In early March 2024, Starknet announced the establishment of a game committee and invested 50 million STRK worth approximately US$120 million specifically to support game development proposals recommended by the game committee. Significantly, Starknet specifically advocates the development of full-chain games, which is different from games based only on crypto assets.
Traditional GameFi is usually a game built on encrypted assets. In this model, although the assets are safely stored on the blockchain, other elements of the game such as scenes, character images, costumes, equipment, maps, background music and theme songs are still stored on the central server.
The concept of full-chain games is broader, covering all game elements such as encrypted assets, scenes, character images, clothing, equipment, maps, background music, theme songs, etc. In this kind of game, all data is stored on the blockchain, ensuring its permanence and avoiding any possibility of data loss.
The advanced ZK-Rollup technology adopted by Starknet makes it possible for the game to be fully chained, realizing a fast and cost-effective chain-up process.
The Dojo engine developed by the Starknet community has also been adopted by many ecological games. With the Cancun upgrade of Ethereum on March 13, 2024, second-layer projects of issued coins including Optimism-OP, Arbitrum-ARB, Starknet-STRK, Metis-METIS, Manta Pacific-MANTA, as well as zkSync, Blast , Linea, Scroll and other projects that have not yet issued coins will usher in new development opportunities.
After the Cancun upgrade, the fees for transfers and transactions are expected to be significantly reduced from 50% to 98.75%. For example, the transfer fee of Optimism is expected to be reduced from 0.0001 Ethereum to 0.00000125 Ethereum. This upgrade will directly benefit all second-layer public chains and bring them obvious benefits.
In addition to the Cancun upgrade, StarkNet plans to carry out several key upgrades in 2024, which aim to improve system efficiency, reduce transaction costs and speed up transactions, especially seeking innovation in the field of full-chain gaming.
For StarkNet, 2024 will be a year centered on the development of full-chain games. Ethereum, as the first-layer public chain, is expected to gradually evolve into multiple parallel public chain systems. Most user activities are expected to shift to the second or third-layer public chains, as well as some high-performance first-layer public chains, while Ethereum will gradually transform into the basic asset layer in the crypto field. In addition, with the development of modular blockchain technology, Ethereum is expected to become the most critical settlement layer, while the functions of the execution layer and data access layer will be outsourced more.
The modularization of second-layer public chains will continue to be a key development trend in 2024, and competition at the data access layer will be particularly fierce.
Blockchain games are expected to achieve major breakthroughs on the second and third layer public chains, as well as platforms such as arb and starknet, and blockchain games with more than one million users may appear in 2024. Arb-based game chains will be at the forefront of blockchain game innovation. As Magic launches more interoperability features between game chains and games in 2024, it will have a profound impact on the development of blockchain games.
Following the Cancun upgrade, the Ethereum ecosystem is expected to witness a boom in second-tier public chain projects and may cause Ethereum itself to experience significant deflation, which will contribute to its price growth. This is different from the additional issuance strategy adopted by other first-tier public chains and the practice of paying handling fees to miners as security fees. Ethereum's newly issued coins and handling fees will all be rewarded to users and currency holders who make pledges. This mechanism is expected to encourage more users to participate in staking and re-staking activities, further reducing the supply of Ethereum circulating in the market.
In the field of Ethereum's second-layer public chain, there are the so-called "Four Kings", including Optimism, Arbitrum, zkSync and StarkNet. Let’s dig into the technical aspects. In particular, both StarkNet and zkSync adopt ZK-Rollup technology to expand the Ethereum network. This technology can significantly enhance the network’s processing speed and efficiency without compromising the core principles of security and decentralization.
Let’s briefly explore the concepts of Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) and Rollups.
1. Zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) Zero-knowledge proof is a cryptographic concept, which is explained with a simple metaphor: assuming that Xiao Ming can return home and successfully enter every time, even if the door of the home is always locked, this proves Xiao Ming holds the key to the house. The essence of zero-knowledge proof is that Xiao Ming can prove that he has the key without showing the key to others.
2. Rollup Rollup can be regarded as an "extended partner" of Ethereum. Imagine that Ethereum delegates some complex computing tasks to Rollup. After Rollup processes these tasks, the results will be packaged and returned to Ethereum, allowing Ethereum to handle other more critical transactions more efficiently. The word "Rollup" here is similar to the action of folding and packing clothes, and vividly describes the process of sorting, compressing and transmitting calculation results back to Ethereum.
For each transaction, such outsourced services generate a SNARK or STARK proof, which is how zkSync (using SNARK proofs) and StarkNet (using STARK proofs) work. These breakthrough technologies allow ZK-rollup to greatly surpass Op-rollup in performance.
Transaction processing per second (TPS) is a key indicator to measure the performance of the expansion solution. Using this as a benchmark, let's compare the TPS performance of different platforms. Bitcoin has about 7 TPS, Ethereum has about 36 TPS, and Op-rollup has about 500 TPS. In comparison, the TPS of ZK-rollup can be as high as 4,000 times, which is almost 10 times that of Op-rollup. This is why ZK-rollup is considered the ultimate solution for Ethereum expansion. Once the technology matures, Ethereum's processing power will even be comparable to VISA. Therefore, the market value of scaling solutions based on ZK-rollup technology such as StarkNet and zkSync can reach billions of dollars.
The potential of the second-layer public chain is in the initial stage of demonstration, and Solana is committed to promoting the prosperity of its ecosystem and increasing the currency value of Sol by launching a series of meme coins. This is essentially an attempt to steal users and the ecosystem. It is expected that any second-layer public chain may challenge Solana in the future.
StarkNet aims to achieve transaction efficiency comparable to Solana in the second quarter of 2024. As a leading ZK-Rollup network with $1.4 billion in total liquidity staked, StarkNet also plans to take fee reduction measures such as launching the "Volition" project and implementing "Data Access Layer Compression" to minimize data on the Ethereum mainnet Take advantage and reduce transaction fees. After the Cancun upgrade, StarkNet's fees have dropped significantly, and transaction fees are expected to be more economical this year. StarkNet is gradually establishing its position as the lowest-cost second-tier public chain.
The long-term optimism for StarkNet is that public chain is the future development direction of blockchain, and ZK-rollup is the key technology for the future of public chain.
Stark and Snark are currently the best zk algorithms. StarkEx launched by StarkWare is one of the first applications to successfully integrate zk technology with Ethereum. StarkNet is the zk second-layer public chain built based on these achievements. STRK is just the beginning. The potential of StarkNet is far from being fully exploited. We look forward to its future together.
Second-layer public chains such as arb, op, zksync, starknet and blast are competing comprehensively with other public chains. With the implementation of Ethereum sharding technology and advancements in the data access layer, these platforms will become comparable to high-performance public chains in terms of cost and speed. In 2024, the ecological competition between Arbitrum and Solana will become a major attraction. The summer of second-tier public chains is coming, and the high performance of those competing first-tier public chains such as sol, sui, apt, near, and avax will surely attract more ecosystems, which will ultimately be reflected in their prices. STRK's performance in the bull market in 2025 is worthy of high expectations.
