What is Starknet (STRK)?

Ethereum’s scalability limitations have been a pain point since its inception, and STRK is built exactly to solve this issue by validating off-chain transactions with advanced math and cryptography. Using its "ZK-Rollup" approach, STRK acts as an L2 network over Ethereum, allowing any dApp to achieve unlimited scale for its computation, while preserving ETH’s composability and security.

How STRK Address the Scalability Issue?

Blockchains aim to achieve three core attributes: security, decentralization, and scalability. However, the trilemma is that the blockchain could achieve two of these at the same time on any given system while the third one will have to be compromised. Ethereum gives more importance to safety and decentralization that impacts on its scalability. The increasing Ethereum user base means slow transaction times and high gas prices which in turn limits Ethereum’s adoption.

How could we make Ethereum scalable without jeopardizing its security and centralization? Here is when the Starknet Validity Rollup comes in. Ethereum and Starknet can be combined together to scale up the system tremendously.

Starknet achieves scale by moving transaction processing off the Ethereum Mainnet (which we call off-chain) but having a summary of the transactions on-chain. Transactions are summarized into a single on-chain transaction that is processed off-chain and grouped into batches of blocks. To guarantee the integrity of the transactions and their execution without having to re-execute them, Starknet adopts the STARK proofs for verifiable computation, and then transmits only basic information about the block and the proof to Ethereum, where they are verified with minimum computational effort.

Creativity to be Unleashed

Smart contracts on Starknet need to be written in its own native programming language - Cairo, an incredibly powerful language optimized for ZK rollups. Cairo allows developers to push the boundaries of their applications by empowering them to code any kind of business logic. Building with Cairo, developers can create new possibilities that previously weren’t possible on blockchains.