A Survey on Data Availability in Layer 2 Blockchain Rollups: Open Challenges and Future Improvements

Abstract

Layer 2 solutions have emerged in recent years as a valuable alternative to increase the throughput and scalability of blockchain-based architectures. The three primary types of Layer 2 solutions are state channels, sidechains, and rollups. The rollups are particularly promising, allowing significant improvements in transaction throughput, security, and efficiency, and have been adopted by many real-world projects, such as Polygon and Optimistic. However, the adoption of Layer 2 solutions has led to other challenges, such as the data availability problem, where transaction data processed off-chain must be posted back on the main chain. This is crucial to prevent data withholding attacks and ensure all participants can independently verify the blockchain state. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of existing rollup-based Layer 2 solutions with a focus on the data availability problem and discusses the major advantages and disadvantages of them. Finally, an analysis of open challenges and future research directions is provided.