Understanding the Differences and Relationships Between STARKs, StarkEx, and StarkNet
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Understanding the Differences and Relationships Between STARKs, StarkEx, and StarkNet
Both StarkEx and StarkNet are STARK-based scaling solutions, each offering scalability, low cost, and security, but with different operational parameters.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: StarkNet Intern
Translation: Kxp, BlockBeats
This article compiles the views shared by StarkNet Intern on social media platforms. Below is the compiled and translated summary by BlockBeats:
Summary:
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STARKs prove the integrity of on-chain computations, enabling scalability.
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StarkEx is a scaling engine designed for specific applications.
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StarkNet is a permissionless Layer 2 network.
STARKs
In the STARK scheme, only one proof needs to be generated, and the computation result can then be verified in just a few simple steps.
With STARKs, large-scale computations can be performed off-chain, significantly reducing the computational load required for verification on the blockchain. Verifiers can validate massive off-chain computations through just a few on-chain operations.
A single STARK proof can be used to aggregate, compute, and verify thousands of blockchain transactions. The processing cost is distributed across all transactions in a batch, ensuring Ethereum's security while reducing gas fees.
The benefit of low computational cost is that it enables new types of applications to be built on-chain, improves user experience, reduces gas costs, and maintains Ethereum’s security.
StarkEx
StarkWare offers two scaling solutions for Ethereum: StarkEx and StarkNet.
StarkEx provides a permissioned, application-specific scaling solution. With StarkEx, the cost of off-chain computation drops dramatically. STARK proofs are generated off-chain to verify execution and can cover anywhere from 12,000 to 500,000 transactions. Meanwhile, a STARK verifier can validate these proofs on-chain.
All transactions are verified only once, resulting in remarkably low gas costs per transaction due to cost amortization.
Applications such as dYdX (perpetual trading), Immutable and Sorare (NFT minting and trading), DeversiFi (spot trading), and Celer (DeFi pools) operate on StarkEx.
To meet market and customer demands, StarkEx continues to scale.
StarkNet
StarkNet is a permissionless Layer 2 network where anyone can deploy smart contracts.
The StarkNet ecosystem resembles Ethereum—any contract can interact with any other contract on StarkNet, allowing free composability between protocols. Additionally, asynchronous message passing enables communication between StarkNet and Ethereum contracts.
StarkNet’s sequencer batches transactions, unlike StarkEx where applications submit transactions individually. Currently, the sequencer is operated by StarkWare, but plans are underway to decentralize it.
Once an application deploys a Cairo contract, no additional operator infrastructure is required. StarkNet supports Rollup data availability, meaning Rollup states and STARK proofs are written directly onto Ethereum.
Developers in the StarkNet ecosystem are building applications, tools, and infrastructure. DeFi, gaming, voting, AI, and more are already running on the testnet. StarkNet also provides developer tools such as block explorers, local testing environments, and SDKs in multiple programming languages.
On the Shamans platform, users can freely propose improvements, new features, and best practices.
Conclusion
Both StarkEx and StarkNet are STARK-based scaling solutions, each offering scalability, low cost, and security—only differing in operational parameters. For standalone applications with a dedicated API compatible with StarkEx, using StarkEx may be the optimal choice.
For protocols requiring interaction with other protocols or needing greater flexibility than what StarkEx offers, adopting StarkNet would likely be the better option.
STARKs have revolutionized applications on Ethereum, while StarkEx and StarkNet continue to expand the possibilities for blockchain innovation.
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