What do you think of Avail: Will it be the final narrative of modular public chains?

Author: Haotian, crypto researcher Source: X, @tmel0211

What do you think of the latest modular project @AvailProject that has airdropped? What are its technical architecture and components? Will it pose a direct competitive threat to @CelestiaOrg? And what potential impact will it have on Ethereum? In any case, this should be regarded as the final narrative of the modular public chain. Next, let me talk about my opinion:

1) Avail is positioned as a Unification layer for the web3 industry, integrating multiple core module components such as modular DA, interoperability, and unified governance security layer, intending to become a new unified entrance for web3 projects.

In other words, Avail aims to be a web3 "hub", unifying the diverse DA layers in the market, and using a set of interoperable communication standards to enable all chains to interact securely, ultimately allowing users to access the full-chain web3 environment directly through Avail;

2) Avail's core architecture is mainly composed of three parts: Avail DA, Avail Nexus, and Avail Fusion:

As a modular data availability layer, the DA layer can provide DA capabilities for different blockchain networks. Like Celestia, it aims to become a unified DA layer that is a must-have for blockchain projects. This means that with the emergence of Avail, Ethereum's DA capabilities will be withdrawn again, and the Rollup layer2 chain will have another DA supplier to choose from; at the same time, Celestia is equivalent to having one more powerful competitor, which is bound to have a certain competitive impact on its business expansion; Nexus is its Interoperability layer, which is a standardized cross-chain message transmission protocol, equivalent to Cosmos's IBC, providing asset transfers, contract calls and other interactive operations between various cross-chains, allowing users to quickly interact with other different chains based on the same chain entrance, while reducing cross-chain asset friction and unifying the liquidity of the entire chain. It is this Nexus that makes Celestia tremble, because Celestia only provides DA module capabilities, and the goal is to let its back-end DA capabilities serve other chains well, while Avail's ambition is to be the front-end traffic entrance, which can not only provide DA services, but also guide traffic to various chains.

Fusion introduces a multi-asset pledge POS consensus, aiming to provide a secure consensus guarantee for the entire Avail network, which not only provides a direct application scenario for $Avail tokens, but also reduces the governance security risks of single-asset pledge through a multi-asset pledge model. How to understand it? Originally, a single asset only called an independent chain consensus. Multi-asset pledge allows Ethereum's strong consensus chain Validator to participate in consensus construction, helping it to quickly establish consensus and settle assets. It should be said that the existence of the Fusion layer will directly help its DA and Nexus layers, and it is also the key to its fearlessness of its competitors from a higher dimension.

In short, Avail has merged the three most core basic components of modularization into a unified architecture, aiming to be a unified entry layer for web3, which makes sense.

3) Polygon is known as the master of industry narrative, and the landing of its new project Avail is indeed better than the original. Because, just when everyone was fighting the DA competition war and the chain abstract interoperability war, Polygon directly raised the "entrance" war to another level, and revealed the ultimate goal of the modular public chain narrative, which can be said to be the Endgame narrative of the modular public chain.

For Ethereum, the invasion of Celestia DA has already affected its core DA business, and Avail's strong entry will inevitably divert part of the Rollup layer2 public chain ecology. In the end, Ethereum seems to have only the story of the unified Settlement settlement layer of the full chain interoperability as a competitive barrier. Because the rollup layer2 can choose various DAs such as celesita, Avail, and Near, but its powerful consensus and security settlement layer cannot be shaken.

How to understand it? At first glance, Avail and others' scramble for the DA market that differentiates Ethereum will inevitably mean that Ethereum's center of gravity will be weakened? In fact, the differentiation of Ethereum's DA capabilities is an unstoppable reality, but Ethereum can consolidate its security settlement layer capabilities to strengthen its position. After all, the more chains want to establish fast trust and connection, Ethereum is a good settlement anchoring layer.

For example, Avail DA can be independent of Ethereum, but Nexus still needs to make final settlement and arbitration (Finality) based on Ethereum on cross-chain interaction issues, otherwise it will be difficult for a relay chain to quickly win market trust by relying on its independent consensus. Therefore, I don’t think Ethereum will be really threatened, but it will stimulate and consolidate its acceleration to become a universal unified settlement layer.

In summary, Avail’s strong entry has made me see the official start of the modular public chain war, because anyone can shout the slogan of the unified entry layer of web3. In the end, who can really capture a large number of DAs and developer ecosystems of interoperable chains on the B side, and who can really operate the front-end application ecosystem of the chain and attract a large number of C-end users, everything is still unknown.