Jan 19
StarkNet by the Numbers
The development of zkLend has been closely tied to StarkNet and its worth taking a closer look at the progress the network has made over the last year. Here’s ‘StarkNet by the Numbers’, from usage and performance metrics to the growing number of dApps and developer resources.
Usage
- $5.4M TVL on mainnet
- 3rd largest smart contract language by TVL (behind Solidity and Vyper)
- 2M+ transactions processed on mainnet (14M+ on Goerli)
- Over 650k wallet downloads across Argent X and Braavos
- 570K+ contracts deployed on mainnet (1.4M+ contracts on Goerli)
- 3300+ ETH locked on mainnet bridge (90+ ETH on Goerli)
Performance
- 0.19 Daily TPS
- 0.00017 ETH average fee per transaction
- 2 minute estimated transaction time
- Recursive proving live, offering up to 60 million transactions in a block
Offering
- 100+ dApps building on StarkNet,
- 15 dApps currently live on mainnet
*data as of 09/01/2023, source: StarkScan, StarkWare, StarkNet Ecosystem
Developing on StarkNet
To thrive, an ecosystem must first have builders, and the StarkWare team has made good headway in streamlining the onboarding process for developers. There are numerous resources available, including official tutorials from StarkWare, SDK libraries, developer workshops, and real-life and virtual hackathons.
According to Jonathan Lei, zkLend’s CTO,
“Cairo is a low-level programming language that allows developers to build efficient and secure smart contracts for StarkNet. It’s not particularly intuitive and requires a strong understanding of computer science concepts, but additional tooling and resources have made it easier for developers to learn and work with Cairo.”
Resources To learn Cairo
6+ major education series offered — in different formats and many accessible, these workshops (Youtube video, Github repo + exercises) will give devs a taste for Cairo on how to read Cairo code and deploy their own contracts. Some tutorials are even incentivised to credit points in the form of an ERC-20 token.
2 online playgrounds to play with Cairo without downloading and installing the toolchain on your computer
Tooling
5+ libraries — Having a well built SDK allows developers to further build dApps without starting from scratch. Currently there are many SDKs for StarkNet, including
- starknet.js — Javascript
- starknet.php — PHP
- starknet.py — Python
- starknet-rs — Rust
- Caigo — Golang
- …and more!
2 editor plugins
1 transpiler to help transpile your Solidity code to Cairo
Contribution
1 paid platform where you could put your skills to test and contribute to the ecosystem
Network Readiness
To jumpstart an ecosystem, it is essential to have infrastructure that supports basic activities such as wallet extensions for users to interact with dApps and code review for developers. It is also important to have constant performance optimizations and a clear roadmap for decentralisation. StarkNet has made significant progress in this regard, with much of the necessary infrastructure in place and a focus on performance and decentralisation for 2023.
Infrastructure development
2 browser extension wallets offered
3 bridges offering blockchain to blockchain or exchange to blockchain bridging
3 block explorers to monitor block and transaction status
1 price oracle delivering real time price data on-chain to DeFi protocols
- Empiric Network
- …with more arriving soon, including Stork, Redstone, Chainlink
1 compiler to compile contracts from Solidity to Cairo
2 fiat on ramps allowing users to buy crypto via credit card / bank account and send it onto StarkNet
3 AMMs live to enable swapping of 5 core assets (USDC, USDT, ETH, DAI, WBTC)
Security
9 companies providing auditing services to StarkNet contracts, with 2+ offering Formal Verification (zkLend is currently going through auditing with Nethermind and ABDK)
Performance
11 Cairo releases and StarkNet version updates since Jan 2022
- Cairo 1.0 with complete feature parity due to be released in the coming weeks
- 1 regenesis upcoming where previous versions of Cairo were much more of an assembly language, Cairo 1.0 will become higher level and offer familiar/improved syntax for developers
- Cairo 1.0 introduced SIERRA (Safe Intermediate Representation), so every Cairo program run will only return TRUE or FALSE. SIERRA allows failed or reverted transactions to be included in StarkNet blocks, ensuring every run can be proven.
60 million transactions in 1 Ethereum block may soon be a reality with recursive proving adde (for context, 4–500 txns fit in a block on Ethereum L1)
Decentralisation
7 member board to govern the newly established StarkNet Foundation whose purpose is to to maintain StarkNet as a public good
17 members on the StarkNet’s Builders’ Council comprising of top builders and contributors within the ecosystem to vote on behalf of the StarkNet Foundation during the first phase of StarkNet Governance (Our CTO Jonathan is one of the members)
Initial supply of 10 billion StarkNet tokens deployed on Ethereum L1 and StarkNet. Tokens will be used for governance, transaction fee, and to run a StarkNet node. The initial allocation is as follows:
- 17% — StarkWare Investors
- 32.9% — Core Contributors: StarkWare and its employees and consultants, and StarkNet software developer partners
- 50.1% granted by StarkWare to the StarkNet Foundation, which is then earmarked for research, community rebates, ecosystem funding, and community provisions…etc
Media Spotlight, Partnerships, and Events
In 2022, StarkNet’s visibility has increased significantly not only due to network improvements but also thanks to the business development hardwork on the strategic partnerships and events. A few notable examples include:
- 1 upcoming ‘StarkWare Session’ organised by StarkWare to take place in February 2023
- 20+ Community Driven StarkNet Meetups across Asia, Europe, Middle East, and North America
- 3 StarkNet CC conferences held across Paris, Lisbon, and Bangalore
- Many major partnerships announced, including Metamask Infura, Ledger, Alchemy, and to offer an array of tooling, services, as well as POC ideas such as VISA settlement to further StarkNet usability and adoption
Overall, StarkNet has made significant progress in the past year, with tooling that keeps improving and a growing number of dApps being built on the platform. If 2022 was about bringing devs onboard, then 2023 will be about readiness to bring users on. With the upcoming release of Cairo 1.0 and the continued efforts of the StarkWare team, it is clear that StarkNet is well-positioned for future growth and success.
About zkLend
zkLend is an L2 money-market protocol built on StarkNet, combining zk-rollup scalability, superior transaction speed, and cost-savings with Ethereum’s security. The protocol offers a dual solution: a permissioned and compliance-focused solution for institutional clients, and a permissionless service for DeFi users — all without sacrificing decentralisation.
