According to CoinDesk, Near Foundation has announced the launch of a new data availability solution, NEAR DA, in an effort to alleviate the burden of storing and broadcasting large amounts of data on the Ethereum blockchain. The non-profit organization, which supports the Near Protocol blockchain, claims that posting data on their network could be 8,000 times cheaper than on Ethereum. NEAR DA aims to provide an alternative venue for handling data produced by rapidly growing networks, auxiliary blockchains, or layer-2 networks operating on top of Ethereum. This move follows the recent launch of Celestia, a similar network that also aims to address data availability issues.
NEAR DA is set to compete with other upcoming solutions, such as Avail, which plans to launch in early 2024 and is currently running various test networks. The new solution is expected to offer immediate benefits to Web3 founders exploring the modular blockchain development landscape. Initial users of NEAR DA include Madara by Starknet, Caldera, and Movement Labs. The announcement was made at Nearcon, the company's annual conference in Lisbon. According to a press release, it would cost approximately $26.22 for an optimistic rollup – a type of layer-2 network – to post 100 kilobytes of calldata on Ethereum, compared to just $0.0033 for the same amount of data on Near Protocol.
