Starkware commits to open source its ‘magic wand’ Starknet Prover

Ethereum layer 2 scaling resolution StarkWare introduced plans to open supply its proprietary Starknet Prover underneath the Apache 2.0 license, which has processed 327 million transactions and minted 95 million nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to this point. 

The prover is the essential engine Starkware makes use of to roll up tons of of hundreds of transactions and compress them right into a tiny cryptographic proof written on the Ethereum blockchain.

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“We consider the Prover because the magic wand of Stark know-how. It wondrously generates the proofs that permit unimaginable scaling,” mentioned Eli Ben-Sasson, president and co-founder of Starkware.

Starkware has confronted criticism from the crypto group and competing options reminiscent of ZK Sync and Polygon for holding onto the IP behind its tech, which contradicts blockchain’s open supply and interoperable ethics.

Making the prover open supply underneath the Apache 2.0 license will allow another mission or community — and even video games or database builders — to utilize the know-how, edit the code and customise it. The tech was launched in 2020 and is already being utilized by ImmutableX, Sorare and dYdX.

Avihu Levy, Starkware’s head of product, was reluctant to decide to a time-frame for open-sourcing the prover however mentioned it will happen after the token launch and decentralization of Starknet itself. He agreed, nonetheless, that it will be potential this yr.

“We need to transfer ahead with a decentralized, permissionless community and that signifies that you might want to have this important part on the market,” he revealed talking to Cointelegraph.

Levy mentioned the choice to open supply the prover confirmed Starkware was more and more assured about its know-how and mentioned it will additionally allow initiatives to be extra assured about utilizing it as a vital a part of their protocols.

“In StarkEx, it’s typically thought of vendor lock-up or lock-in. So the dedication wasn’t only a enterprise dedication it was a know-how dedication to StarkEx,” he defined.

“This can be a sturdy sign that you’ll have all the pieces you might want to run it your self unbiased of Starkware.”

Starkware has already open-sourced its programming language and EVM competitor Cairo 1.0, Papyrus Full node and is within the technique of open-sourcing its new sequencer.

Associated: StarkNet overhauls Cairo programming language to drive developer adoption

Ben-Sasson launched the Starkware Classes convention in Tel Aviv on Sunday, which organizers mentioned was the most important layer 2 convention held to this point.

“This can be a landmark second for scaling Ethereum,” he instructed about 500 builders and friends. “It’ll put Stark know-how in its rightful place, as a public good which shall be used to profit everybody.”