Celestia, a project working on data availability, a technical term which entails ensuring that a blockchain’s data is widely accessible, plans to launch before the end of the year.

As part of the launch, Celestia will deploy the TIA token, which will be used to pay for data availability services. TIA will also be used for governance and to establish consensus in the project’s proof-of-stake blockchain — Celestia is using the Cosmos SDK, a leading framework for developing application-specific blockchains, to deploy its own solution.

TIA’s launch will include an airdrop of 6% of the token’s 1B supply — eligible users include those who contributed to public goods and other research efforts associated with Celestia, early adopters of Ethereum rollups like Arbitrum and Optimism, and stakers in the Cosmos ecosystem.

Eligible users can claim TIA testnet tokens for the next three weeks.

Celestia is part of a growing trend in crypto to modularize blockchains — this means that instead of one solution being responsible for many different functions like executing and settling transactions, solutions like Celestia unbundle different aspects of the blockchain stack.

The modular model has its critics — Kyle Samani, partner at venture firm Multicoin Capital, which raised $422M in 2022, has argued that modular architecture adds too much complexity for developers.

In 2022, Celestia raised $55M from major crypto venture outfits like Polychain and Bain Capital. Notably, the TIA airdrop is not available in the United States, according to Celestia’s website.