StarkWare Launches Layer 2 Product StarkNet on Ethereum

StarkWare's layer 2 product for the Ethereum blockchain – StarkNet – is ready for the deployment of decentralized apps (dapps), the company said.

• StarkNet uses zero knowledge (ZK) rollup technology to solve Ethereum’s scaling problem.
• Ethereum’s high transaction costs, or gas fees, have encouraged a Cambrian explosion of alternatives. Some are new blockchains such as Solana, while others look for efficiencies in the Ethereum blockchain to make it more competitive.
• While layer 1 platforms like Solana have made significant progress in the past year, they are still plagued with growing pains. StarkNet’s use of ZK rollups seeks to marry the security of Ethereum with the need for lower fees.
• ZK rollups involve bunching together hundreds of transactions into one, which is then written to the Ethereum blockchain. The process is computationally intensive, but because it involves writing one, not hundreds, of transactions to the blockchain it reduces gas fees by a lot.
• The underlying technology used in StarkNet has also been deployed on dYdX, a market for cryptocurrency derivatives that runs on Ethereum without the usual fees associated with it.
• In a press release, Tel Aviv, Israel-based StarkWare said that by the end of 2022 StarkNet is expected to achieve one order of magnitude higher transactions per second than Ethereum at a cost that is at least two orders of magnitude lower.
• In November, StarkWare closed a Series C funding round that valued the company at $2 billion.