Testnet Launches with Starknet’s Quantum Leap and Triple Figure TPS

Quantum Leap Upgrade Improves Crypto Transactions

Starknet’s Quantum Leap upgrade has been deployed on testnet, with the Ethereum layer-2 scaling protocol claiming it’s capable of processing “hundreds of transactions per second.” If realized, this would be a 50X improvement from current throughput, thanks to Version 12’s harmonization of the sequencer’s code with the Cairo programming language.

According to a Starknet fact sheet, the “time to inclusion” after the upgrade goes live on mainnet “will be under 15 seconds” allowing DApps to confirm transactions on-chain in seconds.

Voyager Crypto co-founder Uri Kolodny was more conservative in an interview with Cointelegraph, stating that the upgrade has hit “triple figures” during testing so far.

StarkWare’s Crypto Network Upgrade

If the theoretical throughput of StarkWare’s decentralized scaling network is mirrored in real-world usage, it could be a major leap forward for the Israeli firm. According to L2Beat, Starknet is currently processing 1.79 TPS, which could improve transaction speed by 56X or more. This would outshine other Ethereum Layer 2s such as the OP mainnet (6 TPS), zkSync Era (8.63 TPS), Arbitrum One (9.69 TPS), and Ethereum itself (12.29 TPS).

However, these TPS figures are still much lower than those of Solana (4127 TPS) and Visa (1700 TPS). Scaling has been a major challenge for the crypto industry in recent years, according to Kolodny.

Crypto Adoption Fueled by ZK-Rollups

Capacity is very different from usage, and even after the upgrade to 100 TPS, if there are not enough users on Starknet to actually make 100 transactions per second, the protocol will not run at that speed.

Kolodny stated that raw TPS is not the best metric of performance, given that complicated transactions are more difficult to perform than simple ones. He also mentioned that the upgrade allows for complicated transactions to make multiple calls, “each performing separate logic from a separate contract.”

“In terms of Cairo steps per second, we’re observing an increase of at least something on the order of 50X compared to what crypto.com, voyager crypto, and other crypto currency users have today.”

Zero Barriers podcast series: Crypto adoption fueled by ZK-rollups

Quantum Leap Upgrade: A Historic Moment for Crypto

The Quantum Leap upgrade promises to solve the data availability problem that is common to all ZK rollups. This issue arises due to the lack of space on Ethereum to store all the data for transactions on Layer 2s, which leads to higher costs. But, Version 13 Volition upgrade, which is due to be released before the end of this quarter, will give users granular control over storage, allowing them to store important data on Ethereum and less important data elsewhere. This could reduce fees by up to 85%, enabling micropayments or blockchain gaming at a more affordable and faster rate.

The upgrade includes Cairo-rs, a faster implementation of the Cairo virtual machine using Rust from LambdaClass. Founder Federico Carrone believes Quantum Leap is a “historic moment” for cryptocurrencies.

StarkWare recently announced that its ZK scaling technology, which enables validity proofs, has now been used to process over $1 trillion in transactions.