Celestia on pace to surpass Ethereum in data storage — Research

Celestia, a layer-1 data availability network, is poised to take the number one spot in onchain data storage from incumbent Ethereum, according to Blockworks Research.

Celestia has been steadily gaining market share from Ethereum since May, starting at around 20% and rising to approximately 40% as of July 31, according to the data.

Launched in 2023, Celestia describes itself as “a modular data availability network that makes it easy for anyone to securely launch their own blockchain.” Its emphasis on data availability puts it in competition with Ethereum, Web3’s leading settlement layer.

Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade in March introduced “blobs,” temporary offchain data stores designed to reduce costs for layer-2 scaling networks — such as Arbitrum and Base — by bypassing the need to post large volumes of data directly onchain.

Blobs are stored for approximately two weeks on Beacon Chain nodes, allowing time for validators to confirm the data’s accuracy and post attestations on the mainnet.

Despite Dencun’s cost savings — which Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin expects to surpass 98% — storing data on Celestia is usually even cheaper, according to a report by staking platform Figment.

According to the report, “Transaction fees on both networks vary, with Ethereum’s often being higher due to the complexity of smart contract interactions.” The report continues: “Celestia generally offers lower fees due to its efficient modular architecture, designed to support high throughput and lower congestion.”

Celestia is not Ethereum’s only challenger in data availability. Restaking protocol EigenLayer launched its own data availability service, EigenDA, in April. Avail, a data availability protocol spun off of Polygon, launched in July.

According to Blockworks’ data analytics manager, Dan Smith, even if rivals displace its lead in data storage, Ethereum will remain Web3’s undisputed settlement layer for the foreseeable future.

“Ethereum remains dominant in decentralization, stables, and TVL, which is what a settlement layer needs,” Smith said in a post on X.