About

Celestia is a blockchain-focused, modular data availability network offering solutions for blockchain creation. It features Data Availability Sampling to enhance throughput and supports the development of blockchain systems, including Ethereum rollups, promoting customizable and independent blockchain deployment.

History

Celestia was originally named LazyLedger, and was founded in 2019 by Mustafa Al-Bassam, Ismail Khoffi, and John Adler. The concepts included in Celestia were proposed in a series of papers between 2018 and 2019, such as the Data Availability Sampling paper and Namespaced Merkel Tree paper by authors Mustafa Al-Bassam, Alberto Sonnino, and Vitalik Buterin. The project team released the LazyLedger whitepaper on May 22, 2019, and began developing a network that would incorporate the ideas published in the concept papers.

To help support and encourage the growth of the network, the project team founded the Celestia Foundation. The Foundation is responsible for funding research and development of decentralized systems and open-source public goods for the ecosystem, monitoring core development processes, and assisting developers building on the network. The initial four members of the Celestia Foundation’s governing council are Mustafa Al-Bassam, Ismail Khoffi, Batuhan Dasgin, and Reinhold Wohlwend.

Celestia’s “Mamaki” testnet launched on May 25, 2022, and was later followed by an incentivized testnet on March 7, 2023. On Sept. 26, 2023, the project team announced the genesis drop of 60 million TIA (6% of the initial token supply). Eligible participants could claim tokens between Sept. 26, 2023, and Oct. 17, 2023; however, would not receive anything until the token was officially launched on Oct. 31, 2023. The launch of the token occurred in tandem with the release of Celestia’s Mainnet Beta.