StarkWare, an Israel-based company working to scale up Ethereum (ETH), has issued the testnet for its latest layer-2 solution, Starknet v12.0. The new version focuses on improving performance and user experience, with a significant 10x higher throughput due to the implementation of the Sequencer in Rust.
Starknet Upgrade Signals Boost for Ethereum scalability
According to the company’s blog post, the Sequencer has been optimized using LambdaClass, resulting in a smoother user experience by removing the PENDING status for transactions. A new syscall has also been introduced to easily retrieve past hashes.
In addition, the new version of Starknet supports a new Cairo syntax that focuses on security. This means that the new syntax is designed to make it easier for developers to write secure smart contracts that are less prone to errors and vulnerabilities.
The network upgrade to Starknet v12.0 will be voted on by the community, ensuring broad participation and input. The community is given the opportunity to shape the future of Starknet, and the upgrade protocol for breaking changes includes a six-month period during which contracts built with the older compiler version (v1.1.0) will still be accepted.
Starknet’s vision is to achieve substantial scalability in scale and cost, with the next priority being to reduce transaction costs. The long-term goal is to provide a scalable, flexible, cost-effective infrastructure for decentralized applications.
The upcoming vote for Starknet Alpha V0.12.0 will allow the community to research and test the upgraded version before approving it for Mainnet deployment. Everyone is invited to participate in the proposal and vote on whether or not to upgrade Starknet Mainnet.
Starknet empowers developers to code solutions that make a difference, and the new version allows developers to begin their development journey in Cairo. The Cairo Docs, Cairo Basecamp, and Tutorials allow developers to stay up to date with all version updates by signing up for the Starknet Developers newsletter.
The release of Starknet Alpha V0.12.0 represents an important milestone for StarkWare and Ethereum, with the Layer-2 solution’s focus on performance and user experience promising to improve scalability and reduce transaction costs for decentralized applications.
Ethereum Prices Rising, But Network Activity Shows No Significant Boost
According to recently facts from Glassnode, despite the recent surge in Ethereum prices, network activity has not received a significant boost, while gas prices remain relatively low. This contrasts with the situation during the Shanghai upgrade in April, which preceded a similar rally in the ETH markets, where gas prices rose by 78%.
Gas prices on the Ethereum network measure the cost of executing smart contracts and transactions. When demand for transaction processing exceeds available network capacity, gas prices rise as users compete to process their transactions faster. This often happens during periods of high network activity, such as upgrades and market rallies.
However, the recent surge in Ethereum prices does not appear to have resulted in a significant increase in network activity as gas prices have remained relatively stable.
This could be due to several factors, such as the current rally being driven more by institutional investors and DeFi protocols than by individual users. In addition, more network capacity may now be available than during the upgrade in Shanghai, which could help keep gas prices in check.
Despite the low gas prices, there are still signs of growth and development within the Ethereum ecosystem. For example, StarkWare’s recent release of the Starknet v12.0 testnet is a major milestone for Ethereum as it promises to improve scalability and reduce transaction costs for decentralized applications built on the network.
ETH is trading at $1,900, following Bitcoin’s steps, and is down 1.8% in the past 24 hours.