What is Celestia?
Celestia (TIA) is a popular blockchain that utilizes a modular design and layered architecture to tackle the blockchain trilemma. Learn more in our guide.
What is Celestia?
Celestia is a blockchain platform that focuses on modularity. Unlike traditional blockchains like Bitcoin or Ethereum, which combine all their functions—such as consensus, data availability, and execution—into a single layer, Celestia breaks these components apart using a modular approach.
This means it focuses solely on consensus and data availability, leaving execution to separate layers like rollups. By doing so, Celestia makes it easier for developers to build scalable, application-specific blockchains without the constraints of monolithic architecture.
How does Celestia work?
Celestia’s unique design revolves around three main layers:
Consensus layer: Ensures that all network participants agree on the ordering of transactions.
Data availability layer: Verifies that transaction data is accessible to users without requiring every node to download and process all the data. This is achieved through data availability sampling, a process that allows nodes to efficiently verify large amounts of data.
Execution layer: Celestia doesn’t directly handle smart contract execution. Instead, it provides the foundation for developers to build rollups or other execution environments on top of its data availability layer.
This separation allows Celestia to prioritize scalability and decentralization, giving developers the freedom to customize their blockchain solutions.
Why is Celestia unique?
Most blockchains today face a major tradeoff between scalability, security, and decentralization—a challenge often referred to as the blockchain trilemma. Celestia’s modular design addresses these issues in several ways:
Scalability: By separating execution from consensus and data availability, Celestia allows individual applications to scale independently without overloading the main network.
Flexibility: Developers can create application-specific blockchains (also known as rollups) on top of Celestia without needing to build the underlying infrastructure from scratch.
Decentralization: Celestia’s use of Proof-of-Stake ensures that the network remains decentralized while processing large volumes of data.
What is the TIA token?
TIA is the native token of the Celestia network. It serves several purposes within the ecosystem:
Staking: Validators on the Celestia network use TIA tokens to participate in the Proof of Stake consensus process.
Incentives: TIA tokens are used to reward validators for securing the network and ensuring data availability.
Transaction fees: Users pay fees in TIA tokens to store data on the network.
Governance: TIA holders can vote on changes and developments for the ecosystem.
Read next: What is a DAO?
Who is behind Celestia?
Celestia was founded by Mustafa Al-Bassam, John Adler, and Ismail Khoffi, all of whom are well-known figures in blockchain technology. Their goal is to enable developers to build scalable, decentralized applications without the limitations of traditional monolithic blockchain architectures.
Since its launch, Celestia has attracted significant attention from the crypto community and has received backing from prominent venture capital firms.
What are the use cases for Celestia?
Celestia’s modular design opens up a world of possibilities for blockchain development. Some of the most promising use cases include:
Rollup development: Developers can build scalable rollups for specific applications, such as DeFi and GameFi.
Interoperable blockchains: By acting as a common data availability layer, Celestia enables communication between different blockchain networks.
Custom blockchains: Projects can create their own blockchains optimized for their unique needs without the overhead of managing consensus or data availability.
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What are the pros and cons of Celestia?
Like any blockchain project, Celestia has its strengths and potential challenges. Here’s a quick overview:
Pros
Scalability: Celestia’s modular design allows applications to scale independently without congesting the base layer.
Flexibility: Developers can build application-specific blockchains tailored to their needs.
Decentralization: By offloading execution to rollups, Celestia maintains a high level of decentralization.
Interoperability: Celestia can act as a shared data availability layer for multiple blockchain networks, fostering collaboration and interoperability.
Cons
Complexity for developers: Building on a modular blockchain like Celestia requires a deeper understanding of rollups and data availability protocols.
Early-stage technology: As a relatively new project, Celestia’s ecosystem is still growing, and there may be risks associated with adoption and implementation.
Dependency on rollups: Celestia relies on the rollup ecosystem to realize its full potential, which could take time to mature.
How to buy TIA tokens
Find an exchange: You can buy TIA on major exchanges like Kraken, Coinbase, and Binance, as well as decentralized exchanges like Osmosis.
Connect wallet or create an account: Use a compatible wallet to connect to a dex or create an account on your chosen centralized exchange.
Buy TIA: Find a TIA trading pair - for example, TIA/USD or TIA/USDT, and follow the steps on your chosen platform to complete your purchase.
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Don’t forget the tax bill…
Your Celestia transactions come with a tax bill - whether that’s staking rewards or gains from selling or trading TIA. You can learn more about how crypto is taxed where you live in our crypto tax guides or you can sign up to Koinly free today to import your Celestia transactions automatically and calculate your taxes.