cLabs proposes off-chain data availability layer, powered by EigenLayer and EigenDA

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Dear Celo Community,

As part of the considerations for the L2 stack and outlined previously in our original proposal, cLabs proposes an off-chain data availability layer, powered by EigenLayer and EigenDA for Celo L2. The Celo Foundation and EigenLayer teams have solidified a partnership to support the long-term growth of Celo’s Layer-2 ecosystem. This agreement includes Eigen Foundation’s first strategic grant, allocated to the Celo Foundation. The grant will fund cLabs’ ongoing development of the Celo Layer-2 and to support ecosystem projects that leverage the DA solution.

Background and Challenges

Before EIP-4884, Layer 2 solutions like Optimism stored their data on Ethereum as calldata, which in some cases could constitute up to 98% of L2 costs. After the Dencun hardfork, these costs significantly dropped. With the introduction of a new blob-carrying transaction type and almost zero blob prices, L2s managed to reach very low TX fees. Unfortunately, such low fees highly depend on the emerging blob space market. It is very likely that during periods of sustained high-volumes of transactions, despite various compression techniques, 4844 blob fee volatility might exceed the comfortable level for most Celo users. Celo’s current transaction costs are minimal, and we support the Celo community’s commitment to keeping them below $0.01.

The EigenDA Solution

EigenDA offers a compelling alternative. By utilizing Ethereum validators’ re-staked ETH, EigenDA provides a secure, decentralized, and cost-effective data availability layer. Our initial experiments and integration tests with EigenDA have shown promising results:

  • Successful Test Integration: We integrated EigenDA with our OP-Stack fork. The high performance indicated significant scalability, consistent with Eigen’s industry-leading data availability throughput.
  • High Performance: In isolated tests, although we haven’t reached the full throughput, we observed the potential to reach up to 10 MB/s.
  • Economic Incentives: EigenDA’s model of re-staking ETH allows validators to earn additional rewards, aligning economic incentives with enhanced security and performance for Celo’s L2.

We are excited about the potential of EigenDA to enhance Celo’s Layer-2 ecosystem and look forward to your feedback. We invite community members to share their thoughts and feedback in the comments below or by joining us for CGP call #48 on June 27th at 7am PT/2pm GMT.

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This is a huge step for Celo and the Ethereum space at large. Thanks for providing a crisp background on this.

Looking forward to hear more today in the Governance call!

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Congrats cLabs about the approved proposal :raised_hands:

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I came across this post while checking the Celo forum for the first time in a while.

If I remember correctly, the proposal to build Celo L2 was made around April 2022. I haven’t been able to follow up closely on the discussions since then, but the last post I saw mentioned that you were considering which stack to use.

A significant amount of time has passed, and the L2 has still not been built. Also, it seems like Celo L2 should have something unique, but from this post, it only looks like a simple L2 using Eigen DA + OP Stack.

The narrative and image I had of Celo were of an eco-friendly blockchain network, but now it seems to have lost its direction, which is somewhat disappointing. While pivoting to follow recent trends can be good, I hope Celo retains its unique identity.