Starknet, an Ethereum Layer 2, Plans ‘Parallel Execution’ to Mimic Solana’s Speed Feature

• Starknet’s 2024 road map calls for the addition of parallel transactions starting in the second quarter.

• Developers behind the project also released plans for measures to cut fees.

• Starknet is the biggest in a category of layer-2 networks known as ZK rollups.

The developers behind Starknet, the Ethereum layer-2 network whose $2.3 billion STRK token airdrop last month captivated crypto markets, plan to add a design feature known as “parallelization” – one of the factors that reportedly makes rival blockchain Solana popular as a venue for fast, cheap transactions.

The feature will go live as part of an upgrade set for the second quarter, allowing Starknet to “process a greater number of transactions simultaneously, resulting in improved throughput and faster L2 finality,” according to a press release distributed by a representative of the developer StarkWare. It is part of the 2024 road map released Wednesday.

“Parallel execution is basically multitasking for rollups,” Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO of StarkWare and a board member of Starknet Foundation, said in a statement forwarded by a press representative via Telegram. “This will address a bottleneck, and keep transactions flowing faster and more efficiently. It’s like a subway station with one entrance point tackling congestion by opening more entrances.”

Specifically, he said, Starknet’s sequencer will be getting the parallel execution. A sequencer is a component of a layer-2 network that bundles up transactions conducted on the network and relays them to the main Ethereum network to be settled.

According to the website L2Beat, which ranks layer-2 networks, Starknet is the sixth-biggest, with a total value locked (TVL) of $1.4 billion, well behind the leaders Arbitrum One and OP Mainnet.

Among the class of layer 2s known as “ZK Rollups,” designed for faster settlements based on a technology known as zero-knowledge cryptography, Starknet is the biggest.

Additional efforts this year will include fee-reduction measures, including the “Volition” project for data availability as well as “DA compression” that will “reduce Starknet’s data footprint on L1, translating into lower fees for end users,” according to the press release.