What's Danksharding and crList, and why are they so groundbreaking?
A π§΅π
Danksharding gets the name from the core dev who proposed it, @dankrad. Instead of the previous design which was simply parallel data shards, Danksharding flips Ethereum upside down with a new role: the block builder.
The builder grabs all of the existing L1 data as well as rollup data and puts them together into blocks which are then broadcasted to the network. Since we're giving builders this massive power, there needs to be a check involved to avoid censorship, which is crList.
What is data availability? Why is it important for blockchains? A π§΅ breaking it down π
Data availability (DA), much like ZK proofs, is an actively researched area. A lot of problems still need to be solved before implementation, and there are several potential solutions. I'll break down one solution: high dimension erasure code and Kate commitments.
It all stems from one question: how can nodes in a network verify that all of the data from a new block is available, and nothing is hidden or censored?
I'm not worried about L2s filtering transactions at all because of one important feature L2s have vs sidechains: exit functionality. Regardless of censorship, users can exit trustlessly back to L1.
Let's talk some more EVM basics. ERC standards⦠what are they, and why are they important? What's the difference between an ERC-20 and ERC-721?
π§΅π
One of the most important things is interoperability. In order to have a neutral base settlement layer, things must be able to work together easily. There are a lot of ERCs, but the most well-known ones are ERC-20 and ERC-721.
ERCs are application-level standards and conventions implemented into smart contracts.