Data Availability Overhead

Definition ∞ Data Availability Overhead refers to the computational and storage resources required to ensure that all necessary data for validating blockchain transactions is accessible. This includes the data needed for nodes to reconstruct the blockchain state and verify new blocks. It represents the cost associated with maintaining the integrity and verifiability of a distributed ledger. High overhead can impact network scalability.
Context ∞ The concept of Data Availability Overhead is critical in the development of scalable blockchain solutions, particularly layer-2 protocols like rollups. Engineers are actively seeking methods to reduce this overhead without compromising security or decentralization. Ongoing research into data availability sampling and sharding designs aims to optimize these costs, allowing for greater transaction throughput on blockchain networks.