continued to provide in-depth coverage of Celestia and its technology.
The key concept to understand is definitely data availability sampling (DAS).
x.com/expctchaos/status/1662141571666681856
16/ In order to make the differences between different modular DA layers more tangible, I also wrote an in-depth comparison.
Want to understand how @eigenDA works? How it differs from @CelestiaOrg?
Check my thread below!
x.com/expctchaos/status/1663213648121307141
17/ Modular DA layers like @CelestiaOrg or @AvailProject have distinct advantages over centralized DACs.
I have compiled those below.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1664179986146942976
18/ With @CelestiaOrg mainnet approaching and L2s in a hype phase, the attention on DA layers started to increase.
However, few understood what kind of network designs this tech enables.
One interesting rollup design approach is Sovereign Rollups.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1677346784467914752
19/ While sovereign rollups are yet to materialize on mainnet, I continued to cover overlooked modular gems.
Does @MantaNetwork ring a bell?
Already in July 2023, I talked about their modular, @CelestiaOrg-based architecture.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1678833185348816898
20/ This was around the same time that the first people started to notice that @eigencloud and restaking might be something cool.
But instead of focusing on airdrops & additional staking yield, I saw potential in @eigencloud to reshape how we build Web3
x.com/expctchaos/status/1680997392370536448
21/ I also started to dive deeper into rollup sequencing (transaction ordering).
One of my favourite projects in that space is @radius_xyz.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1683182121299640320
22/ I was already deep down the modular rabbit hole at that point.
Nevertheless, @vistaralabs REALLY blew my mind.
It puts together all modular building blocks in a simple framework that allows for no-code deployment of app-specific, sovereign rollups!
x.com/expctchaos/status/1690002134933069826
23/ This is exciting for many reasons! One of them definitely is that this allows devs to deploy rollups running all sorts of VMs with ease!
In a mega-thread, I hence revisited the VM topic shortly after covering @vistaralabs for the first time.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1696905141956550704
24/ However, @vistaralabs is not the only project building Rollup as a Service (RaaS) tech.
Another one of my favourites is @alt_layer.
x.com/expctchaos/status/1698725548116283706
25/ Together with @vistaralabs, these two players are the leading RaaS providers in my opinion.
Especially @vistaralabs excited me so much that I had to revisit the project shortly after the first thread.
x.com/zerokn0wledge_/status/1708768851616542952
26/ @eigencloud also continued to fascinate me. Diving into the technology more, I tried to identify use cases that go beyond @eigenDA.
A very exciting concept, is @eigencloud-based fast finality layers.
x.com/zerokn0wledge_/status/1703716152441278744
27/
A hot topic in the context of modularity and rollups is interoperability.
I increasingly looked into this, sharing some insights along my journey.
x.com/zerokn0wledge_/status/1713749601063477402
28/ With @Castle__Cap, I also wrote two research reports specifically focused on modularity.
The first one was a primer on the modular thesis.
x.com/Castle__Cap/status/1714999668894228966
29/ Shortly after that, I followed up with a very detailed report on data availability and modular DA solutions.
x.com/Castle__Cap/status/1717526579109339596
30/ This brings us to October 2023 and the day when @CelestiaOrg finally launched its mainnet!
x.com/zerokn0wledge_/status/1719285651479412966
3 images on X
What came next 路 since 04 Jan 2024
Since then
Zero has written 21 more pieces on Celestia since this one.
- What If You Stop Seeing The Forest Because Of All The Trees?On Celestia
- Celestia 'Proof of Governance' proposal: 20x lower inflation and no stakingOn Celestia
- Why TIA is one of the most predatory VC tokens: pricing, unlocks and inflationOn Celestia
- Celestia vs EigenDA: different missions, not direct competitorsOn Celestia