Starknet deploys ‘Quantum Leap’ upgrade boosting network’s speed

The Starknet team deployed the Quantum Leap - Starknet V12.0 upgrade on the mainnet, resulting in increasing the network’s throughput.

The upgrade made its debut on the Ethereum mainnet on Wednesday, following over a week’s trial on the Goerli testnet. This period saw the network edging closer to triple-digit transactions per second (TPS). The team, however, said it’s aiming to achieve hundreds of transactions per second by the end of the third quarter.

The team noted that the Quantum Leap upgrade demonstrated consistent delivery of 37 TPS throughout the testing phase, with occasional surges up to 90 TPS. This presented a marked upswing from the network’s previous speed levels of 10 TPS.

Starknet is a decentralized Layer 2 network incorporating Validity-based Layer 2 solutions. These solutions employ a type of zero-knowledge roll-up technology that condenses multiple off-chain transactions and collectively publishes them on the Ethereum network.

“We achieved a consistent TPS of 37, and then at peak moments in the early hours of Wednesday morning, we nearly hit 100 transfer transactions per second,” said Uri Kolodny, co-founder and CEO of StarkWare in a statement. “We said this upgrade would potentially deliver a TPS of hundreds within Q3, and we only hoped that the stress test would confirm we’re on target.”

Latency improvement

In addition to boosting throughput, Quantum Leap has made latency improvements. The upgrade has reduced the time-to-inclusion to less than 10 seconds under normal conditions.

“Moreover, we were aiming for a latency of under 15 seconds, and in the end, the vast majority of transactions had a time-to-inclusion of under 10 seconds,” Kolodny further commented.

StarkWare anticipates these enhancements will help scale Ethereum applications in niches like DeFi and gaming by providing faster transactions and greater throughput for users.

Today's update coincides with Starknet experiencing a remarkable increase in deposits. Last week, on-chain analytics provider Nansen revealed that more than 500,000 unique wallets had transferred assets from Ethereum to Starknet so far, cumulatively depositing over $65 million on the network. It’s noteworthy that Starknet’s deposit inflow substantially accelerated since mid-March of this year, subsequent to its decision to raise the deposit caps, Nansen said.

The Starknet team has also outlined plans for version 13.0 later this year, intending to curtail transaction costs. Furthermore, version 14.0, set to be released later, will introduce a system enabling developers to prioritize transactions through additional payment. This version will contribute to creating a marketplace for block space on the Layer 2 network.