According to CoinDesk, Avail, a competitor to Celestia in providing data solutions for the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem, has reached an agreement with leading developer Starkware. Under the agreement, Avail will offer its data availability solution to new application-chains built using Starkware's Madara, a decentralized sequencer. Starkware is the primary developer behind StarkNet, a top layer-2 blockchain in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Avail, currently in testnet, is expected to go live in the first quarter of next year, while Madara is anticipated in the second quarter. Data availability (DA) solutions are gaining wider acceptance in the Ethereum ecosystem as they aim to significantly reduce costs for new layer-2 networks generating large amounts of transaction data. These systems are central to the industry's shift towards modular blockchains, where developers are moving from a one-size-fits-all approach to a more customizable model with separate components fulfilling different functions.
Starkware's Madara sequencer enables the creation of customizable application-chains or 'appchains' and even 'layer-3' blockchains. Appchains allow builders of new, smaller networks to select their own components or features instead of relying on an existing network with pre-configured properties. Avail's main competitor, Celestia, went live in October and has since partnered with layer-2 developer Polygon to offer its DA solution. Avail was previously part of Polygon Labs but became independent in March. In addition to cost reduction, the teams believe that increased speed could be another benefit. A press release stated that Madara rollups could achieve finality in approximately one minute when using Avail's DA layer.