According to CoinDesk, Polygon Labs and StarkWare, two blockchain teams typically competing in the race to scale the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem with layer-2 networks, have collaborated to develop a new type of cryptographic proof called 'Circle STARKs'. These proofs are designed to make transactions faster and cheaper than the current technology. The teams consider this a breakthrough for zero-knowledge rollup technology, which is used to create auxiliary layer-2 networks that can process transactions more efficiently than on a base blockchain like Ethereum.
The new Circle STARKs are expected to accelerate the proving process for rollups, enhancing the scalability and efficiency of blockchains. In the proving process, a group of layer-2 transactions are bundled together and then passed back to the Ethereum mainnet blockchain, posted in what is known as a 'validity proof'. A STARK proof is a type of validity proof, invented by StarkWare co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson. The Circle STARK proofs are supposed to finalize much faster than the current STARK proofs.
Brendan Farmer, co-founder of Polygon, said in an interview with CoinDesk that the new proving system, Plonky3, will lead to much faster proofs, with an expected improvement of seven-to-10 times. The ultimate benefit is lower transaction fees for users and the ability to prove more types of applications. The collaboration between StarkWare and Polygon Labs might come as a surprise, as the two teams are often competing against each other in the wider Ethereum scaling landscape. The timing of the release of Circle STARKs is unspecified, but the whitepaper, authored by Ulrich Haböck of Polygon Labs, along with David Levit and Shahar Papini of StarkWare, is currently available online.