Starknet, a layer-2 scaling protocol, plans to enhance the cost-saving benefits of rollups on Ethereum following the implementation of the Dencun hard fork on March 13. The Starknet Foundation will introduce additional fee-saving measures alongside the Dencun upgrade, which is considered one of the most significant updates to Ethereum’s protocol since its transition to proof-of-stake consensus in October 2022.
Dencun incorporates Ethereum improvement proposal (EIP-4844), which alters how rollups store data on the mainnet. Rollups are layer-2 solutions that collect and process transactions off-chain, submitting a summary proof of these transactions to the Ethereum blockchain.
EIP-4844 introduces a new method for rollups to add cheaper data to blocks by introducing “blob space” as a replacement for using call data for storage. Storing cryptographic proofs of off-chain bundled transactions using call data has historically been expensive, as all Ethereum nodes must process the on-chain data indefinitely.
Proto-danksharding, named after the researchers who proposed EIP-4844, enables rollups to send and attach data blobs to blocks. This data is not accessible to the Ethereum Virtual Machine and is automatically deleted after 18 days. David Silverman, Polygon Labs’ vice president of product, previously noted that blob space is significantly cheaper for rollups while still providing the same security guarantees.
Although there may be a delay in fee reductions by layer-2 solutions in the coming weeks as they update their contracts to utilize blob space, Starknet expects an immediate decrease in fees. The Starknet Foundation has announced a hard fork upgrade, version 0.13.1, which will coincide with Dencun. This upgrade will transition from the costly call data method to the more cost-effective “blobs” transaction type, leading to significant fee reductions.
Starknet anticipates significant benefits from this transition since call data currently accounts for nearly 90% of the gas fees it pays to post transactions on the Ethereum mainnet. Ilia Volokh, StarkWare product manager and blockchain researcher, predicts that accurate statistics reflecting the fee reduction will be available within an hour of Dencun’s implementation. Users will immediately experience the full benefits of the reduced fees.
In addition to the shift to blob space, Starknet’s shared prover (SHARP) will also undergo changes. SHARP, which sends Starknet’s state diffs to Ethereum as call data, will now utilize blob space. State diffs contain information about updated contract storages and additional details about contract deployments.
Furthermore, Starknet’s SHARP prover employs recursive proof technology, which bundles previous proofs into batches called trains. The introduction of a new hash system in early 2024 will increase the capacity of these trains, allowing them to carry more transactions and improve the protocol’s efficiency.