Avail, Long-Awaited 'Data Availability' Blockchain Project, Launches Main Network

Avail, a blockchain "data availability" project spun out of Polygon in early 2023 that has raised $75 million of funding, is finally launching.

The project's main network was set to go live on Tuesday, along with a native token, AVAIL, according to a press release.

Data availability, or DA for short, is the specialty of cheaply and efficiently storing reams of transactional data produced by blockchains, such as layer-2 networks atop Ethereum. Avail joins a growing field of projects, including first-mover Celestia, that aim to capitalize on increasing demand for the service as blockchain networks grow.

"The launch of Avail DA marks the first step in Avail’s mission to give developers the tools they need to boost blockchain scalability, enhance liquidity and provide seamless usability across any blockchain ecosystem," according to a press release.

The highly anticipated project, co-led by Polygon co-founder Anurag Arjun, has raised a total of $75 million of funding, from investors including Founders Fund, Dragonfly and Cyber Fund. Avail announced last December that it had reached an agreement with the Ethereum layer-2 developer StarkWare to serve as a DA provider to new applications chains. Earlier this year, the project disclosed plans for integrations with top networks Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon and ZKsync.

And in February, Arjun laid out an expanded "vision" for Avail as a "unification layer" helping to connect the myriad blockchains and layer-2 ecosystems, with DA as the "base" along with the additional projects Nexus, described as a "permissionless coordination hub," and Fusion, "addressing the growing need for shared security."

But there is already much competition in the DA arena. Celestia, seen as the pioneer in the space, went live last October, along with an airdrop of its native TIA token. NEAR Protocol, an alternative layer-1 smart-contracts blockchain, spun out a DA project last month called Nuffle Labs, with $13 million of funding. EigenLayer, currently seen as the top restaking project on Ethereum despite lacking functionality pitched as crucial to the entire setup, has its own solution, known as EigenDA.

In March, developers rolled out the Ethereum blockchain's native solution for storing layer-2 transactional data at a lower cost, known as proto-danksharding.

Avail claims it's "the only chain-agnostic DA layer combining KZG commitments with data-availability sampling," citing two technologies that are cast as differentiators.

"This marks a significant milestone for the blockchain community as it enables rollups to enjoy the features and benefits of Ethereum’s danksharding roadmap today," according to a press release.

Avail's network uses a decentralized validator set, aiming to support 1,000 validators initially, with the potential to grow to 10,000, according to the release.

The AVAIL token will be used to pay for DA fees and secure the network through staking, the project said.