For Arbitrum Orbit chains, your data availability (DA) choice is the single biggest lever on fees, throughput, and “trust model.” Get DA right and you unlock cheaper transactions, faster finality, and cleaner operations. Get it wrong and you’ll either overpay on L1 or accept risk you didn’t plan for.
Arbitrum Orbit provides three options for this. Default Ethereum DA, AltDA for off-chain data, and Arbitrum AnyTrust mode.
Zeeve Rollups-as-a-Service (RaaS) supports all three and has a production client for all of them.
Arbitrum Orbit lets you launch customizable L2s/L3s using Arbitrum’s Nitro stack, inheriting Ethereum-grade security when you want it, and swapping components (fee token, permissions, DA, etc.) when you need flexibility.
The Rollup mode posts transaction data on Ethereum (now often as blobs via EIP-4844), which anyone can download and verify. AnyTrust mode posts DA Certificates to L1 while a permissioned DAC stores data off-chain. This results in dramatic cost savings through a mild trust assumption, with a safety fallback in place if the DAC misbehaves.
For L3s settling to Arbitrum One, the ArbOS 20 “Atlas” upgrade made blob posting cheaper in Rollup mode. But if your L3 already uses an alternative DA (AnyTrust, Celestia, EigenDA, NEAR DA, Avail), those fees don’t change from Dencun because you aren’t using Ethereum for DA.
Read More:
How Arbitrum Orbit Simplifies Building App-Specific Rollups?
Data Availability Layer in Rollups: what is it and why do we need one?
When you choose this option, all batch data is posted on Ethereum (calldata or EIP-4844 blobs). Security “follows” Ethereum: anyone can reconstruct a state, run a node, and verify fraud proofs trustlessly. The trade-off is paying Ethereum’s data market (even with blobs, it’s not free).
When to pick it:
Reg-heavy DeFi/bridges that require minimal additional trust assumptions.
High-TVL apps where Ethereum-inherited security outweighs higher DA costs.
L3s that want lower fees post-Dencun and are OK with L1 fee exposure
Orbit Rollup chains that post blobs to L1 see meaningful fee reductions after the Ethereum Dencun upgrade(EIP 4844). Atlas enables blob posting and other fee tweaks. Though L3s on alternative DA see no Dencun fee change because they don’t post data to Ethereum.
So, Ethereum DA is the “safest default,” especially for value-dense apps, but you pay for that security in L1 fees.
These are all off-chain Data Availability options. Instead of posting raw data to Ethereum, your Orbit chain posts to a modular DA network designed for cheap, scalable DA. Each network offers different guarantees and integration maturity:
Celestia: Modular DA with data availability sampling so light clients don’t need to download full blocks; Orbit integration uses a DA provider + preimage oracle + Blobstream for on-chain commitments, and includes a native fallback path in Nitro if DA fails. This combo delivers big fee cuts for L3s without giving up verifiability guarantees at the light-client level.
EigenDA: Ethereum-aligned DA secured by EigenLayer operators, and teams can bridge from Arbitrum One/Nova/Ethereum while keeping DA costs off L1. It’s a pragmatic middle path when you want lower fees but prefer an Ethereum-centric operator set and mature RaaS support.
NEAR DA: provides a low-cost DA blob store with a light client; public benchmarks show large cost deltas vs. Ethereum calldata and other DA alternatives under specific circumstances.
Avail: Validity-proof-backed DA with erasure coding and robust sampling; official docs walk through deploying an Arbitrum Orbit L3 on Avail DA (including parent L2 choices). Good fit when you want DA chain neutrality, light-client assurances, and a documented Orbit path from day one.
The ArbOS 20 post explicitly lists these alt DAs in the Orbit context (AnyTrust, Avail, Celestia, EigenDA, NEAR DA).
Read More: Alt DA Solutions Changing the Cost Game for L2 Rollups: Spotlight on Key Players
When to pick alt DA:
High-throughput, cost-sensitive apps (social, gaming, agent networks) that need predictable low fees.
Enterprises balancing security with cost/perf by anchoring to L2/L3 plus a DA network, not L1.
Multi-chain ecosystems wanting DA portability beyond Ethereum.
The Trade-off is that you accept additional components and different trust/security models (validity sampling, light clients). You also need operational maturity (monitoring, alerting, data retention SLOs).
In AnyTrust, your chain posts only a Data Availability Certificate (DACert) to L1. A small, permissioned Data Availability Committee (DAC) actually stores the data using the Data Availability Server (DAS) software. This slashes fees and can improve privacy while keeping a safety fallback: if the DAC fails assumptions, the chain can halt and revert to Rollup-like behavior to preserve safety.
Why teams choose it:
Order-of-magnitude fee reduction vs. full L1 posting.
Fast finality UX for consumer apps and AI/micro-tx use cases.
Configurable privacy by controlling data retention and access paths
But someone must run and monitor the DAS infrastructure (storage backends, RPCs, BLS keys, thresholds). Good providers help set up the DAC, configure signers/thresholds, and integrate CDNs or mirrors for global fetch performance.
If your goal is mass-scale, low-fee transactions with a mild trust assumption and robust fallback, AnyTrust is often the best “performance budget” for Orbit.
Zeeve’s RaaS gives builders a menu of DA options — Ethereum (Rollup), AnyTrust, or alt DAs (Celestia, EigenDA, NEAR DA, Avail) — with production deployment, monitoring, and life-cycle ops as part of the package.
Two examples you can point prospects to:
Skynet (AI-optimized L3 on Orbit) — Built with Zeeve, Skynet customized fee mechanics (SKYUSD gas) and chose AnyTrust for “cheap and predictable” native DA — exactly what high-frequency AI agent markets need. Offchain Labs’ Orbit team publicly highlighted the AnyTrust angle.
Read More: Skynet’s New Blockchain on Arbitrum Orbit will Scale AI Agents at Warp Speed
PropFTX / Propulence (RWA / Real Estate) — Propulence is a Zeeve-powered Orbit chain focused on tokenized real estate with a QUIDS property-backed stablecoin and PROPX for governance/utility, emphasizing regulatory alignment for institutions. (Their public site frames compliance and cross-border flows; Zeeve references PropFTX among Orbit launches.)
There could be many more such examples, like the Aether Orbit chain, the Parfin Orbit mainnet, and many more.
How does this matter to a buyer?
Choice without integration pain. Orbit supports multiple DA paths; Zeeve has pre-built integrations so you can switch or mix (e.g., start AnyTrust, evaluate Avail/Celestia/EigenDA for specific sub-systems) with minimal rework.
Operational excellence. Running DA is real ops: DAS nodes, blob posting, retention SLOs, signer thresholds, key rotations. Zeeve’s managed stack handles configuration + monitoring for Rollup blobs post-Dencun and DAS/DAC health in AnyTrust.
Proof via real networks. From AI L3s to RWA chains and a multitude of other use cases, Zeeve is shipping Orbit chains in production..
Choose Ethereum DA (Rollup) if you’re security-first (DeFi/bridges) and comfortable paying L1 data fees — even post-Dencun. You get the strongest “anyone can verify from L1” story.
Choose an Alt DA (Celestia/EigenDA/NEAR/Avail) if cost and scale are critical and you want modularity beyond Ethereum. This is a great fit for media-heavy, social, gaming, and data-rich use cases that don’t need full L1 DA. Choose AnyTrust if you want ultra-low fees + fast UX with a safety fallback, and you’re willing to adopt a permissioned DAC that you (and partners) operate. This is ideal for AI agents, high-volume consumer apps, and many enterprise flows.
If you want the optionality to change your mind later — or run mixed strategies — work with a provider that already supports all three models in production. That’s where Zeeve RaaS wins.
Here’s a guided video that shows how you can deploy an Arbitrum Orbit rollup DevNet in minutes. The process for testnet is also the same. The list of integration, configurations, data availability options, everything is shown in the video:
Press enter or click to view image in full size
As obsolete?
No. Dencun reduces Ethereum DA costs via blobs, helping Rollup-mode chains. If your L3 uses alternative DA (AnyTrust/Celestia/EigenDA/NEAR/Avail), fees don’t change from Dencun since you’re not posting data to Ethereum. These options still shine for throughput and predictable low costs.
Is AnyTrust “centralized”?
AnyTrust uses a permissioned DAC. The model assumes a small threshold of honest DAC members. That’s a mild trust assumption compared to pure Rollup mode, but it brings big fees and UX wins and includes a fallback if assumptions break. You can diversify DAC membership to mitigate risk.
Can I move from Ethereum DA to an Alt DA (or vice-versa) later?
Yes, Orbit is built for modularity. Practically, you’ll plan a network upgrade, reconfigure posting (blobs vs. DA endpoints), and manage bridges/clients through the transition. Providers with pre-built DA integrations (Zeeve) reduce this migration friction.
What’s the difference between AnyTrust and Avail/Celestia/EigenDA/NEAR DA?
AnyTrust = DAC signs a promise (DACert) and stores data; you post only the certificate to L1. Alt DAs = separate DA chains with their own consensus/validity sampling/light clients. Both reduce L1 data costs; trust and ops profiles differ.
Which DA is best for high-volume consumer apps?
AnyTrust or a well-integrated alt DA is usually best for predictable, low fees and fast UX.
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