Ethereum's L2s, quite a novel - Since early 2020, the Ethereum network (ETH) has faced significant congestion. As a result, the transaction costs have continued to increase. Faced with this problem, many second-layer solutions are emerging. It's Starknet's turn to enter the arena.
Starknet: the solution advanced by Starkware
Starkware is an Israeli company founded in 2018 by Eli Ben-Sasson, Uri Kolodny, Michael Riabzev and Alessandro Chiesa. Our 4 protagonists had only one idea in mind: to make Ethereum scalable.
To do this, they have developed StarkEx, a second layer solution combining the benefits of zk-Rollups and zk-STARKs. In practice, StarkEx makes it possible to create decentralized exchanges (DEX) evolving on top of Ethereum. Quickly, this solution was adopted by the DiversiFi platform to have its own DEX.
However, Starkware wants to go even further. Thus, the teams got down to the development of StarkNet. In short, it is a much more complex second layer solution than StarkEx. Indeed, this aims to create a whole second layer network, on which various decentralized applications (dApps) can be executed.
StarkNet deployed on the Ethereum mainnet
After long months of development and the deployment of a test network last June, Starkware announced on November 29 the deployment of StarkNet on the Ethereum mainnet. Note however that this is an alpha version and does not represent the final version of the product.
"Be sure to use [Starknet] very carefully, because the‘ Alpha 'mention is there for a good reason! " Expect changes, fixes and improvements to come! StarkNet Alpha has not yet been audited, and we may postpone this audit until the network has reached a certain maturity. "As it stands, this alpha version will have the following features:
- Support of smart contracts;
- Support for contract composability, both on Starknet and those deployed on the mainnet.
For the moment, the network does not present any costs, the mechanism being planned for the next update. A boon for users wishing to test the solution at a lower cost.
Obviously, StarkNet is not Ethereum's only second layer solution. Moreover, in recent months, those present on the network have witnessed an unprecedented enthusiasm, with a TVL exceeding $ 6 billion.
