Three STARK members share their outlook for 2024.

Warm reminder: Super extension is coming soon.

Summary

• As the Starknet technology stack continues to mature , the 2024 roadmap will unlock new features and ecosystem of Starknet.

• Starknet users will enjoy a smoother experience and lower transaction costs; developers will receive huge improvements in scalability .

• Whether in the field of DeFi or gaming, Starknet has become an ideal place for creative dApps with complex logic.

No one can predict the future, but we can still make reasonable guesses based on intuition. What should we expect from Starknet and the blockchain space in general in 2024? We asked StarkWare's co-founder and president Eli Ben-Sasson, StarkWare's product lead Avihu Levy, and StarkWare's head of business development Liron Hayman to share their insights on upcoming trends and developments in Starknet and the blockchain industry as a whole. .

What do you think will be the next trend for dApps and developers in 2024?

Eli Ben-Sasson: Trends are particularly difficult to predict. Generally speaking, new ideas tend to become trends, but we have also witnessed the resurgence of certain old ideas into popular trends, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) during the last bull market.

If I had to predict, I would say that on-chain games that survive the bear market will probably start to become popular faster. This is especially evident on Starknet, which allows developers to execute complete game logic on-chain thanks to high throughput, low transaction fees, and native Account Abstraction (AA). Therefore, we will see a situation where not only game assets will be stored on the chain, but other parts of the game will also be on-chain.

Avihu Levy:We have seen interest in full-chain games. And, as Starknet provides scalability and simplifies the blockchain into a more Web2-like experience, interest in full-chain gaming will increase further. As consumers begin to use blockchain more frequently, privacy applications may begin to gain popularity.

Liron Hayman:I also believe that on-chain games will continue to develop. Since the advent of Ethereum, the community has been discussing how to completely change the nature of games by putting them on the chain. This is the idea of ​​​​self-sovereignty in the game and the unchangeable rules of the game. The cool part is locking the rules of the game into immutable smart contracts on the blockchain. This way, players know the game is here to stay and the rules won't be changed unless the community decides to do so.

Creating in-game assets on the blockchain has been a practical implementation of this vision so far, but the real mechanics of the game are still handled off-chain. However, with platforms like DoJo running on Starknet, things are changing. What we need to note is that thanks to technologies like native account abstraction, gas costs are significantly reduced and the user experience becomes smooth. Being able to put the entire game logic on-chain is quite a leap.

What is the most interesting thing that will happen on Starknet in 2024?

Eli:We are expected to see large-scale applications of blockchain, and more and more people are aware of it Getting to Starknet is the key to scaling Ethereum. We will see developers continue to use STARK proofs, Starknet’s version of proof-of-validity, to explore the boundaries of blockchain applications and build use cases on Starknet that require speed and low cost. This trend is already showing, and Starknet's ecosystem has become the eighth largest ecosystem in the industry. As the technology stack continues to mature, we will see greater growth.

Avihu: Starknet’s developer community currently ranks in the top eight in the crypto ecosystem, and I predict it will climb to Top five.

One ​​of the key factors driving this growth is community-owned infrastructure projects on the Starknet network, such as Stone Prover, which StarkWare open sourced last August A powerful engine responsible for compressing transactions and making cryptographic proofs. Additionally, I think Cairo will become the most popular smart contract language and attract more smart contract developers to join the Starknet ecosystem, thereby promoting the development of the community.

On the user side, we will witness better user experience and lower transaction costs. With the implementation of Ethereum EIP-4844 (Sharded Blob Transactions), followed by the launch of Starknet’s Volition (Flexibility of Data Availability), data costs will be significantly reduced. Yes, this means lower transaction costs.

Liron: Starknet’s Volition will cut gas costs by approximately 90% and allow users to store data on Starknet. By then, game app developers and others will see a dramatic increase in the scalability they need to acquire hundreds of millions of users. Volition has an exciting year ahead.

What problems do you think Ethereum will solve by the end of 2024?

Eli: Once the EIP-4844 update is implemented, data availability on Ethereum will no longer be an issue. I expect data availability to increase five to ten times. Coupled with the application of Volition, data availability costs will be significantly reduced when using Starknet.

Avihu:In my opinion, it’s all about data availability. As Ethereum creates more capacity on top of the base layer, and then L2 (especially Starknet) provides more capacity on top of that, we may see a surge in use cases that require scalability.

Liron:Data availability is becoming a barrier to wider adoption, especially for Ethereum L2. Fortunately, with the implementation of EIP-4844, this problem is starting to be solved. This will truly be a game changer for the entire industry.

Where would you like to see Starknet or Ethereum develop in 2024?

Eli:What I'm most interested in is seeing people really working on developing mechanisms and protocols that allow us Return to the original value of blockchain - fairness, transparency and decentralization, instead of worrying about issues like MEV.

In practical terms, this means working toward truly decentralized governance, Proof of Humanity, and public funding of goods and services . These are the goals for which blockchain was originally introduced into the world, and it is the responsibility of the entire ecosystem to promote the realization of these goals.

Avihu: Starknet’s strength lies in its support for a large number of computations as well as cryptographic primitives. Therefore, I expect to see more on-chain games and more sophisticated and easy-to-use wallets to simplify the blockchain experience for users.

Liron: Trading applications on Starknet and Ethereum have proven the value of providing traders with self-custody and instant settlement. I very much hope to see more traditional financial exchanges and institutions embrace blockchain technology.

Imagine a trader buying a stock on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). They should be able to independently check that every transaction in the system follows the same rules, and the tools available on Starknet can help them achieve this.

What industries do you think will join the blockchain next?

Eli:Again, it's hard to say, but there have been some industries that have been on the sidelines and are eager to get back into the ecosystem , but hesitated for many reasons, including the need for scalability. These industries include traditional financial institutions, payment processing platforms, and traditional gaming companies.

My hope is that they will eventually join the field when they see scaling solutions that make previously unimaginable use cases economically viable .

Avihu:I think we will see more tokenization of real-world assets.

Tokenization has been widely regarded as an inevitable use case for blockchain. From tokenizing carbon credits to tokenizing real estate shares and central bank digital currencies (CBDC), the potential is endless. As L2s like Starknet significantly improve Ethereum’s scalability, we will see more and more of these applications.

Liron: Predicting the future of technology is indeed challenging, but an industry burdened by operational overhead and slow trade settlements can learn from blockchain benefit greatly from chain technology. Tokenizing real-world assets and enabling global, real-time and instant trade settlement is a disruptive change. This innovation is likely to attract significant attention from major players in traditional finance, many of whom are just beginning to explore this space.

What developments are you most looking forward to regarding Starknet’s decentralization?

Eli: Last August, we open sourced the highly anticipated Stone (STARK One) Prover, which improved The ability of the community to create new and exciting projects. As a company with innovation at its core and decentralization as a key value, we have formed a team to make further improvements and developments in the prover. StarkWare will deliver the most efficient, streamlined, secure and fastest prover on the market. This will facilitate the implementation of client-side proofs and reduce the latency and cost of Starknet.

Avihu: Starknet is rapidly moving towards decentralization. Our Devonomics pilot program, which distributes a portion of the fees collected by Starknet to developers, is also a factor in the push for decentralization.

Liron:We usually associate the decentralization of blockchain with the consensus mechanism. But another exciting and humane aspect is its social and engineering decentralization. I'm very excited about how the Starknet technology stack is evolving into a more globally distributed network, attracting dynamic participants from around the world, and I look forward to seeing this trend continue to grow.

What size do you think Starknet will be by the end of 2024?

Eli:In terms of development progress, I think it is a hundred times the scale of Ethereum's computing power.

Avihu:Achieve ten times the computing power of Ethereum at a cost far less than one-tenth of Ethereum.

Liron:I don’t want to give a specific number, but I can talk about trends. Thanks to the prover/validator architecture, light nodes can be very efficient. These light nodes can focus on verifying proofs instead of verifying each transaction one by one, thus significantly reducing resource consumption. This approach significantly reduces the hardware requirements for light nodes, paving the way for transaction processing speeds well beyond current speeds. On the optimistic side, I expect we can reach this goal by the end of next year.

This is going to be an exciting year!