Ethereum scaling has undoubtedly been one of the hottest topics in recent months. The network’s transition to the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm in September 2022 was a huge milestone in this regard, as it opened the door to many different scaling solutions.
While the developers of Ethereum are working on ways to scale the network initially, the power of layer 2 solutions is just beginning to show.
Concepts like zero-knowledge proofs are now becoming a working reality, but for many they are still very foreign ideas. To help us better understand the future of Ethereum scaling, Gal Ron is a product manager and blockchain researcher at StarkWare, a company primarily focused on just that.
The problem with Ethereum
Before we dive into some of the specifics, it is important to understand what Ethereum scaling actually means. In layman’s terms, it is the process of expanding the computing power of a network so that each of its nodes can handle higher transaction throughput.
There is a saying that says that a chain is only as strong and powerful as its weakest link. This is because only one of the links needs to be broken for the entire chain to fail. It also limits the chain’s strength, as it can only carry as much load as its weakest link can handle, no matter how strong all the other links are.
The same is true for Ethereum in its current state. The need for this stems from the fact that Ethereum must satisfy the “trust” requirement.
Speaking about this, Ron explains:
To satisfy all trust assumptions and trust requirements, all nodes (on Ethereum) must do the same thing. By definition, this puts a limit on the throughput of the system, because if we increase the TPS, or block size, above a certain threshold, we will start to discourage smaller (read: less computing power) nodes from participating.
In essence, this makes Ethereum, by definition, limited in its capabilities.
The StarkWare Approach: What is ZK-Proof?
Ron explains that there are several options for dealing with Ethereum’s limitations. One of them is to invent something else.
However, StarkWare takes a different approach, which is “scaling Ethereum from Ethereum and not building another chain.” They do it through StarkNet and StarkEx, so let’s see.
StarkNet is described as “permissionless decentralized rollup, also known as ZK-Rollup ”. It functions as an L2 (layer 2) network on top of Ethereum and aims to allow any decentralized application (DApp) to achieve unlimited scale in its computing. This is done without compromising the security and composability of the core layer – Ethereum – because StarkNet relies on a cryptographic proof system known as STARK.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s start with the concept of zero-knowledge proofs.
“With Ethereum, all nodes must re-run all transactions. Prior to ZK (zero knowledge), there was no other way to trust that someone else was doing calculations with integrity. If I am a node in Ethereum, I see other nodes telling me in terms of what the state of the system should be. There is no way for me to trust them other than to just re-run the same calculations they just did.
In essence, ZK rollups like StarkNet reduce the amount of computational work that nodes on Ethereum have to put in considerably, hence increasing the throughput of the network.
In essence, ZK rollups like StarkNet significantly reduce the amount of computational work that Ethereum nodes have to do, thereby increasing network throughput.
All of this is done without sacrificing core layer security. To do this, StarkWare invented ZK-STARKs, which allow blockchains to migrate computations to a single standalone STARK proverer and then verify the integrity of those computations using the built-in STARK Verifier.
Gal Ron explained how both the checker and the sequencer work, so for more details on this please watch the video above. We’ll also take a closer look at what rollups are, what StarkEx is, and what StarkWare plans for the future.
