The Celestia core developer community has revealed promising results on the Mammoth Mini testnet, achieving an average data throughput of 27MB/s with 88MB blocks. According to the Celestia blog, this development is a significant step towards the community’s ambitious goal of implementing 1GB blocks.
Mammoth Mini Testnet
The Mammoth Mini testnet, launched in October 2024, is designed to explore the potential for data throughput scaling. Celestia’s current capacity is limited to 2MB blocks every 12 seconds, but the testnet aims to significantly expand this limit. Developed over a three-week sprint, the initial iteration shows the implementation of several key improvements, including compact blocks and a new throughput blob propagation protocol known as Vacuum!.
Compact block and vacuum!
The testnet uses the compact block concept, which optimizes data transfer by reducing the need for nodes to download full transaction data. Instead, nodes only download transaction identifiers, significantly reducing bandwidth requirements. vacuum! It complements this by synchronizing the validator mempool with high-priority transactions to improve data propagation speed and efficiency.
FBSS and state machine optimization simulation
Another innovation tested on the Mammoth Mini is the separation of block and square configurations, called Fast Blocks Slow Squares (FBSS). This approach allows for rapid block generation without the encoding overhead of squares, potentially enabling sub-second block times. The testnet also simulates state machine optimizations to improve execution efficiency and address previously unoptimized areas within the Celestia protocol.
future prospects
The advancements showcased in Mammoth Mini are part of a broader roadmap to enhance Celestia’s blockchain capabilities. With several improvements already transitioning from the research phase to the design phase, the community plans to propose these improvements for mainnet beta deployment in 2025. As Celestia continues to innovate, the Mammoth Mini testnet demonstrates the potential of blockchain technology to handle new data throughputs. You need it.
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