At the beginning of 2024, Celestia ignited the narrative around modular blockchains, drawing market attention to another player within the same narrative—KIRA Network. Unlike Celestia, which focuses on data availability, KIRA harbors a more abstract and grand vision. This article is intended as a preliminary dive into KIRA’s design and innovations.
Before diving into KIRA, let's summarize what a modular blockchain is. A blockchain can be abstracted into three modular layers: execution, consensus & settlement, and data availability.
Taking the classic example of Ethereum, where Alice transfers 1 ETH to Bob:
Execution refers to the block proposer computing the result of the transaction where Alice transferred 1 ETH to Bob in her ledger.
Consensus & settlement refers to Alice and Bob broadcasting this transaction to the entire village, and upon verification of its accuracy, everyone else recording this transaction in their ledgers as well.
Data availability refers to the ability for anyone to access this transaction and the real-time balances of Alice and Bob at any future moment.
Modular blockchain designs diverge from more traditional monolithic blockchains by separating these components into specialized modular layers.
Similar to the three modules of data, execution, and consensus, KIRA defines three layers: Coordination, Content Availability, and Application layers.
SEKAI is KIRA’s Coordination layer. It is KIRA's core blockchain, managing all on-chain logic, including processing transactions and state transitions. It also acts as a single, shared source of finality for all existing RollApps.
INTERX (Interchain NginX) is the Content Availability layer, handling interactions between nodes, nodes and MIRO, and controlling nodes to run either execution or verification logic. It also offers a decentralized API feature which allows users to query multiple nodes simultaneously for data verification, enabling off-chain fraud proofs while offering a balance between high security and practicality.
KIRA RollApps comprise the Application layer (Layer 2) of KIRA. Each KIRA application, also referred to as ‘RollApps’, consist of two separate containers for execution and verification.
Kira's modular design introduces two significant innovations:
Verification logic does not necessarily equal execution logic.
Execution and verification logic run inside Docker containers.
Execution Logic vs. Verification Logic In both Ethereum and Bitcoin networks, the execution and verification logic are identical, with validators simply repeating execution and checking for consistent results. This approach faces two main issues: (1) low efficiency due to multiple nodes running the same operations, limiting the complexity of dApps that can run on the network; (2) the need for determinism in logic to ensure consistent execution results, restricting the randomness and freedom of dApps. The traditional verification method is to repeat determinism. Determinism is necessarily verifiable, but verification does not have to be deterministic. For example, if A rolls two six-sided dice and gets a 2 and a 6, B cannot verify A's result by rolling the dice again to get the same numbers. But B can verify whether A's result is acceptable based on the numbers being within the 1 to 6 range. Kira allows dApp developers to customize execution and verification logic. They can be identical or different, depending on the needs of the dApp's product logic. The idea is "not knowing how to manufacture an air conditioner, but understanding its cooling and heating," meaning verification logic can be much simpler than execution logic, thereby significantly improving its efficiency.
Containerized Execution Docker containers are scalable, efficient, and ready-to-use black boxes for custom applications. For example, if you want Kung Pao chicken, the code is just the recipe, but you need an environment (kitchen), tools (kitchenware), and to debug (train the chef). A Docker container is like a kitchen black box, housing a chef who specializes in Kung Pao chicken available 24/7. Just power it on, and it's ready to cook. You can easily replicate thousands of these black boxes for mass production. Containerization is not innovative in Web2, but using Docker to run execution and verification logic on nodes in Web3 is an innovative design. It ensures dApps written in any language and on different platforms can run stably on each node. Furthermore, this framework allows the introduction of external dependencies, such as calling other Web2 or Web3 applications, or even integrating AI providers (like ChatGPT).
KIRA additionally solves the shortcomings common across other modular networks: external and internal interoperability. To describe KIRA’s approach we have coined the terms hypermodularity and metafinality.
Hypermodularity refers to interoperability both within the modular framework centred around INTERX, as well as KIRA’s interoperability with external networks. It's an abstraction above modularity, hence termed hypermodularity.
INTERX controls the switching between execution and verification modes for nodes, connecting execution nodes with verification nodes, and connecting frontend users with nodes. KIRA’s approach to combining all elements of the modular stack simultaneously solves for complexity, networking constraints, and dependency risks.
Blockchain finality equates to absolute correctness; content written into a block is equivalent to consensus. Metafinality allows KIRA to trustlessly obtain the state of state of truth on other networks at any given time, unlocking interoperability with external networks.
The following section recaps KIRA’s current progress and our upcoming goals:
Current Status
Token: In 2020, $3M was raised by issuing $KEX Tokens on the Ethereum Mainnet. As of early May 2024, the FDV is approximately $15M.
Development: After nine Testnet iterations, Chaosnet was launched in July 2023, which is still in the Testnet phase (More updates on this to be shared shortly). Developers can apply to run testnet nodes or build DApps.
Moving Forward
KIRA's execution and verification mechanism allows DApps to transcend the boundaries between Web3 and Web2, offering a wide variety of benefits for those building resource intensive applications in verticals such as AI and Gaming. The key focus will be around executing KIRA's upcoming milestones:
Launching the Mainnet within this bull market cycle.
Continual operation of the economic model.
Developing the ecosystem by growing the community, fostering new strategic partnerships, and building KIRA’s brand equity within the broader industry.
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