•Introduction
Since starkware is a really big project, there is a lot of talk about it and it is not possible to explain all its dimensions in one article. starkware company stands at the forefront of the very important issue of “Scalability of the Ethereum network” and before the current second layer networks moved to the Mainnet, they had a product that during the Bull Market greatly helped to increase the understanding of the general users of the field of scalability.
When we talk about StarkWare, we are talking about a giant that is considered the most valuable entity among all L2s. Of course, it has remained far from the eyes of many and the reason is that they have been working on the development of their product for a long time without much noise.
The parent company, StarkWare LTD, was focused on the development of StarkEx from the beginning, of course, it did not mean that they did not have a plan to have a large and dynamic ecosystem, but their RoadMap is completely different from the rest of the L2s.
The system that was interesting to present, firstly, all communications were implemented in the form of StarkEx on the Mainnet (including the Data Availability and Consensus layers as well as the Prove System) and then when everything was OK and receiving sufficient feedback from the news Open sourcing the data of StarkEx’s central prover, which took a big step towards making the network more decentralized.
But before continuing the discussion, it is better to explain some basic concepts:
Starknet:
A second layer blockchain solution aimed at improving the scalability of blockchain networks.
StarkEx:
is a STARK-based scaling engine for cryptographic exchanges that uses cryptographic proof to verify a batch of transactions.
tip:
Using zk-SNARKS, Starknet aims to solve Ethereum’s scalability problem. The most famous starkware product is starknet layer 2, which is an unlicensed zk-rollup. Rollups are a new layer two solution that collects and compresses multiple transactions and then puts them into a single block. zk stands for zero-knowledge, meaning no deep knowledge is required to confirm transactions. Currently, each transaction in the Ethereum network sends its entire data to all nodes, and all nodes confirm the transactions after checking them. Instead of sending the entire transaction data to the network, only a portion of the data can be sent to one or more random validators to process it. In this way, many transactions are done outside the network, which reduces the volume occupied in the main network and increases the speed of the network.
zk-rollup:
zk-rollup is a compressed version of a batch of transactions that are verified using the zero-knowledge we described earlier, optimizing computing power. The type of zk-proof that is used in the layer two network of Starknet is called STARKS, which is only one of the authentication solutions, and the other solution is called SNARKS. However, keep in mind that layer 2 networks that use Zero Knowledge technology to increase scalability do not focus as much on privacy. They simply use this technology to transfer less data and save the amount of data transferred to ultimately increase processing speed.
tip:
Starknet is not an open source project. Unlike Polygon, which builds open-source layer-two scaling solutions for blockchain networks, StarkWare has a strict license agreement for the use of its software. Historically, open source projects have been favored over closed source projects, which has caused the capabilities of closed source projects to not be seen as they should be. To be fair, other crypto projects like Metamask, Uniswap and Zcash are also closed source. Closed source prevents non-experts from using the code.
•Investors
Starknet investors are among the most powerful and successful investors and innovators of the last few decades. The last investor of this project is Vitalik Buterin, the billionaire and founder of Ethereum. Joe Lubin and Naval Ravikant are also investors in this project. Starkware also received $12 million from the Ethereum Foundation as a grant to help secure the network.
•Ecosystem
Wallets:
We have several good wallets in the StarkNet ecosystem, but the most important ones are argent and braavos.
Argent mobile version:
The argent team started whitelisting various accounts for Early Access to Starknet about three months ago, but after going through the initial stages, almost everyone can download this wallet from the Android and iOS markets. Start it.
If you are one of those who were a customer of Argent in the past, be sure to update your wallet and add some balance to its different addresses.
Honestly, working with it is very enjoyable, now you know where its big advantage is? That it can fulfill the multi-account rule for you, because this account that is displayed on the wallet is separate from your main Argent-X account that you use on its browser extension! (One arrow and some signs!)
It has several different sections that don’t take much time to learn and get used to:
- It has a special section for showing SPOKs.
- From the Browser section, you can access all the important dApps of the Starknet ecosystem.
- Through the DappLand website, you can access all the Top Ecosystem projects, and it is recommended to bookmark the ones you always use while working with them, so that they are at your
fingertips.
Security in argent by connecting two mobile versions and extensions:
This is done by activating the Guardian mechanism And Web Shield is done on Argent’s account. Of course, it is very easy to work with. There is a two-step activation for your Gmail, which you have to enter in your wallet, and after doing this, the Guardian mechanism will be activated for you.
The question arises, what is the importance of this work?
In the near future, Argent-X accounts will also be accessible through mobile phones (note that this is separate from the Starknet account that you can create on your phone).
Also, activating the guardian system greatly increases the security of your wallet and account, and if someone wants to register a transaction without your permission, it will inform you and prevent you from doing this. (it remains the same as the 2FA code)
Finally, when you do all the steps correctly, the Argent-X section titled Accounts With 2FA will be added to your Argent mobile account. Of course, it cannot be managed at the moment, but in the near future, a series of special management will be possible through the mobile phone. Have an account under your browser.
NFT MarketPlace:
Well, I am going to introduce you to the 4 important NFT tools that exist in the StarkNet ecosystem and review them a bit.
First of all, we will focus on two important NFT MarketPlaces, which account for the majority of transactions in this network. The Unframed market, which was promoted by the Argent team, also announced Element, which you all know more or less by now, and recently announced the addition of Starknet to its platform:
2) https://element.market/starknet
You can have several different interactions for NFTs on different networks, including:
- Buy/Sell
- Mint / Deploy
- Listing / Transfer
You can buy all kinds of NFT collections, including SPOK tokens, from them, it is the same for selling and there is no problem. The advantage of Element over that one is that it provides you with a general situation and perspective of the Starknet NFT market and also has the possibility of filtering different collections, something that Unframed does not have. In general, they are a good pair and it is recommended to work with them.
The other two platforms are somehow considered as LaunchPad and the process of making or deploying NFT is facilitated with their help.
One thing I have seen done a lot in the Stark community is that they make a very simple structure with the help of Briq and mint it, then they go and list it for sale in the police market that was introduced above. Usually, for zero kilometer wallets, this is a good way to start interacting with the NFT market, and it is also very popular at the network level:
Briq Website: https://briq.construction/
That one is StarkVerse, which is not so well known, but still better than nothing. Sometimes it comes with a new NFT collection that you can mint, but some of them are expensive. This is the link to his website and social networks that you are advised to keep an eye on:
Website: https://starkverse.art/
Liquidity and DEFI:
An important thing that exists and few people pay attention to it is the Market Makers present in the StarkNet ecosystem and the method of distributing liquidity between the different exchange pools of this network.
Well, it is natural that each exchange has its own separate liquidity supply pools, but there are also projects such as Fibrous and Ekubo in this ecosystem, whose job is to strengthen liquidity and help improve the exchange rate of exchanges in this network.
But this is not the whole story, other things like Oracles active on this network and the way different exchanges determine the price and the mechanism they use are also important and should be paid special attention to.
The next important thing that should be paid attention to is the Dynamic & Concentrated Liquidity mechanism, which is used in the Top Dex of Starknet, and thanks to projects like Fibrous and Ekubo, this issue has earned them the status of Booster and has helped them a lot in providing better rates.
The next topic of the discussion of Fee or the same as the fee, see here, it gets mixed up with other topics, leading to the most important discussion that occurs, “Is the development team of that exchange/project good people or not?” Here it can be said: yes.
In my opinion, this is the link of some of the best exchanges for financial transactions: