StarkWare, an Ethereum scaling team, successfully deployed the Quantum Leap upgrade for its StarkNet Layer 2 network on July 12. During the public testnet phase, Quantum Leap consistently achieved a throughput of 37 transactions per second (TPS), with peak performance reaching 90 TPS. Moreover, transaction inclusion latency regularly fell below 10 seconds, surpassing StarkWare’s target of 15 seconds and aligning with the Ethereum mainnet’s standards.
According to Uri Kolodny, co-founder and CEO of StarkWare, the improved throughput and faster transaction inclusion facilitated by Quantum Leap will pave the way for accelerated development in various areas. This includes faster-decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, the creation of realistic triple-A games, and the availability of more consumer services on a Web3 technology stack.
Following eight days of testnet activity and a governance proposal with an overwhelming 97.9% support, Quantum Leap’s mainnet deployment signifies a significant milestone for StarkNet.
StarkNet emerged as a pioneering Layer 2 network utilizing zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs when its mainnet rollout began in late 2021. Zero-knowledge technology has gained prominence among Ethereum’s top scaling teams, with projects like zkSync, Polygon, and ConsenSys introducing “zkEVM” rollups in recent months. These rollups are Layer 2 solutions secured by zero-knowledge proofs and are compatible with code written for Ethereum’s smart contract engine, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
Unlike its competitors, StarkNet is not EVM-compatible. This means that dApp and protocol developers operating on Ethereum must recompile their code in Cairo, the native language of StarkNet, to deploy on the network.
Despite this distinction, StarkWare aims to attract developers to migrate to its network by leveraging its impressive throughput capabilities. StarkWare anticipates launching a validium in the near future, which will unlock further scalability gains of “an order of magnitude.” Validiums, similar to rollups, store most transaction data off-chain, enabling additional scalability improvements.
Currently, the Ethereum mainnet processes approximately 12 TPS daily, peaking at 22.4 in December, according to L2beat. Regarding Layer 2 solutions, zkSync Era holds the second position with 11.33 TPS, followed by Arbitrum One with 8.6 TPS. With its Quantum Leap upgrade, StarkNet aims to enhance the scalability and performance of decentralized applications, further advancing the Ethereum ecosystem’s growth and adoption.
