Crossing another mileSTONE

A monumental conference in the US, brand new tooling, stellar network performance and an open sourced STARK prover - September's already turning into the month of the STARK.

Tl;dr

• Starknet 0.12.1 launch

• Major StarkGate Improvements

• STONE prover finally open sourced

• In-person basecamp and hacker house

• New remix plugin and other dev tooling

• Decentralization proposal using Tendermint

Starknet 0.12.1 out on Mainnet

No one likes hearing about failure - except maybe for the Starknet sequencer. This is because if the sequencer is able to identify a transaction as invalid - it can put it in a block and charge a fee for the resources it had to spend to process such a transaction.

This ability to identify and charge fees for failed transactions was the main feature of Starknet’s recent update - v0.12.1.

The update was able to do so by adding a validation stage to the mempool to prevent invalid transactions from consuming the sequencer’s precious time. This ensures that only valid transactions will continue. Failed transactions will be assigned a REVERTED status & be included in the block, paying fees.

Moreover, now, with the latest and greatest Starknet 0.12.1, the system also offers an increase in the number of Cairo steps that can be included per transaction - from 1 million to 3 million. To read more about this series of quick updates - please take a look at this.

Major StarkGate improvements

As of early August, the StarkGate team has integrated Dynamic into their platform. This development aims to streamline the user experience for wallet connections. What’s more - the integration broadens their compatibility with a wide variety of Ethereum wallets.

In the upcoming November release, StarkGate contracts will migrate from CairoZero to an up-to-date Cairo version. This update will also introduce two main features:

• Permissionless Token Integration: This will enable users and applications to add their own standard tokens to the bridge.

• Function-Triggering Deposits: Upon making a deposit, users will have the ability to trigger a specific function on the recipient contract on Starknet.

Meanwhile, the StarkGate team is also busy adding a whole new range of tokens like LUSD, R, FRAX, FXS, and sfrxETH to their wallet by mid September.

STONE prover now open sourced

Earlier this month, Starkware’s head of core engineering - Gidi Kaempfner - took to stage at the Starknet Summit in San Francisco and announced that the company will be open sourcing its proprietary, battle tested STARK prover.

Not only is this a major step towards making Starknet an open source, developer friendly layer 2 - but also encourages the development of more flexible and innovative proof-based projects in our ecosystem.

To learn more, please read this article.

SBC, Hacker House and Basecamp ‘23

This August, Starkware and the Starknet community held their first large scale meet and greet - the Starknet Summit - in the US. The event saw over 300 members of the community get together in sunny seaside California to celebrate their teamwork and achievements over the past year.

Luckily, you didn’t have to be there to catch all the talks. Recorded versions are available here.

What you might have missed though, were the 4 fun filled days of Starknet’s hacker house and basecamp in Palo Alto. Participants were able to live, learn and work together at just a stone’s throw from the hallowed grounds of Stanford University - where they could go just as easily to hear about the newest ideas in the industry.

To recap on the topics covered during our basecamp, please take a look at this reading list.

New Remix plugin now available

Contract development is a multifaceted process involving several stages, from coding to deployment. The Starknet Remix Plugin, developed by Nethermind, is designed to streamline the journey for Starknet developers, providing a seamless interface for writing Cairo code.

So whether you are seasoned code ninja or a beginner - do go ahead and give this plugin a shot over here.

Decentralization Proposal

One of the most exciting proposals in the Starknet community forum, lately, has been the proposal to decentralize the sequencing and proving layers of the Starknet tech stack. Once implemented, these changes will make Starknet significantly more censorship resistant while maintaining its liveness and security.

This proposal has been long in the making, and can now be viewed and commented over here.

Events around the world

As always, we strive to bring an in person element to our fast growing blockchain community. Feel free to choose from any of these amazing meetups happening in a city near you -

• Starknet Happy Hour, Austin - 9/10

• Starknet meetup at University of Texas, Austin - 9/10

• Starknet meetup in New York - 9/21

• EthGlobal New York - 9/22 - 24

So basically,

Now you know about the latest infrastructural upgrades to Starknet in some detail. You have also been made familiar with the new development framework for Starknet, as well as the new decentralization proposal.

Finally, we are excited to catch you in person at various events happening around the world this month.

And that’s it good people… keep building!!