LibraryScaling2020Design paperCorpus record
Validium and the Data-Availability Spectrum
Validium. StarkWare.
Validium proves execution and keeps the data off the parent chain, with a committee or another store. Volition lets a user choose, per state, whether the data sits on the parent.
A reading of the public document. Not a copy of it, and not a claim about a later network that reused the name.
If a chain markets a ZK proof, ask where a user gets the bytes to exit.
- Evidence
- Primary paper
- Re-measured
- No
- Assumptions
- 3
- Records linked
- 1
Code
Source, repository, and what is actually hosted
- StarkWare, 2020https://medium.com/starkware/volition-and-the-emerging-data-availability-spectrum-87e8bfa09bb
- The source URL is not a GitHub repository. No code remote is invented.
- Full text is not mirrored. Public availability is not a licence to copy the file onto this site.
- Add to a reading list
01 Claim ledger
What the paper is allowed to say
Each row is a sentence already in the study. The status is the same on every row: a model claim, not a live measurement.
Claim 01 · Paper model
The defect
A validity proof shows a state transition was correct. It does not show that anyone can reconstruct the state.
Claim 02 · Paper model
The rule
Validium proves execution and keeps the data off the parent chain, with a committee or another store. Volition lets a user choose, per state, whether the data sits on the parent.
Claim 03 · Paper model
How it is put together
A proof without data can freeze withdrawals. The committee is a trust assumption the proof does not remove. Volition is a choice, not a default.
Claim 04 · Paper model
Where the claim stops
Validium is not a rollup, if rollup means data on the parent.
02 Three cuts
Observation, model, falsifier
A desk does not stop at the summary. Each claim is cut three ways, using only this study's own assumptions and checks. Nothing here is a new figure.
01 The defect
Observation
What the study says
A validity proof shows a state transition was correct. It does not show that anyone can reconstruct the state.
Model
What has to hold
The essay is a design argument, not a formal proof.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Where is the state data?
02 The rule
Observation
What the study says
Validium proves execution and keeps the data off the parent chain, with a committee or another store. Volition lets a user choose, per state, whether the data sits on the parent.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Where is the state data?
03 How it is put together
Observation
What the study says
A proof without data can freeze withdrawals. The committee is a trust assumption the proof does not remove. Volition is a choice, not a default.
Model
What has to hold
A committee can withhold data even when the proof is true.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Can a user force an exit from the parent alone?
04 Where the claim stops
03 Sequence
One action, as an operating tape
- 01The operator executes and produces a proof.
- 02The parent verifies the proof.
- 03Users who need an exit must have the data from somewhere other than the parent, unless they paid to put it there.
- 04Where is the state data?
04 Load-bearing
The argument, and where a pitch drops it
Why it is still on the desk
The cut
If a chain markets a ZK proof, ask where a user gets the bytes to exit.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
The essay is a design argument, not a formal proof.
After the text
The cut
StarkEx shipped validium and volition modes. The distinction is still the right one for any later chain that proves but does not publish.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
Validium is not a rollup, if rollup means data on the parent.
05 Register
What has to be true
06 Divergence
What happened after the paper
StarkEx shipped validium and volition modes. The distinction is still the right one for any later chain that proves but does not publish.
A later client, parameter set, or reward formula is a different object. Cite this paper for the mechanism. Cite a primary release for the network. This desk has not re-run the proof.
07 Pre-mortem
What to check before you use the idea
- 0 of 3 marked on this browser. A mark is a reading note, not a pass, a rating, or a recommendation.
08 Anatomy
The paper, in the order a builder needs
The problem it names
A validity proof shows a state transition was correct. It does not show that anyone can reconstruct the state.
What the design proposes
- A proof without data can freeze withdrawals.
- The committee is a trust assumption the proof does not remove.
- Volition is a choice, not a default.
How the mechanism is specified
- The operator executes and produces a proof.
- The parent verifies the proof.
- Users who need an exit must have the data from somewhere other than the parent, unless they paid to put it there.
What this page does not treat as proven
Why the desk still reads it
If a chain markets a ZK proof, ask where a user gets the bytes to exit.
09 Lexicon
Terms, opened into the record
- Validium
- A validity proof with data kept off the parent chain.
- Volition
- A system that lets some state be on-chain and some off.
10 Repository
Every linked record on this page
Underlined words open a page that already exists: a concept, a protocol profile, a failure record, or another paper. If a word is not underlined, this desk does not have a record for it.
Concepts
This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.
Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.