OKX Ventures, the investment arm of crypto exchange and Web3 technology company OKX, announced the participation in last year’s Series B for Celestia Labs.
Celestia is described as “the first modular blockchain network, meaning developers can use Celestia as a base layer for consensus and data functions, and then choose a virtual machine, such as Ethereum, Solana, zero-knowledge roll-ups or any other compatible smart contract execution layers, to build and deploy their own new blockchain.”
This contrasts with previous generations of blockchain infrastructure, “in which Layer-1 chains perform consensus, data functions and execution altogether — a structure Celestia calls ‘monolithic.’”
Celestia is also expected “to be the first blockchain network to use Data Availability Sampling (DAS) when it goes live later this year.”
DAS is reportedly a lighter, faster way “to verify blocks without requiring nodes to download all the data in a block. By allowing nodes to verify smaller, randomly selected data within a block, Celestia intends to avoid the scalability tradeoffs which have historically held back Layer-1s to date.”
OKX Ventures Founder Dora Yue said:
“For the sake of scalability, we see a trend towards modularity in the blockchain industry. Celestia has pioneered a modular approach that is a completely different paradigm when compared to traditional Layer-1 chains, giving developers greater customization capabilities and potentially leading blockchain infrastructure into a new era.”
Developers can receive several benefits “by using Celestia as a base layer for deploying modular blockchains.”
These benefits reportedly “include higher scalability, shared security for interoperability between apps, and the flexibility to choose between execution environments including Ethereum and Solana.”
As covered, OKX Ventures is “the investment arm of crypto exchange and Web3 technology company OKX, with an initial capital commitment of USD 100 million.”
It focuses on exploring “the best blockchain projects on a global scale, supporting cutting-edge blockchain technology innovation, promoting the healthy development of the global blockchain industry, and investing in long-term structural value.”
Through its commitment to supporting entrepreneurs who contribute to the development of the blockchain industry, OKX Ventures helps “build innovative companies and brings global resources and historical experience to blockchain projects.”