Polygon and StarkWare launch new cryptographic proof “Circle STARK”

Author: Margaux Nijkerk, CoinDesk; Compiler: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

• “Circle STARKs,” new cryptographic proofs, should be faster and cheaper than transactions under current technology.

• The news marks a partnership between Polygon Labs and StarkWare, two companies that are often rivals in the race to expand the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem with Layer 2 networks. .

Blockchain teams Polygon Labs and StarkWare, nominally competitors in the race to build the leading Layer 2 network on Ethereum, have joined forces to build A new type of cryptographic proof called "Circle STARKs" is designed to make transactions faster and cheaper.

The teams hailed the new proofs as a breakthrough in zero-knowledge Rollup technology, which is used to create auxiliary Layer 2 networks that can be more powerful than base blockchains such as Ethereum. Process transactions efficiently.

According to a press release seen by CoinDesk, the new Circle STARK should speed up Rollup’s proof process, making the blockchain more scalable and efficient.

During the proof process, a bunch of Layer 2 transactions are bundled together and then passed back to the Ethereum mainnet blockchain and published in what is called a "validity proof."

STARK proofs are a type of validity proof invented by Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder of StarkWare. The new Circle STARK proofs should be finalized much faster than the current STARK proofs.

StarkWare has been in the news this week for being the primary developer behind layer 2 blockchain Starknet, and its controversial airdrop of the native STRK token instantly pushed the project’s market cap to over $1 billion. Polygon’s MATIC token has a market capitalization of approximately $8.5 billion.

Polygon co-founder Brendan Farmer said in an interview with CoinDesk: "This will really play a role in our new proof system Plonky3." "It's really, really simple. This will only bring more Fast proof. We expect a 7 to 10x improvement.”

Plonky2 is Polygon’s current proof system, launching in January 2022.

The ultimate benefit, Farmer said, is lower transaction fees for users and the ability to certify a wider variety of applications.

The collaboration between StarkWare and Polygon Labs may come as a surprise, as the two teams often compete with each other in the broader Ethereum scaling space. A release date for Circle STARKS has not yet been set, but a white paper released Wednesday, authored by Ulrich Haböck of Polygon Labs and David Levit and Shahar Papini of StarkWare, is currently available online.

StarkWare co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson said in an interview with CoinDesk: "I think this will create the most efficient proof system in a while." "There will undoubtedly be more to come. Breakthroughs and even further improvements. I don’t think this means the end of everything, but this is a very important next step and milestone.”