The Blockchain Relay: An Athletic Approach to Ethereum Transactions and Modularity

Alright, let's dive into the fascinating world of blockchains, shall we? Picture this: you're all set with your Chrome browser open, MetaMask installed, and Ether in your digital pocket. You're on Uniswap and ready to make a swap. You click that button, and a MetaMask pop-up appears. You give it the green light, and voila! Your transfer embarks on a thrilling journey within the blockchain.


Here's the play-by-play:

1. The moment you give your digital signature via MetaMask, it's like a baton in a relay race, passed on to the Ethereum node linked to your wallet.
2. This Ethereum node, the second runner, grabs the baton (your transfer) and announces to the other nodes (fellow runners), "Look what I got here, a fresh transfer!"
3. The other nodes catch the news, and your transfer is placed in a waiting area called the Mempool, like an athlete waiting for their event to start.

(At this point, your Swap transaction is visible on Etherscan, but it's still warming up, waiting for its turn to enter the blockchain race.)

1. Nodes that have 32 Ether see this swap transfer in the Mempool. They huddle together, scrutinizing the transfer, checking for any foul play. If all is good, they take the transfer, run it through the EVM for a lap or two, calculating the necessary processor computation and the transaction fee.
2. Once the calculations are done, the validators (the referees of our race) officially write it into the next block.

(On Etherscan, you can see the transaction fee you paid, the block where your transaction is housed, the amount of Gas spent, and so on.)
After the transaction is written into the block, it becomes a permanent part of the blockchain's history, like a record in a sports almanac, confirmed by every full node built on that blockchain.



Now, four tasks are happening during this process.

1. Execution: The transaction is run through the EVM like a sprinter on a track.
2. Settlement: The nodes hold the transaction like a baton.
3. Data: The transaction data is stored in the blockchain like a record in an archive.
4. Consensus: The transaction's correctness is confirmed like a referee's decision.

Until now, all blockchains were performing these four tasks solo, like a one-man relay team. But doing these four tasks quickly and cheaply at the same time was like asking a sprinter to also do a marathon – it put a serious strain on the nodes. So, they decided to pass the baton and distribute these tasks.
This is where modularity comes in. It's like breaking a relay team into separate runners, each specializing in a different event, not just a single race.
Execution and Data are the two most strenuous events. They wanted to make these more modular, and that's where Rollups come in. You're now doing transactions on Arbitrum, Starknet, moving away from the Ethereum track.
However, Arbitrum and Starknet aren't exactly cheap tickets to the race. Why? Because Rollups still pass the Data baton to Ethereum.
Enter Celestia, promising to provide super cheap Data service to all Rollups with Data Availability Sampling. It's like offering a budget-friendly energy drink to all runners.
Then there's Ethereum's proposal: "We can offer cheap Data service to Rollups. We have an update called 4844; with this, let's reserve a special lane for Rollups in Ethereum blocks. They can send their Data here and use it cheaply."
Danksharding aims to expand these lanes reserved for Rollups in 4844, turning Ethereum into a mega track similar to Celestia.
And then we have Avail. Avail and Celestia are like twin runners, with minor differences. Both provide a data service, but while Celestia ensures data correctness with Fraud Proofs, Avail uses a zk technology called KZG commitment. Celestia uses Tendermint for consensus, while Avail uses a hybrid consensus called GRANDPA + BABE.
Danksharding is Ethereum's answer to Avail, a similar DAS method. When 4844 comes into play, Rollups will be able to send cheap Data to Ethereum, so I might try a small short on TIA. Why? Because I think Rollups might prefer to send Data to Ethereum again, instead of Celestia.
And there you have it, folks! A thrilling race in the world of blockchains.

Source: tobbykity