Starknet

Developed by StarkWare Industries, an Israeli tech company founded in 2018, Starknet utilizes advanced zero-knowledge (zk) rollup technology to achieve these goals. At its core, Starknet is a validity rollup, also known as a zk-rollup, that operates on the Ethereum network. It processes the majority of transaction operations off-chain and then provides cryptographic proofs of those transactions back to Ethereum. This approach significantly reduces the computational load on the Ethereum mainnet, resulting in faster and more cost-effective transactions.

Starknet's development began after StarkWare's initial product, StarkEx, a permissioned scaling solution introduced in 2020. While StarkEx was tailored for specific decentralized applications (dapps), Starknet emerged as a permissionless L2 network, allowing anyone to build and deploy dapps on it. The platform's genesis block was published in November 2021, marking the beginning of its journey as a public scaling solution for Ethereum.

One of Starknet's key innovations is its use of STARK (Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge) technology, which differs from the zk-SNARK technology used by some other zk-rollups. This proprietary proof system, called zk-STARK, verifies the correctness of transactions without disclosing confidential data, enhancing both privacy and security

How does Starknet work

Starknet's functionality revolves around its role as a Layer2 solution, processing transactions off-chain and then settling them on Ethereum to enhance scalability.The system employs two core components: sequencers and provers.

Sequencers areresponsible for executing transactions and proposing blocks. They can process significantly more transactions per second than Ethereum nodes, contributing to the increased throughput of the network.

Provers, on the other hand, generate mathematical proofs that guarantee the validity of the block transactions. These proofs are then submitted to Ethereum for final settlement.

The process works as follows:

1. Transactions are submitted to Starknet's network.

2. Sequencers process these transactions and bundle them into blocks.

3. Provers generate STARK proofs for these blocks, mathematically verifying their validity.

4. The proofs are then sent to Ethereum, where they are verified and recorded on the mainnet.

This approach allows Starknet to compress thousands of transactions into a single data structure known as a "proof," which is then submitted to Ethereum as a single transaction. This process substantially improves throughput and significantly reduces the cost per transaction.Starknet utilizes its own programming language called Cairo, which is designed to make development more accessible to programmers while optimizing for STARK-based scaling. Cairo allows developers to implement their business logic of choice in a permissionless manner, facilitating innovation and creativity.To facilitate transactions and network operations, Starknet has introduced its native token, STRK. Deployed on Ethereum in November 2022, STRK has a total supply of ten billion tokens and will be used for covering transaction fees, governance, and staking within the Starknet network.

Benefits of Starknet

Starknet offers several significant advantages as a scaling solution for Ethereum:

1. Increased Scalability: By processing transactions off-chain and only submitting proofs to Ethereum, Starknet dramatically increases the number of transactions that can be processed per second, addressing one of Ethereum's primary limitations.

2. Reduced Costs: The off-chain processing and batching of transactions significantly reduce the cost per transaction, making Ethereum more accessible and economical for users.

3. Enhanced Security: Starknet's use of zk-STARK technology provides robust security guarantees. The mathematical proofs ensure that only valid transactions are recorded on Ethereum, maintaining the integrity of the network.

4. Improved Privacy: The zero-knowledge aspect of STARK proofs allows for transaction verification without revealing sensitive information, enhancing user privacy.

5. Ethereum-Level Composability: Starknet provides Ethereum-level composability, facilitating easy development, innovation, and creativity for developers building on the platform.

6. Permissionless Nature: Unlike its predecessor StarkEx, Starknet is fully permissionless, allowing anyone to build and deploy applications on the network.

7. Native Account Abstraction: Starknet supports native account abstraction, offering more flexibility in how users interact with the network and potentially improving user experience.

8. Customizable Appchains: Starknet allows for the creation of application-specific chains (appchains) that can be tailored to meet unique requirements while still benefiting from Starknet's core technology and infrastructure.