A New Take For an Old Problem

TL;DR

• The Celestia Foundation called the launch of the ​Celestia network​: “The start of a new era” [for ​blockchain​ technology].

• Instead of relying on one single blockchain to validate transactions, Celestia connects a bunch of blockchains in a modular way which all have their specific strengths.

• While the concept of a modular blockchain sounds great in theory, in order for any blockchain to be successful it really needs adoption (from developers, investors, and users).

Full Story

The Celestia Foundation just made a big claim.

They called the launch of the ​Celestia network​: “The start of a new era” [for ​blockchain​ technology].

At first we thought “nahhh, not possible.”

But as we dug into it, we started to come round to the idea that this, in fact, may be the start of a new era for blockchain technology (if it catches on).

What are we on about? Buckle up, things are about to get nerdy!

We’ve ​written about​ the blockchain trilemma in the past.

(The general concept being that the holy grail for blockchain technology is a high level of decentralization, security and scale).

Celestia believes they've found a way.

Today, ‘monolithic’ blockchains can only scale at the expense of ​decentralization​ and/or security.

Take Solana for example: decent scale, pretty damn decentralized, but at the cost of being hacked 4 times in the past 3 years.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin is super secure (never been hacked), decentralized, but transactions are slow and restricted (lacks scale).

Celestia, however, is a ‘modular’ blockchain.

Instead of relying on one single blockchain to validate transactions, they connect a bunch of blockchains in a modular way which all have their specific strengths.

Think of it like this: imagine having one single doctor do every single type of surgery - brain surgery, heart surgery, everything. It would be insane!

Instead, most doctors have their own specialties and treat patients with issues related to that specialty.

(Same goes with blockchains).

Here's our take:

While the concept of a modular blockchain sounds great in theory, in order for any blockchain to be successful it really needs adoption (from developers, investors, and users).

So the question remains – is this a new era for blockchain technology?

Time will tell!