Ethereum layer-2 scaling network Starknet has outlined plans to enhance the decentralization of three core components of its zero-knowledge (ZK) proof rollup answer.
Speaking completely to Cointelegraph, Starknet product supervisor and blockchain researcher Ilia Volokh outlined the agency’s intent to handle sure centralized parts of its protocol geared toward defending in opposition to censorship and making its system extra sturdy.
Starknet operates as a validity rollup utilizing ZK-proof expertise to bundle transactions, with cryptographic proofs submitted to Ethereum to obtain safety and finality for layer-2 transactions.
According to Volokh, Starknet’s protocol stays depending on StarkWare for creating L2 blocks, computing proofs and initiating layer-1 state updates to the Ethereum blockchain.
“In this sense, the operation of the network is centralized. This temporary situation, until full decentralisation, is not necessarily a bad thing. Although Starkware operates the network, it cannot steal money and can’t do any invalid state transitions because they require executing the verifier on Ethereum,” Volokh defined.
While Starkware stays a “centralized gateway” to enter Starknet, Volokh added that the protocol is “100% honest” and can’t falsify transactions or data, as Ethereum’s layer-1 blockchain acts as a filter.
The solely tangible method during which Starknet can “misbehave” is both by being idle in not relaying proofs to Ethereum or by particularly censoring sure events from together with transactions or proofs.
“For example, if the sequencer decides to exclude a transaction from a particular entity, they’re free to do so. As long as the other things that they are trying to promote are valid.”
For Starknet, the latter consideration is a component of the principle motive to decentralize elements of its protocol in an effort to fight two principal causes of censorship in consensus-based methods.
Intentional censorship is one consideration, whereas “non-robust” methods which have a single level of failure current one other risk to decentralization, given that every one network individuals can be “censored” if this central level triggered a network or system outage.
“We want to solve both of these problems, and we think the obvious solution to both of them at the same time is to have as many people operating Starknet as possible.”
Decentralizing these completely different components of Starknet’s system entails various levels of problem. This consists of decentralizing block manufacturing via its consensus protocol, decentralizing the proving layer, which is in cost of computing proofs for blocks and decentralizing the method of L1 state updates.
“I want to emphasize that it’s crucial to decentralize each of them because as long as even one of them is centralized, you haven’t achieved much,” Volokh added earlier than unpacking the related challenges of every part.
Decentralizing block manufacturing has been pretty easy given that every one blockchains depend on a consensus protocol and sybil-resistance mechanism. Meanwhile, decentralizing Starknet’s prover has required a extra novel strategy.
“As far as I know, we’re the first rollup that has come out with a fairly complete and concrete solution,” Volokh mentioned. He additionally went on to unpack how competing ZK-rollups all basically combination transactions into proofs and put up them on Ethereum, which by extension transfers its personal decentralization to rollup options.
However, these methods all depend on respective central entities to create and show blocks, which implies these layer 2s are “equally centralized.” Whether finish customers are involved in regards to the philosophical implications of the centralized components of L2s is one other dialog altogether for Volokh:
“The people who appreciate decentralization do so because they understand that it gives more security, and we share those values more than we think people will like them for commercial reasons.”
Volokh added that Starknet remains to be within the course of of outlining the method of testing and implementing these decentralized mechanics in its network. This is probably going to be carried out via a collection of interconnected testnets to take a look at the simultaneous performance of the completely different components.
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