Avail, the blockchain “data availability” project that spun out of Polygon in early 2023 and raised $75 million in funding, is finally launching.
According to a press release, the project’s main network was scheduled to go live on Tuesday along with its native token, AVAIL.
Data Availability (DA for short) is a specialized technology that cheaply and efficiently stores the huge amounts of transactional data generated by blockchains, such as Layer 2 networks on Ethereum. Avail joins a growing field of projects, including pioneer Celestia, that aim to capitalize on the growing demand for services as blockchain networks grow.
“The launch of Avail DA marks the first step in Avail’s mission to provide developers with the tools they need to improve blockchain scalability, increase liquidity, and provide seamless usability across any blockchain ecosystem,” the press release read.
Co-led by Polygon co-founder Anurag Arjun, the highly anticipated project has raised a total of $75 million in funding from investors including Founders Fund, Dragonfly and Cyber Fund. Avail announced in December last year that it had signed with Ethereum Layer 2 development firm StarkWare as the DA provider for its new application chain. Earlier this year, the project revealed plans to integrate with top networks Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon and ZKsync.
In March, developers rolled out a native solution for the Ethereum blockchain called Protodunk Sharding for low-cost storage of layer-2 transaction data.
Citing two differentiating technologies, Avail claims it is “the only chain-agnostic DA layer that combines KZG commitment and data availability sampling.”
According to the press release, “This marks a significant milestone for the blockchain community as Rollups will now be able to enjoy the features and benefits of Ethereum’s Dank Sharding roadmap starting today.”
According to the release, the Avail network uses a decentralized set of validators and aims to initially support 1,000 validators, with the potential to grow to 10,000.
According to the project, the AVAIL token will be used to pay DA fees and secure the network through staking.
