According to CoinDesk, Avail, a modular blockchain data availability solution competing with Celestia, has announced a new test network with incentives for validators and light client operators to find flaws in the underlying programming. The project aims to have validators and light client operators test, validate, and operate the network, helping to refine the code base, infrastructure, and operational readiness. Light clients are software applications that allow users to interact with the network without downloading the entire blockchain data, making them suitable for smaller devices with less memory and computational power. Data availability solutions like Avail and Celestia aim to alleviate the burden on primary blockchain networks like Ethereum by handling queries for data on historical transactions.
As Ethereum's network of affiliated layer-2 networks expands, the task of storing and accessing data is expected to become more challenging. Avail, which was spun out of Polygon in March and is led by Polygon co-founder Anurag Arjun, has released test networks this year in preparation for its main launch. The new incentive program, called 'Clash of Nodes,' is a significant step toward the mainnet launch. Participants can earn rewards by completing quests, such as consistently and correctly validating the chain, simulating disaster scenarios, authoring as many blocks as possible, and staking. The goal is to encourage users and developers to test every angle and attempt to break the network by sending large amounts of data.
