PeerDAS is expected to support both Layer 2 and eventual Layer 1 Ethereum scaling as blob capacity increases.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin today outlined how Fusaka plans to scale data availability through its PeerDAS system, marking a novel approach to blockchain architecture where nodes won’t need to download complete data sets.
The PeerDAS system operates by having each node request a limited number of data chunks to verify that over 50% of chunks are accessible.
“The way PeerDAS works is that each node only asks for a small number of ‘chunks’, as a way of probabilistically verifying that more than 50% of chunks are available,” Buterin explained. “If more than 50% of chunks are available, then the node theoretically can download those chunks, and use erasure coding to recover the rest.”
The initial version requires complete block data to exist in one location during initial broadcasting and reconstruction phases. However, these roles don’t require trust, as Buterin noted:
“We only need one honest actor to do them, if there are also 100 dishonest actors the protocol simply bypasses them. And different nodes can perform this task for different blocks.”
Future implementations will incorporate cell-level messaging and distributed block building to further decentralize these functions. The cautious development approach will see blob counts increase gradually before accelerating.
“This is all new technology, and the core devs are wise to be super cautious on testing, even after they have been working on this for years,” Buterin said.
The PeerDAS system is positioned as a crucial component for Layer 2 scaling solutions and eventual Layer 1 scaling when gas limits increase sufficiently to require Layer 1 execution data in blobs.
