Multiple Data Availability (MultiDA)

What Does MultiDA Mean?

For L2 rollups, DA layers provide a secure and easily accessible storage solution for transaction data. When L2s and rollups publish transaction data to a DA layer, the DA layer will quickly and efficiently verify the transaction and execute it at a lower cost, in comparison to traditional blockchain storage models. 

Why Would You Need More Than One DA Layer?

A single DA layer presents the risk of a single point of failure. If there is a disruption within a DA service provider, the whole blockchain will be impacted.

Blockchain and Web3 technology have long been touted as overly complicated and hard to use. This is one of the benefits of having MultiDA in place — a seamless user experience, without the need to manually select a DA service. Additional benefits include improved uptime, cost efficiency, and overall improvement in reliability for users.

The use of MultiDA providers means operations will always continue. If one service provider experiences downtime, there will be an automatic switch to the next available option, which is determined by cost, availability, and performance. This redundancy sends data to multiple providers, which then improves resiliency and security — while simultaneously keeping transaction costs low.

How Does MultiDA Work?

In fallback scenarios, the alternative DA used is determined based on the following:

1. Availability: The system checks which integrated DAs are operational and available.

2. Cost Efficiency: The system considers transaction fees among the available DAs to select the DA layer that offers the lowest costs.

3. Performance Metrics: Other performance factors like throughput, latency, and reliability are also considered to ensure the best possible user experience.

This setup means users won’t need to manually select a DA service — the system will handle it automatically, maintaining glitch-free operations and consistent fees.

A successful MultiDA selection ensures the following:

• Gas fees do not spike while leveraging the benefits of MultiDA services.

• It is only activated or used in times of crisis — similar to having a backup generator in case of a storm, MultiDA should only be used when there is a fallback scenario.

• One-day chains automatically switch to the best-performing DA service for users, improving the UX by offering an uninterrupted service.

Creating Resiliency Through Redundancy

In July 2024, Crowdstrike, a third-party software that Microsoft uses for security, published a faulty software update, sparking a global technological crisis. It severely impacted any business dependent on the computer system, affecting a multitude of industries including banking, TV, and aviation. 

This incident showcases the importance of redundancy in systems, as it helps to prevent a single point of failure and widespread disruption. MultiDA is an example of this redundancy approach within the blockchain space. By distributing data across multiple chains and DA providers, the risk of a single point of failure is avoided.

Cloud services are an example of how Web2 data storage companies utilize redundancy to mitigate a single point of failure. AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure have created storage systems that cost a fraction of what traditional servers offer. This enhances operational efficiency for the companies using these services while saving them a lot of money. 

However, there is still a risk of unexpected downtime if a single cloud service provider experiences issues. So using more than one cloud service provider and distributing the servers geographically, can help ensure greater resilience to any disruption, while allowing the company to address the issue quickly.

In Web3, modularity and redundancy function similarly. By leveraging MultiDA, networks become more flexible and efficient. These dependencies make it crucial for developers to factor in resiliency through redundancy, and adopting a MultiDA framework is the first step toward achieving this.

Author: Kenny Li, Co-Founder & Core Contributor of Manta Network

Kenny Li has started, advised, and invested in startups for over a decade. He received an MBA from MIT in 2020, while there he was a teaching assistant for several blockchain-based courses and worked with the Digital Currency Initiative. Rather than just increasing the transaction per second vertically within a single network, Manta Pacific advocates for a horizontally scalable approach. This can be seen with Manta’s MultiDA framework, integrating with EigenDA, NEAR DA, 0G, Nubit, and Dill on Testnet.