Celestia

What it is

A network launched in October 2023 that does one job on purpose: it accepts data from other chains, orders it and guarantees it was actually published, leaving execution and settlement to whoever builds on top.

Why this risk level

• It is the clearest working example of the modular thesis — that ordering data, executing transactions and settling results need not happen on the same chain — so understanding Celestia is largely understanding whether that separation is worth its extra moving parts
• Light clients use data availability sampling, downloading small random pieces of each block to gain statistical confidence that the whole block was published, which is what lets ordinary hardware verify publication without storing everything
• TIA's demand is unusually legible: it is paid for blockspace by the rollups that post data there, so the asset's usage tracks the number and activity of chains that chose this network rather than an application economy of its own
• That same clarity is the risk. Data availability is a competitive market with well-funded alternatives including Ethereum's own blob capacity, and a rollup can migrate its data layer far more easily than users can migrate a chain

A plain-English risk overview for education, not investment advice. Risk profiles describe the asset's own characteristics, not a price forecast — always do your own research before buying.