Written by: Golden Finance 0xjs
On September 26, 2023, Celestia announced that the Genesis Block will be launched later this year, launching the first modular data availability network. At the same time, Celestia's native asset TIA will be introduced.
The core of Celestia's mission is to make it easy for developers to launch their own blockchain by empowering anyone to launch their own blockchain in minutes by paying TIA. This enables rollup developers to take advantage of the rich blobspace provided by Data Availability Sampling (DAS). In the era of modularity, developers are free to choose any asset as the Gas token or currency for their rollup, or choose to use TIA to launch quickly.
To advance this vision, Celestia launched the Genesis Drop.
The Celestia Genesis Drop will be airdropped to 7,579 developers and 576,653 on-chain addresses on Ethereum Rollups, Cosmos Hub, and Osmosis, allowing them to pay for blobspace and secure the network from the first block.
Genesis airdrop time and airdrop website
Starting September 26th and ending October 17th, 2023 at 12:00 UTC, eligible developers and addresses can add their addresses to Celestia’s genesis block by visiting genesis.celestia.org. Tokens claimed through the Genesis Drop will be accessible directly in your wallet from the first block.
NOTE: https://genesis.celestia.org is the only way to access the Celestia Genesis Drop. Neither the claiming site, anyone from the Celestia Labs team, nor anyone from the Celestia Foundation will ask you to enter your private keys or transfer any kind of tokens from your wallet.
Genesis Airdrop Allocation
The Genesis Drop will distribute 60,000,000 TIA (6% of the total supply of 1 billion) between the categories described in the table below.
The detailed distribution is as follows:
Celestia Token TIA Overview
Paying for Blobspace
TIA is a key part of what developers are building on the first modular data availability network. To use Celestia for data availability (DA), Rollup developers need to submit PayForBlobs (PFB) transaction fees denominated in TIA on the network.
Starting a new Rollup
A core part of Celestia's vision is that deploying a blockchain should be as easy as deploying a smart contract. In the era of modularity, developers no longer need to issue tokens to launch their own blockchain.
Similar to Ethereum's Rollup-based ETH, developers can choose to use TIA as a gas token and currency, as well as pay for data availability, to quickly launch their chain. In this model, developers can focus on creating their applications or execution layers without issuing tokens immediately.
Staking and Network Governance
As a permissionless network built with the Cosmos SDK, Celestia uses proof of stake to secure its own consensus. Like other Cosmos networks, any user can help secure the network by delegating their TIA to a Celestia validator, thereby earning a portion of the validator's staking rewards.
Celestia’s decentralized core development roadmap is achieved through the Celestia Improvement Proposal (CIP) process, which provides off-chain governance similar to Ethereum EIPs or Bitcoin BIPs. More details on the CIP process will be released in the coming weeks.
TIA also allows the community to decentralize governance on key parts of Celestia from day one, such as voting on network parameters and managing the community pool.
Network Parameters: Starting from network launch, TIA holders can vote on a set of network parameters, including Celestia’s block size, maximum block size, and other parameters here.
Community Pool:
Starting from network launch, Celestia’s community pool will receive 2% of all Celestia block rewards.
TIA holders can vote to spend TIA from the community pool to fund ecosystem projects.
For more details on governing network parameters and community pools (https://docs.celestia.org/nodes/celestia-app-commands/#community-pool), see the Celestia documentation.
Genesis Investment Qualification Category
Celestia’s Genesis Drop invites a diverse group of qualified developers and on-chain addresses that have been building and contributing to Celestia’s modular ecosystem since its inception.
Eligibility for the Genesis Drop is split into four categories, two for 7,579 developers, and two for 576,653 on-chain addresses on Ethereum rollups, the Cosmos Hub, and Osmosis. Developers can qualify for multiple TIA allocations (e.g., a combination of Research and Public Goods, Eth Research, and/or Early Modular Ecosystem).
The Genesis Drop claiming period will end on October 17, 2023 at 12:00 UTC.
Any eligible TIA amounts presented on genesis.celestia.org or in this blog post are minimum amounts based on the assumption that 100% of eligible GitHub accounts or on-chain addresses claim them. At the end of the Genesis Drop, a maximum of 4,500,000 TIA of unclaimed tokens will be distributed to developers and accounts that have submitted addresses.
Genesis Airdrop Allocation and Eligibility Rules
Research and Public Goods: Protocol Public Goods and Infrastructure and Eth Research
Early modular ecosystem
Early adopters of Ethereum Rollup
Cosmos Hub and Osmosis stakers and IBC relayers
1. Research and Public Goods – 6 million TIA
Protocol Public Goods and Infrastructure – 4,600,000 TIA
Developers with at least 23 commits on GitHub and at least 4 commits on all eligible repositories as detailed in the GitHub Super Contributors section will receive additional TIAs.
Eligibility Criteria
Protocol Public Goods and Infrastructure: Public GitHub contributor to key infrastructure repositories for Ethereum, Bitcoin, and all chains (Rollups, Cosmos Hub, Osmosis), including all chains included in the on-chain standards of the Genesis Drop
Open Source Governance of Ethereum and Bitcoin: Public GitHub Contributors to the Ethereum and Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (EIP and BIP) repositories:
Contributors to the Celestia core repository and key dependencies
Public GitHub contributors to Celestia, Celestial Node, and Celestial Applications (excluding Celestia Labs)
GitHub organization member and public contributor to Celestia’s open source blockchain dependencies, including Cosmos SDK, CometBFT, IBC, Bitswap, and libp2p
Eth Research – 1.4 million TIA
Celestia has its roots in the Ethereum research community, where the idea for LazyLedger was first formulated.
The Genesis Drop allocated 1.4 million TIA to members who contributed to open discussions and published groundbreaking research on the Eth Research forum, with these research topics or posts lasting six years.
Eligibility criteria: User of the Eth Research forum who has created at least 1 topic or 1 post before July 5, 2023
Early Modular Ecosystem Users – 8.35 Million TIA
The modular ecosystem has grown substantially since the first Modular Summit in Amsterdam last year. Experimentation with novel execution layers and specialized blockchains is increasing, along with exciting new auxiliary infrastructure such as intent systems and zero-knowledge state proofs.
Public contributors to organizations represented at Modular Summits 1 & 2 are eligible to receive an allocation of the Genesis Drop. In the spirit of modularism rather than maximalism, this includes not only other data availability layers in development, such as Avail and EigenDA, but also Solana, whose execution layer innovation is introducing Rollups.
Eligibility Criteria
Members of GitHub organizations and public GitHub contributors can support repositories for up to two organizations, based on:
The Modular Ecosystem Map and the Celestia Ecosystem Map, both presented on day two of Modular Summit 2 (July 2023)
Organizations representing Modular Summit 1 (Amsterdam 2022) and Modular Summit 2 (Paris 2023)
GitHub account for the first Celestia Modular Scholarship
GitHub Super Contributor – 5.65 million TIA
GitHub contributors with at least 4 total commits across all eligible repositories will be assigned additional TIAs, and more TIAs will be assigned to contributors to Research and Public Goods and Early Modularity Ecosystem standards with at least 23 total commits.
Eligibility Criteria
Contributor, ≥ 23 total commits: Public GitHub contributor with at least 23 commits on all eligible repositories
Contributor, ≥ 4 total commits: Public GitHub contributor with at least 4 commits on all eligible repositories
Ethereum Rollup Early Adopters – 20 Million TIA
The Genesis Drop will distribute 20,000,000 TIA to the top 50% active users of the top 10 Ethereum Rollups on L2Beat with a balance of $50 at the January 1, 2023 snapshot (Ethereum block 16308181): OP Mainnet, Arbitrum One, Arbitrum Nova, Starknet, zkSync Lite, dYdX (StarkEx), Immutable (StarkEx), SoRare (StarkEx), Loopring, Metis Andromeda
To determine the user's on-chain activity level, Genesis Drop will score the on-chain behavior of Ethereum and all eligible Rollups. These scores are used to create a composite score to invite actual early adopters and strong users, specifically rewarding the following on-chain behaviors:
Interacting with smart contracts and applications, owning ENS domains, donating to Gitcoin, ETH spent on gas, freshness of last transaction
This methodology is adapted from Trusta Labs’ MEDIA scoring methodology, which is designed to measure a user’s on-chain participation level and scoring methodology. The activity score of an address is defined based on a set of weighted on-chain behaviors, and each address is then scored before January 1, 2023, including the following set of on-chain behaviors:
Cosmos Hub and Osmosis stakers and IBC relayers – 20,000 TIA
Stakeholders: 18.5 million TIA
The Genesis Drop will distribute 18.5 million TIA to Cosmos Hub and Osmosis stakers with a stake ≥ $75, calculated based on their stake and on-chain activity.
In order to allocate more TIA to more active addresses, eligibility is divided into three levels of stake and on-chain activity, calculated by multiplying the stake and on-chain activity scores.
IBC Relay - 1.5 million TIA
IBC relayers are the unsung heroes of the Interchain and will help enable modular chains to interoperate.
Eligibility Criteria (IBC Repeater)
Addresses that conducted MsgRecvPacket transactions before January 1, 2023 (Cosmos Hub block 13482205, Osmosis block 7592794).