Advancing Web3 With Starknet: Gnana Lakshmi on the Growth, Challenges, and Future of Blockchain Development

by Viktoriia Palchik

Revealed: June 18, 2024 at 3:45 am Up to date: June 18, 2024 at 3:45 am

by Anastasiia O

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June 18, 2024 at 3:45 am

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We just lately had the pleasure of interviewing Gnana Lakshmi, affectionately generally known as Gyan, a Developer Advocate on the Starknet Basis, forward of the upcoming Hack Seasons Brussels. In our dialog, we delve into her insights on the evolution of the Web3 business in India, the distinct roles of StarkEx and Starknet, the benefits of the STARK token, and the way forward for gaming on Starknet. Gyan’s dedication to training and rising applied sciences shines by as she discusses her contributions to the Starknet Basis’s imaginative and prescient and her pleasure for Hack Seasons Brussels.

Many entrepreneurs are drawn to their subject by a particular second or occasion. What sparked your curiosity on this business, and the way has your ardour developed over time?

My title is Gnana Lakshmi, however everybody calls me Gyan for simplicity. I’m primarily based in Bangalore, India, and I work as a developer advocate with the Starknet Basis. I’ve been a part of the Web3 ecosystem for the previous few years, beginning my journey round 2017-2018.

I started as a contract safety developer and progressively explored numerous roles on the intersection of blockchain, training, and expertise. My major pursuits lie in training and rising applied sciences, which is why I gravitate in direction of roles on this house. Blockchain, being a consistently evolving subject, presents limitless alternatives for studying, educating, and exploration, which is what I discover most enjoyable about Web3.

I’ve labored with numerous protocols and corporations, creating instructional supplies and serving to onboard quite a few builders over the previous few years. This work aligns completely with my ardour for training and rising applied sciences.

Presently, as a developer advocate at Starknet, I proceed to pursue my ardour by constructing instructional assets, conducting workshops, and fascinating with the developer group. I contemplate myself lucky to have the ability to mix my pursuits in training, expertise, and blockchain in my present function.

What was your first undertaking, and what impressed you to affix this subject?

From that first undertaking, my journey in Web3 has been various and enriching. My first undertaking in Solidity was a small hackathon undertaking targeted on placing land and actual property information on the blockchain. Transparency in the actual property business is a major difficulty in lots of nations, together with India, and I needed to handle this downside. 

This undertaking was my preliminary foray into blockchain improvement, and it gained a prize on the hackathon. On the time, not many individuals have been accustomed to Solidity or blockchain expertise, which made the expertise much more fascinating. The concept of utilizing expertise to decentralize infrastructure and convey transparency to an ecosystem was each new and thrilling to me.

How do you see the event of the Web3 business in India proper now?

The Web3 business in India is presently experiencing vital development and curiosity. There’s a considerable variety of builders and customers who’re exploring numerous use circumstances and functions of Web3 expertise. India, like many growing nations, is a main candidate for implementing transparency and worth extraction mechanisms that Web3 can supply.

India has produced a number of notable Web3 builders and even just a few Web3 unicorns. Curiosity and progress within the subject are evident. Nevertheless, junior builders nonetheless have to be educated on find out how to construct sensible and impactful use circumstances in Web3 past studying programming languages. This instructional push is crucial for the continued development and improvement of the Web3 ecosystem in India.

Why did StarkWare develop each StarkEx and Starknet and what distinct functions do they serve?

StarkEx was developed effectively earlier than Starknet and serves a special function. StarkEx is a non-public providing, designed as an app-specific roll-up that gives companies in a extra managed method. It’s utilized by numerous corporations, corresponding to Immutable X and SORA, which proceed to profit from its roll-up companies.

Seeing the success of StarkEx and the sturdy efficiency of STARK protocols, the concept emerged to create a extra permissionless, decentralized, and public-facing Layer 2 (L2) resolution. This led to the event of Starknet. Whereas StarkEx makes use of STARK to create proofs and bundle them up for settlement on completely different layers, Starknet extends this performance to a broader viewers.

Starknet is designed to be a permissionless and decentralized L2 resolution that scales Ethereum and is accessible to everybody. Its public nature permits builders and customers to construct and leverage the community collectively, contributing to its scalability and total development. This makes Starknet distinct from StarkEx, with the latter being a non-public service and the previous a public, decentralized platform aimed toward scaling Ethereum for widespread use.

Are you able to clarify the explanations for utilizing the STARK token because the charge token for Starknet reasonably than Ether? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this strategy?

Earlier than the launch of the Stark token, we used Ether (ETH) to pay transaction charges on Starknet. Nevertheless, there was a compelling motive to introduce the Stark token: to make Starknet’s improvement extra public and to reward these contributing to its infrastructure. Starknet is open supply, so it’s essential to incentivize and reward individuals who construct and proceed to construct open-source expertise.

You possibly can consider the Stark token as a method of creating sovereignty for the roll-up. It underscores that Starknet is permissionless and decentralized. Having a local token encourages and rewards individuals for constructing on the community. Presently, we use each Stark tokens and ETH for fuel charges as a result of ETH was already in use. Customers can proceed to pay fuel charges with ETH, however they now even have the choice to make use of Stark tokens.

What are the benefits of this duality?

From a bonus perspective, having each tokens is helpful. Individuals who don’t have Stark tokens can nonetheless use Starknet by bridging ETH and beginning instantly. The Stark token encourages interplay with numerous dApps on Starknet, growing its circulation and making it simpler for customers to pay fuel charges with the tokens they have already got.

Sooner or later, primarily based on group governance and choices, we’d select to make use of solely Stark tokens for fuel charges or proceed with each. Proper now, bridging ETH from the mainnet to an L2 is simple, which helps an excellent person expertise and decentralized on-chain mechanisms. Nevertheless, the Stark token paves the best way for various sequences within the plan to leverage charges in a token native to the chain. Because of this we presently assist each tokens for fuel charges.

What have been the explanations for creating two completely different requirements (zk-STARK along with zk-SNARK), and why did the corporate in the end select zk-STARK?

STARK, the protocol, was developed by Ali Ben-Sassoun, a professor who deeply researched the house of STARKs. Many others contributed to its improvement. I’ve additionally beforehand labored on SNARKs.

I’ve been engaged on STARKs for the previous couple of months, even years. Zk-STARK is gaining traction not solely with us but in addition with different corporations. For instance, zkSync introduced a undertaking referred to as Boojum, primarily based on zk-STARKs. Moreover, Miden, just lately acquired by Polygon, is extensively engaged on zk-STARKs. Zk-STARKs supply benefits over zk-SNARKs, particularly in scalability.

Zk-STARKs are quantum-resistant because of their reliance on collusion-resistant hashes. Work is ongoing to enhance proof measurement and proving time for STARKs. They’re environment friendly for proving bigger payloads. They’re additionally well-suited for functions like full-fledged ZK rollups.

In contrast to SNARKs, STARKs are decentralized from the start, eliminating the necessity for a trusted setup. This simplifies the programming and person expertise, making it simpler to construct scalable functions.

The event of zk-STARKs took time because of in depth analysis, however they’re superior to zk-STANKs. Many corporations, together with Starkware, need to leverage them for his or her initiatives.

Starknet requires builders to make use of the Cairo language as a substitute of being EVM-compatible. What benefits does Cairo supply regardless of the dearth of EVM compatibility?

When you concentrate on zero-knowledge-proof-based rollups or validity rollups, the principle concept behind why these rollups are so highly effective and the way they supply scaling lies in the usage of zero-knowledge proofs. These proofs leverage the arithmetic of zero-knowledge to confirm {that a} explicit set of transactions is right and legitimate.

To make use of these rollups successfully, you want an optimized digital machine (VM) to provide these proofs. The VM we use is known as Cairo VM, which stands for CPU-CPU Algebraic Intermediate Illustration -0. That’s the way you get the title Cairo. This VM is particularly designed to be performant in proof era.

When evaluating Cairo VM to EVM, the Cairo VM is definitely extra performant on the subject of proof era. The EVM is environment friendly in executing its supported directions, nevertheless it’s not optimized for creating proofs. That’s why you see ZK-EVMs making an attempt to place EVM directions right into a zero-knowledge circuit. Nevertheless, you don’t want to do this with Cairo VM as a result of it’s already constructed to be tremendous performant in producing proofs. This inherent design makes Cairo VM sooner and robotically extra scalable.

Cairo is a really attention-grabbing language, closely impressed by Rust. If you happen to’re a programmer with expertise in system programming languages, studying Cairo gained’t be tough. It’s similar to different system programming languages and extremely performant, particularly when utilized in a digital machine designed for proof era.

Customers have reported excessive fuel charges for transactions on ZK Rollups. What causes this, and the way is Starknet addressing it?

Enjoyable reality: Starknet is presently the most affordable Layer 2 (L2) resolution for Ethereum. We obtain this by a number of measures.

Firstly, we’re consistently making efficiency enhancements on the community stage. We’re introducing new applied sciences corresponding to Validium, dynamic layouts, and different upgrades. The truth that it’s a roll-up constructed on STARK considerably lowers fuel charges.

For instance, I just lately did some transactions on an app referred to as Nostra Finance, a DeFi app. Being primarily based in India, I often see transaction charges in rupees. On Ethereum, charges typically vary from 500 to 1000 rupees, which is kind of excessive. Nevertheless, with Starknet, the fuel charge can generally be as little as one rupee, which is lower than a cent. This drastic discount in fuel charges is as a result of extremely environment friendly expertise Starknet employs.

Moreover, with the introduction of EIP-4844, the idea of blobs has been launched. As a substitute of sending info to Ethereum as name knowledge, it could now be despatched as blobs, additional decreasing fuel charges. Because of this Starknet’s fuel charges are so low, making it the most affordable L2 resolution out there. We proceed to work on numerous enhancements as a result of fuel charges are influenced by a number of components, together with the sequencer, the prover, and the verifier on Ethereum.

On the protocol stage, we’re implementing options like batch transactions, which naturally improve efficiency and scale back fuel charges. Our objective is to convey fuel charges as near zero as doable, addressing the present issues about Ethereum’s scalability.

Gaming has been highlighted as a promising use case for Starknet. Are you able to elaborate on why gaming is well-suited for a system like Starknet? 

Gaming is likely one of the greatest narratives on Starknet. Everybody on Starknet loves video games, and it’s a really well-suited chain for gaming as a result of it’s quick and scalable. It additionally has sure options which are naturally inbuilt. For instance, account abstraction is constructed into the Starknet protocol. There are not any EOA wallets on Starknet, and all wallets are account abstracted. This allows many alternative functionalities, corresponding to social restoration and session keys.

You might need seen a viral video on Twitter the place individuals should signal a transaction each time they take an motion in a sport. That’s not possible for absolutely on-chain gaming. Nevertheless, a protocol like Starknet is well-suited for gaming due to these built-in options. That’s why gaming is a major focus, and it’s simpler for builders to construct video games utilizing our protocol. It’s sooner, cheaper, and presents options which are inherently helpful.

Are you able to please inform us extra concerning the Starknet Basis? 

Sure, I work on the Starknet Basis, which was established fairly just lately. The objective of the inspiration is to assist initiatives and builders on Starknet and to take care of its decentralization. We view Starknet as a public good, so our goal is to make it accessible to as many individuals as doable.

The inspiration is a nonprofit group devoted to making sure that Starknet is obtainable for everybody to make use of to construct functions that resolve real-life issues. Whereas many Web3 functions primarily cater to these already within the ecosystem, we goal to increase the attain of this expertise to a broader viewers, making certain it could profit all members of society.

There are a number of initiatives throughout the basis to realize this imaginative and prescient. As an illustration, now we have ecosystem groups that assist builders and initiatives rising within the Starknet ecosystem. My workforce focuses on training, working with builders, creators, and undertaking leaders to show and information them on constructing with Starknet.

How do you contribute to its imaginative and prescient?

My function includes managing numerous applications. One among these is the meetup program, which inspires individuals to host meetups, serving to to scale Starknet globally by bringing extra individuals into the ecosystem. I additionally handle the hacker home program, the place hackers come collectively to construct on Starknet, with assist corresponding to seed grants for promising initiatives.

Moreover, I run a program that helps people construct their first undertaking on Starknet with mentorship. We additionally produce other auxiliary applications run by the ecosystem workforce, just like the grant applications. For instance, now we have the propulsion grant program particularly for the gaming ecosystem and the seed grant program to assist early-stage initiatives.

Our occasions workforce organizes numerous occasions to additional our mission. All these efforts come collectively to assist our imaginative and prescient, which is underpinned by Starknet’s sturdy expertise. We constantly work to enhance the person expertise and broaden our attain. That is my contribution to the inspiration’s imaginative and prescient, and I’m excited concerning the future developments and alternatives forward.

You’ll be a speaker on the upcoming Hack Seasons Brussels occasion. Might you share your plans for the occasion? Are you anticipating any networking alternatives?

Completely, occasions like Hack Seasons Brussels present a superb platform to showcase the work we’re doing and have interaction with the group. Whether or not I’m collaborating in a panel dialogue or delivering a chat, I’m wanting to share insights concerning the thrilling applications our DevRel workforce has in retailer. These occasions are invaluable for reaching builders and builders, and I’m notably eager on assembly them to alternate concepts and collect suggestions.

Networking with different business professionals, each audio system and attendees, is one other spotlight for me. It’s an opportunity to study concerning the newest developments in Web3 and discover potential collaborations or methods to assist one another throughout the group.

I’m particularly wanting ahead to connecting with the varied lineup of audio system at Hack Seasons Brussels, as their views and experiences can supply worthwhile insights and inspiration. General, I anticipate a rewarding expertise full of partaking discussions, information sharing, and alternatives to strengthen connections throughout the Web3 group.

Viktoriia is a author on quite a lot of expertise subjects together with Web3.0, AI and cryptocurrencies. Her in depth expertise permits her to put in writing insightful articles for the broader viewers.

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