StarkNet Unveils 2024 Roadmap Featuring Parallelization

The StarkWare team, developers of the Ethereum Layer 2 network StarkNet, has unveiled plans to enhance the network’s throughput following the implementation of the Dencun hard fork.

Post-Dencun, Starknet fees dropped – and that was just the beginning ?

The community asked for reduced fees, better performance, and extended upgrade periods.
The Starknet roadmap for 2024 delivers. ?

Get ready for the next Starknet version updates aimed at making our… pic.twitter.com/V1l6yEQq3D

— Starknet ?? (@Starknet) March 20, 2024

Among five significant updates, the Rollups protocol developers plan to transition to version 0.13.2 in the second quarter. Consequently, the StarkNet sequencer—a component responsible for batch processing transactions—will be replaced by a parallelization function. This will enable the simultaneous execution of multiple operations.

“Parallel execution is essentially multitasking for L2 rollups. It allows the sequencer to execute multiple transactions simultaneously. This removes bottlenecks and ensures faster and more efficient processing of operations. It’s like a metro station with a single exit solving the problem by opening more gates,” explained StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson in a comment to The Block.

The activation of Dencun, whose key component was EIP-4844, significantly reduced fees for Ethereum-based L2 protocols.

The team behind the popular StarkNet wallet Argent reported that transaction fees dropped by 98%—from $6.8 to $0.04.

As part of version 0.13.2, the project will also implement Cairo Native integration into the sequencer in collaboration with Nethermind. This will allow the use of standard architecture, further accelerating transactions and reducing latency.

Overall, the update to 0.13.2 aims to reduce fees through three main approaches: hybrid data storage, the implementation of “applicative recursion,” and compression methods.

Earlier in March, StarkWare introduced a new zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) verification tool called Stwo.