The Celestia mainnet, the first modular data availability network, is set to launch tomorrow (14:00 on October 31 UTC). This will also release its native token TIA for trading with an airdrop of 60 million tokens, 6% of the tokens in circulation, for active users on Ethereum Layer 2s Cosmos Hub, and Osmosis, making it one of the biggest airdrops seen in 2023.
The snapshot of the airdrop was taken on January 1, 2023.
The Block confirmed the Celestia network’s launch date and time, as Celestia’s GitHub repository also indicated its launch timeline.
Binance, KuCoin, and Bybit announced that they would kick off the trading for Celestia (TIA) tokens with a TIA/USDT pair following its official launch.
Celestia introduces a unique approach by solely focusing on arranging and sharing transactions, unlike conventional networks that also execute these transactions. This distinctive feature creates a division between the consensus on transactions and their actual execution.
By redesigning the fundamental architecture of blockchain, Celestia aims to reduce the cost of developing decentralized applications. Thus, the simplified framework presents a more accessible and cost-effective platform for innovators in the industry.
The network also anticipates community-generated content post Celestia’s launch. The additional features and improvements that may come include support for pruning historical blob data to reduce node storage requirements, a “partial node” type for light nodes that verify the Celestia L1 state transitions, and the Blobstream deployment to Ethereum Mainnet for Layer 2s to use Celestia.
In October 2022, Celestia Labs raised $55 million in a funding round led by Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital.