Celestia Labs

Mustafa Al-Bassam was a teenage hacktivist who outsmarted a US government contractor, shamed the Westboro Baptist Church, hacked Sony a record number of times, and eventually got arrested—though his 80 transgressions got halved for a funny reason.  At the Modular Summit in Brussels, Laura had a fireside chat with Mustafa to discuss how he went from his teenage years as the head of LulzSec and member of Anonymous to founding Celestia, a project aiming to solve key issues in blockchain scalability by going with a modular approach.  He also discussed data availability sampling, why he believes Celestia has achieved significant product-market fit since its launch, and the three key components of Celestia’s road map. Show highlights: 00:00 Intro 01:47 Mustafa’s origin story and how he became a developer who ended up hacking FBI affiliates and Fox News 05:32 How he hacked a military contractor to the US Department of Defense and Sony 09:16 Why Mustafa was arrested at the age of 16 11:14 What about Bitcoin attracted his attention and got him interested in the industry 15:22 Why he founded Celestia, after doing a PhD in scaling blockchains and understanding the problems of sharding 21:16 What data availability sampling is and why it is important 23:52 Why Mustafa believes that Celestia has had “extreme product market fit” since the launch 26:16 What’s next for Celestia and why Mustafa is so excited about the possibilities that increased block size can enable 29:36 How Celestia is working with zero knowledge accounts for defragmenting liquidity in rollups and access liquidity even within the Cosmos ecosystem 30:57 What the endgame for Celestia and the overall industry looks like, according to Mustafa 37:36 Q&A with the audience 44:44 Crypto News Recap Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Thank you to our sponsors! iTrustCapital Polkadot PlayFi Labs Guest Mustafa Al-Bassam, co-founder of Celestia Labs. Previous appearance on Unchained: Why the Celestia Team Sees a Future With 10,000 Roll-Ups Links Previous coverage of Unchained on modular blockchains: Three Crypto Pioneers on Crypto’s Monolithic vs. Modular Debate What Are Modular Blockchains? A Beginner's Guide Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mustafa Al-Bassam

Co-founder

CelestiaCelestia Labs

In today's episode, David delves into the interesting dynamics between Ethereum and Celestia. While Ethereum and Solana are often seen as the main rivals, Celestia shares similar design philosophies and goals but with notable differences. Is it Ethereum's true competitor? Joining us to help answer that question and much more is Nick White, COO of Celestia Labs. ------ 📣 SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24  https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium   ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2    ⁠   🔗CELO | CEL2 COMING SOON https://bankless.cc/Celo  🔐 SAFE | ATTEND SAFE{CON} https://bankless.cc/SafeCon ⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum   🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/toku  ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 5:28 Celestia 2 Years Ago 6:30 Build Whatever & DA 11:29 Celestia Design Architecture 19:15 Ethereum vs. Celestia 22:26 Celestia No Virtual Machine Trade-Offs  29:57 Sharing DA Layers & Blockchain Interoperability 37:23 Celestia Trustlessness 42:09 DA as a Commodity?  54:09 Network Effects of DA 57:35 $TIA’s Role in Celestia Ecosystem 1:01:50 Lightnodes  1:04:57 $TIA’s Moneyness 1:10:20 Execution & Settlement Layers 1:16:46 Cosmos & Celestia & Ethereum 1:21:56 Sovereign Endgame  1:26:42 Closing & Disclaimers   ------ RESOURCES Nick’s 1st Bankless Episode  https://youtu.be/bmSU3cZhe3U   Nick White https://twitter.com/nickwh8te   Celestia https://twitter.com/CelestiaOrg   ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures ⁠

Nick White

COO

Celestia LabsCelestia

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Celestia, a data availability layer for blockchains, was launched last October to much fanfare. The platform takes a modular approach to blockchains, allowing developers to post data onto it without the need for smart contracts or execution. This makes it extremely useful for scaling roll-ups and other layer two technologies.  Celestia co-founder Mustafa Al-Bassam and COO Nick White join Unchained to discuss what Celestia is and how it works, how data availability sampling allows for more scalability, how Celestia compares with other data availability layers, whether Celestia could become a data availability layer for Bitcoin, and comparisons between Celestia and Solana.  Show highlights: Mustafa’s background and how his project called Lazy Ledger ended up becoming Celestia Nick’s vision for modular blockchains Why Mustafa believes in the “10,000 roll-up” endgame Why Mustafa thinks that gaming and NFT chains work better on a modular blockchain What Celestia is and how it resembles the publication of an article in a newspaper What data availability sampling (DAS) is and how it works to ensure that the data is available and accurate for validators How DAS allows for more scalability What types of applications can be built with this type of modular architecture Mustafa’s explanation of the concept of Blob stream and blob space How a roll-up can be an independent or sovereign layer, not just a layer 2 to a layer 1 How Celestia competes with other DA layers, like the future EigenDA The role of the TIA token in the Celestia ecosystem  How Mufasa hacked the CIA when he was 16 years old and how he transitioned into crypto Whether Celestia could become a DA layer for Bitcoin layer 2 roll-ups Whether Solana could end up becoming an Ethereum layer 2 using Celestia for data availability  The proposal to extend the functionality of Celestia without smart contracts in the base layer  Thank you to our sponsors! Popcorn Network Polkadot Guests: Nick White, COO at Celestia Labs Previous appearances on Unchained: Three Crypto Pioneers on Crypto’s Monolithic vs. Modular Debate Mustafa Al-Bassam, cofounder and CEO at Celestia Labs Links Modular vs. monolithic Alchemy: Modular vs. Monolithic Blockchains Visa: Monolithic vs. modular blockchain Chris Burniske’s tweet on modular vs monolithic “The horrific inefficiencies of monolithic blockchains” by polynya Blockworks: A spicy salvo launched in the monolithic vs modular debate Unchained: What Is the Blockchain Trilemma? Celestia Celestia’s explanation of modular blockchains Data availability Data availability sampling An introduction to sovereign roll-ups Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mustafa Al-Bassam

Co-founder

CelestiaCelestia Labs

Nick White

COO

CelestiaCelestia Labs

Today we're joined by Mustafa Al-Bassam, CEO and Co-Founder of Celestia Labs. 15 years after Satoshi, we finally have what a blockchain actually is Celestia provides the ability to publish data and make sure that data is available. Celestia had what many are calling one of the best launches of 2023, and they are the first Data Availability Layer live today. In our conversation we get into how Mustafa built Celestia, other Data Availability Layers in the space, how Celestia can be thought of as a bulletin board for computers with some cryptographic and economic assurances - computers posting info so everyone can see it. It's so simple. It's an obvious fundamental building block. Yet they were the first to do it. Prior to Celestia, Mustafa was generally known for his expertise in ethical hacking. He had the US government at the age of 16 and was sentenced for it. We get into this and so much more, but first to ground the conversation, Mustafa shares what he is focused on at Celestia today. 0:00 Intro 1:10 Mustafa Al-Bassam 8:45 Hacking the US Government 10:47 Lazy Ledger 14:13 Colab with Vitalik 16:00 Challenges 18:00 DA and Celestia within Blockchain 19:27 Modular Blockchain 21:54 Monolithic Chains 24:55 Celestia within Cosmos 25:40 Celestia technicals 29:08 Requirements to run a node 35:05 The Graph vs Celestia 36:42 Developer experience 38:23 Starting fresh 40:21 Advice for teams 41:10 Celestia's culture 43:27 Payments 45:10 Decentralized Stablecoins ✨ Check out our new website ✨ https://thedefiant.io/ 🚀 Sign up to our newsletter 🚀 https://thedefiant.io/go-premium#pricing?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=signup 🤑 Find DeFi investment opportunities & educational primers here https://thedefiant.io/promo?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=alpha ✊ Follow The Defiant Twitter: https://twitter.com/defiantnews Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3SdRdEs5ag Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedefiant.io/ Telegram: https://t.me/DefiantNews 📬 Contact our Newsroom editorial@thedefiant.io 🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships sponsors@thedefiant.io #TheDefiant​ #DeFi​ #Decentralized​ #Finance​ #Blockchain #Web3

Mustafa Al-Bassam

Co-founder

CelestiaCelestia Labs

In this episode of Unchained, Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs, Nick White, COO at Celestia, and Chris Burniske, partner at VC firm Placeholder discuss the differences between modular and monolithic, or integrated, blockchains, with Solana epitomizing the monolithic approach and Celestia the modular one. They all agree that both approaches have their merits and will likely coexist, but argue each lends itself to specific use cases and developer preferences.They also discuss what will drive the next crypto bull cycle, and each gives their best predictions for a specific development in the crypto industry in the next few years.  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: Chris’s explanation of the modular vs. monolithic approach in blockchains What drove Anatoly to prioritize speed in Solana's architecture and its impact on the network What Celestia is and how it represents the first modular blockchain network Whether developers and users will gravitate more towards modular or monolithic blockchains How Solana, as one of the fastest blockchains, is gearing up to handle massive usage and scalability Why Chris views Celestia as a frontrunner in the data availability sector How Nick perceives the philosophical similarities and executional differences between Celestia and Solana Whether there's potential for Solana to transition into a modular blockchain in the future Why Chris believes that the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) might surpass the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) in user adoption What challenges Bitcoin faces in developing actual Layer 2 solutions, especially considering its "doomers storage" issue What could drive the next crypto bull market Top predictions for 2024 and beyond  Anatoly’s perspective on how a significant hack could pose a serious setback for the entire industry  Thank you to our sponsors! Arbitrum Foundation Popcorn Network iTrustCapital Guests: Anatoly Yakovenko, cofounder of Solana Labs Previous appearances on Unchained: Anatoly Yakovenko on Solana’s Astounding Recovery and Its Future Plans Will Solana Be the Execution Layer and Ethereum the Settlement Layer? Can Solana Seize Marketshare From Ethereum With Serum? Anatoly Yakovenko on Why Solana Is Building the SAGA Chris Burniske, partner at Placeholder Previous appearances on Unchained: Two VCs on Why This Is the Perfect Time to Invest in Crypto 2022 in Review + How Cobie and Chris Burniske Are Playing the New Year Cobie and Chris Burniske on How to Navigate a Crypto Bear Market How To Value A Crypto Asset Nick White, COO at Celestia Labs Links Modular vs. monolithic Alchemy: Modular vs. Monolithic Blockchains Visa: Monolithic vs. modular blockchain Chris Burniske’s tweet on modular vs monolithic “The horrific inefficiencies of monolithic blockchains” by polynya Blockworks: A spicy salvo launched in the monolithic vs modular debate Unchained: What Is the Blockchain Trilemma? Celestia Celestia’s explanation of modular blockchains Data availability Data availability sampling An introduction to sovereign rollups Spot Bitcoin ETF: Unchained:  Why The Spot Bitcoin ETF Is a Big Deal Deciding on Bitcoin: Should New Investors Jump In Now or Wait for an ETF? Ledger ConnectKit incident Unchained: Ledger Library Compromised, Causing Confusion and Panic in Crypto Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anatoly Yakovenko

CEO & Co-founder

Solana LabsSolana

Nick White

COO

Celestia LabsCelestia

Chris Burniske

Partner

PlaceholderPlaceholder VCPlaceholder VenturesPlaceholder CapitalARK Invest

Celestia’s token ($TIA) just dropped. Highlighted by its modular data availability network the crypto community has showed a lot of excitement around this launch. Why? What is so valuable about Celestia? What is its vision for crypto? How, if successful, will Celestia change the crypto landscape?  Today, on Bankless We’re talking to two Celestia CoFounders Mustafa and Ismail to explore the thesis behind Celesia. So, strap yourselves in, put on your learning cap, because we’re going to learn about Celestia in today’s episode.  ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2   ⁠ 🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask   ⚖️ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum   ⁠ 👾GMX | V2 IS NOW LIVE  https://bankless.cc/GMX  🔗CELO | CEL2 COMING SOON https://bankless.cc/Celo   🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap  ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 4:10 What is Celestia?  6:12 The Modular Thesis 9:00 Celestia & Ethereum Relationship  18:27 Economics of Celestia  21:21 Celestia’s SDK 26:31 Celestia’s Capital Power  28:15 $TIA  32:18 Blob Stream 34:30 Celestia Endgame 36:18 Current & Future Projects on Celestia  41:15 Celestia’s Vision  43:55 Closing & Disclaimers   ------ RESOURCES Mustafa https://twitter.com/musalbas  Ismail https://twitter.com/KreuzUQuer  Celestia https://celestia.org/learn/  Vitalik’s Endgame  https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2021/12/06/endgame.html  ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures ⁠

Mustafa Al-Bassam

Co-founder

CelestiaCelestia Labs

Ismail Khoffi

Co-founder

Celestia

In today's episode of Empire we explore the current state and future of modular blockchains. With special guests Avery Ching, Rushi Mache, and Nick White, the discussion revolves around the pros and cons of Modular and Monolithic Blockchain Architecture, aptness of execution environments, the importance of scalability, and the standardization and consolidation in the blockchain space. The conversation further dives into the performance and potential of Move Virtual Machine, the struggles of the Ethereum Virtual Machine, and the promise of innovative solutions like Celestia to offer more cost-effective and efficient data availability. We hope you Enjoy! -- Follow Avery: https://twitter.com/AveryChing Follow Nick: https://twitter.com/nickwh8te Follow Rushi: https://twitter.com/rushimanche?lang=en Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ - - Join us at DAS (Digital Asset Summit) in London this March! DAS is the #1 institutional conference in crypto, hosted by Blockworks. Use the link below to learn more, and use EMPIRE20 to get 20% off your ticket! Sign up now because the price goes up every month. See you there! Learn more + get your ticket here: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2024-london/home - - Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 02:00 The Modular Blockchain Thesis 04:26 MOVE-Based Blockchains 17:33 Is Monolothic Dated? 32:21 DAS London 33:38 Measuring Blockchain Performance & Scalability 43:31 The Future of DEV Activity 52:29 The Killer App 57:07 Will there be a Final Optimal Stack? 01:03:46 DAS London - - Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Nick White

COO

Celestia LabsCelestia

Rushi Manche

Co-Founder

Movement Labs

Avery Ching

CEO

AptosAptos Labs

Today we are joined by Preston Evans and Mustafa Al-Bassam to discuss the sovereign rollup thesis. We discuss social vs technical sovereignty, the Sovereign SDK, why light clients are critical to scale, limitations of optimistic rollups, value accrual in a modular world and more! - - Timestamps: (00:00) Rollup Designs (05:40) Social Sovereignty vs Technical Sovereignty (09:58) Why Does the Rollup Debate Matter? (18:09) Limitations of the EVM (20:39) A Blockchains 3 Core Tasks (24:21) Thales (25:18) Security Guarantees & the Benefit for Users (32:21) Modular Inevitability & Breaking the Layer One Loop (42:34) Why Preston is Bearish on Optimistic Rollups (46:00) Value Accrual and Moats (53:40) Sovereign’s Alpha Release & Celestia’s Mainnet Incoming - - Follow Preston: https://twitter.com/prestonevans__ Follow Mustafa: https://twitter.com/musalbas Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/  - - This episode is brought to you by Thales. Thales is an innovative digital options platform on Arbitrum and Optimism that gets you exposure to crypto assets in the simplest way possible. As simple as choosing UP or DOWN! Experience the simplicity and power of Thales by visiting https://thalesmarket.io/?mtm_campaign=blockworks today! - - Resources Celestia https://celestia.org/ https://twitter.com/CelestiaOrg Sovereign https://www.sovereign.xyz/ https://twitter.com/sovereign_labs - -  Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Mustafa Al-Bassam

Co-founder

CelestiaCelestia Labs

Preston Evans

Co-Founder

Sovereign Labs

Nick White is the COO of Celestia Labs. Celestia is the first modular blockchain network. If you have no idea what that is, you’re in luck! Celestia wants it to be as easy to deploy blockchains as it is smart contracts. Nick and David cover all things modular blockchains, the network effect that happens as a result of this multi-chain universe, what the far away distant future might look like, and so much more! ------ 📣 ZERION | Trade Across 7 Networks and 500+ protocols https://bankless.cc/Zerion  ------ 🚀 SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/  🎙️ SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST: http://podcast.banklesshq.com/  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 👀 POLYGON | LAYER 2 DEFI https://bankless.cc/Polygon  ❎ ACROSS | BRIDGE TO LAYER 2 https://bankless.cc/Across  🦊 METAMASK | THE CRYPTO WALLET https://bankless.cc/metamask  💳 LEDGER | THE CRYPTO LIFE CARD https://bankless.cc/Ledger  🧙‍♂️ ALCHEMIX | SELF REPAYING LOANS https://bankless.cc/Alchemix  🦄 UNISWAP | DECENTRALIZED FUNDING https://bankless.cc/UniGrants  ------ Topics Covered: 0:00 Intro 4:00 What is Celestia 5:30 Types of Blockchains 9:30 How Celestia Modularizes 16:15 Rule Checking 19:40 How Rollups Work 21:10 Different Kinds of Layers 27:31 Prices & Data Availability Sampling 40:00 Celestia’s Blockspace 42:01 Fees & Nodes 45:35 Goals of Celestia 51:43 Celestia Vampire Attack?! 53:20 The Future of Modular Blockchains ------ Resources: Nick’s Twitter https://twitter.com/nickwh8te  Celestia’s Website https://t.co/oaUV9NvYwH  Celestia’s Twitter https://twitter.com/CelestiaOrg  John Adler Delphi Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/celestia-the-worlds-first-modular-blockchain-network/id1438148082?i=1000552936346  Celestia’s Discord & Telegram https://discord.com/invite/YsnTPcSfWQ  https://t.me/CelestiaCommunity  ----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research. Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures

Nick White

COO

Celestia LabsCelestia