Layer 2 blockchain protocols have been in the spotlight in 2023, bringing significant performance improvements to a variety of platforms and services operating on the Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem.
Zero-knowledge proofs have been key in the deployment of a variety of Layer 2s, with technology pioneered by the Starknet decentralized scale network. StarkWare, the technology firm behind the scaling platform, has outlined plans to further improve its Layer 2 network to meet the expected increase in users and developers for the rest of the year.
Cointelegraph sat down with Eli Ben-Sasson, Chairman and Co-Founder of StarkWare, to break down the key points set by 2023. road map for Starknet. Top on a to-do list are performance improvements that focus on increased performance and reduced latency for the Starknet network.
Ben-Sasson highlighted the focus on performance upgrades that are expected to deliver significantly higher transactions per second (TPS) than on the Ethereum mainnet at lower gas costs:
“The most important thing for builders and developers is to have high performance so they can actually build. Starknet is all about increasing the computational capabilities of Ethereum and we just want to get this raw power into the hands of developers.”
Starknet v0.12.0 is expected to be released next month and is the culmination of a six-month sprint that involves transitioning the Starknet development stack to a Rust-based sequencer, as well as an open source project that has built a Rust-Cairo. VM (virtual machine).
StarkWare opened its Cairo programming language compiler in early 2023, with the language intended to fuel the development of zk-rollup and Proof-of-Value Decentralized Applications (DApps).
Related: privacy, scaling unit use cases for zero-knowledge technology
Ben-Sasson added that Starknet continues to pursue an ambitious goal of processing at least 10 times the throughput of Ethereum at one-tenth of the cost. He highlighted StarkEx’s ability to offer significant TPS on the dYdX decentralized exchange. StarkEx is another Layer 2 scaling engine developed by StarkWare.
Sometimes dYdX processes up to 54 transactions per second, while Ethereum’s average TPS is around 10-12. Ben-Sasson also noted that these dYdX transactions are about four to five times larger than Ethereum’s, which which bodes well for the Starknet’s enhanced scaling capabilities in the near future:
“We are often experiencing practical TPS or gas usage that is much greater than what Ethereum can handle. I’m pretty sure this will be replicated on Starknet as well.”
Performance improvements have been prioritized as a result of developer and user feedback highlighting delays in transaction processing on Starknet. The next port of call is transaction cost reduction which will be addressed by targeting the cost of storing data on the Ethereum mainnet.
“We’re going to implement Volition, which allows users to choose whether they want their data on-chain or off-chain and this will be part of the base layer of the Starknet system.”
Ben-Sasson said the launch of off-chain data availability will complement Ethereum’s developing improvement proposal ‘Proto-Danksharding’ EIP-4844, which will introduce a new type of transaction that carries large binary objects or ‘blobs’. The EIP is primarily aimed at providing cheaper transactions.
Starknet also aims to deliver faster finality later in the 2023 roadmap, which will result in shorter fixed-interval block times on the network. This will be accomplished with the introduction of a fee marketplace to prioritize Starknet network resources on users’ willingness to pay for transactions, inspired by conventional marketplace systems:
“Market mechanisms are a very good way to solve this. Blockchain did not invent this, blockchains adopted this from the mainstream world. This is how you prioritize resources and allow users to point to it.”
Several Ethereum layer 2 protocols have started implementing zk-rollups to further enhance efforts to provide faster and cheaper transactions to the smart contract blockchain network. This includes the likes of Polygon and ConsenSys.
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