StarkWare Says It Will Launch Layer 3 on Ethereum

Vishal Chawla

Dec. 21, 2021

StarkWare has become the first scalability solution to plan Layer 3 blockchains.

Shutterstock cover by Real Vector

Key Takeaways

StarkWare has announced planned Layer 3 blockchains to expand its infrastructure scalability.
The team said StarkEx, which powers dYdX and Immutable, will be ported to Layer 3.
StarkWare's Layer 3s including StarkEx will operate on its primary Layer 2, StarkNet.

StarkWare, a firm aiming to scale Ethereum using Zero-Knowledge Rollups, has revealed that it is already planning Layer 3 chains.

Layer 3s to Expand StarkWare’s Scalability Infrastructure

StarkWare, a popular scalability solutions provider on Ethereum, is planning Layer 3 chains. It has revealed plans to launch an additional off-chain computation layer on the existing Layer 2 network known as StarkNet.

In a Tuesday blog post, StarkWare announced that Layer 3 chains will further improve the scalability of its blockchain infrastructure. Building on top of its main Layer 2 StarkNet, Layer 3s will provide “hyperscalability” and further drive down Ethereum gas costs.

The StarkWare team is also mulling the possibility of an additional Layer 4 for quadratic scalability, should it be deemed necessary.

Due to a renewed architecture, StarkEx, its popular product that powers dApps such as dYdX, Immutable, and DeversiFi, will move to Layer 3. As a result, StarkEx will draw security from Ethereum by sitting on top of StarkNet.

Gidi Kaempfer, the head of core engineering at StarkWare, writes that the revamped architecture for certain applications will meet the needs of “specific tailoring that may better be served by a new and separate layer.”

The team explained its Ethereum ecosystem will be led by StarkNet. Serving as Layer 2, StarkNet will validate multiple Layer 3s, each dedicated to various use cases.

The team claims that its new layer will make transactions roughly one million times less expensive than Ethereum’s Layer 1. This way, StarkWare will possess the ability to support high-throughput apps like games and social media.

Explaining how the technology will operate, Kaempfer explained that the team would deploy a “verifier smart contract” on Layer 3s. Working with StarkWare’s Validium proofs, the verifier contract will ensure the sanctity of data is maintained across all layers.

StarkWare is the first among all the notable Layer 2 solutions to announce a planned move to Layer 3s. In Nov. 2021, the firm raised $50 million in a Series C funding round at a $2 billion valuation.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and other cryptocurrencies.

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