Starknet, an Ethereum layer 2 solution, details enhancements aimed at increasing transactions per second while reducing gas fees.

Layer-2 blockchain protocols have gained significant attention in 2023, delivering substantial performance enhancements to various platforms and services within the Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem.

Zero-knowledge proofs have played a crucial role in the deployment of multiple layer 2s, with the technology first developed by the decentralized scaling network Starknet. StarkWare, the technology company behind the scaling solution, has shared intentions to further enhance its layer-2 network to accommodate an anticipated rise in users and developers throughout the remainder of the year.

Cointelegraph spoke with Eli Ben-Sasson, president and co-founder of StarkWare, to discuss key elements outlined in a 2023 roadmap for Starknet. A primary focus is on performance enhancements aimed at achieving greater throughput and lower latency within Starknet’s network.

Ben-Sasson emphasized the emphasis on performance upgrades that are projected to yield significantly higher transactions per second (TPS) compared to Ethereum’s mainnet, while also reducing gas costs:

“The most important thing is for builders and developers to have high throughput so that they can really build. Starknet is about increasing the computational abilities of Ethereum and we just want to provide this raw power to the hands of developers.”

Starknet v0.12.0 is anticipated to be launched in the upcoming month, marking the conclusion of a six-month effort that includes transitioning Starknet’s development stack to a Rust-based Sequencer, along with an open-source initiative that has created a Rust-Cairo VM (virtual machine).

Earlier in 2023, StarkWare made its programming language compiler Cairo open-source, with the language designed to facilitate the development of zk-rollup and validity proof-driven decentralized applications (DApps).

Related: Privacy, scaling drives use cases for zero-knowledge technology

Ben-Sasson mentioned that Starknet continues to pursue an ambitious goal of achieving at least 10 times the throughput of Ethereum at a tenth of the cost. He pointed out StarkEx’s capability to deliver substantial TPS on the decentralized exchange dYdX. StarkEx is another layer-2 scaling solution developed by StarkWare.

At times, dYdX handles up to 54 transactions per second, while Ethereum’s average TPS hovers around 10 to 12. Ben-Sasson also noted that these dYdX transactions are approximately four to five times larger than those on Ethereum, which is promising for Starknet’s enhanced scaling abilities in the near future:

“We’re often experiencing practical TPS or gas usage that is orders of magnitude greater than what Ethereum can deal with. I’m very confident that this will also be replicated on Starknet.”

Performance enhancements have been prioritized due to feedback from developers and users indicating delays in transaction processing on Starknet. The next focus will be on reducing transaction costs, which will be addressed by targeting the expenses associated with data storage on Ethereum’s mainnet.

“We’re going to roll out Volition, which allows users to opt as to whether they want their data on or off-chain and this will be part of the base layer of the Starknet system.”

Ben-Sasson stated that the introduction of off-chain data availability will complement Ethereum’s forthcoming improvement proposal ‘Proto-Danksharding’ EIP-4844, which aims to introduce a new type of transaction that accommodates binary large objects or ‘blobs’. The EIP fundamentally seeks to enable more affordable transactions.

Starknet is also working towards achieving faster finality later in the 2023 roadmap, which will result in shorter and fixed interval block times on the network. This will be implemented through the establishment of a fee market to prioritize Starknet’s network resources based on users’ willingness to pay for transactions, drawing inspiration from traditional market systems:

“Market mechanisms are a very good way to solve this. Blockchain didn’t invent this, blockchains adopted this from just the conventional world. That’s how you prioritize resources and allow users to signal this.”

Several Ethereum layer-2 protocols have begun implementing zk-rollups to enhance efforts to provide quicker and more affordable transactions to the smart contract blockchain network. This includes projects like Polygon and ConsenSys.

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