Fundamentals

Introduction

• STARKS - collison resistant hash function → quantum secure (?)

• quantum can break elliptic curves

• biggest issue now - generating proofs is resource intensive

• using STARKS to scale bitcoin

  • generate cryptographic proof from bitcoin client, use proof to sync new client & all UTXO transactions

  • cuts down syncing from days to minutes

  • https://github.com/ZeroSync/ZeroSync

• starknet prover not open sourced yet, but will be in future

• working on sequencer rewrite in rust to decentralised that first

• starks vs. snarks

  • https://github.com/ZeroSync/ZeroSync

• starknet core - DA layer on mainnet (https://github.com/starkware-libs/cairo-lang)

• Solidity code for the L1 STARK Verifier used by Starknet and StarkEx: https://github.com/starkware-libs/starkex-contracts/blob/master/evm-verifier/solidity/contracts/StarkVerifier.sol

• address of the Starknet Core smart contract deployed on Ethereum mainnet: https://etherscan.io/address/0xc662c410C0ECf747543f5bA90660f6ABeBD9C8c4

• validium, volition, validity proofs - difference in where data is being stored

• sierra is like yul for solidity

• why cairo and not zkEVMS?

  • zkEVMs - maximize compatibility with L1, but sacrifice performance

  • CairoVM - fine tuned for validity proofs aka performance

  • comparison table

  

live coding session

• environment setup - https://book.starknet.io/chapter_1/environment_setup.html
• set up vscode extension for cairo

  • cd into vscode-cairo file in cairo

  • run the following instructions - https://github.com/starkware-libs/cairo/tree/main/vscode-cairo
• set up starknet CLI

  • python 3.9

• cairo 1 env run through - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQO7MSt_JINcGItO4-aIH-FQE9xN_Ssa6zQXC93f0e7W5g7ECny57w3E2M9-fdTdU5Ne1R-Kt9g8_EB/pub