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Welcome to the 30th edition of my weekly comprehensive StarkNet summary. The previous update can be found here. 👇🏻
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Let’s get into this week’s news! 💪
Protocol & dev tool updates
@StarkWareLtd - A new exciting Developer Partnership with @Ledger!
@StarkWareLtd - We are excited to announce our Developer Partnership with @CryptoExperts! Their expertise in audits and code reviews for cryptographic protocols are and will continue to be a major contribution to the security and smooth operation of StarkNet.
@StarkWareLtd - Excited to announce our Developer Partnership with @ApeFramework! Ape provides a Pythonic development environment for testing and deploying your StarkNet-based dApps, alongside your other favorite L1 and L2 ecosystems, for easier multi-chain development.
@myBraavos - A new Braavos Version is available in the App Store and Google Play Store!
@RampNetwork - We just teamed up with @argentHQ to support Argent X on StarkNet. To celebrate, you can top up your Argent X browser wallet with ZERO fees - for the next two weeks.
@ahmetoznarr - MultiSig protection in Cairo now available from @dolvenlabs. Secure your contract ownership.
@argentHQ - we've just added a new highly requested feature for Argent X! there is now an address book that allows you to easily add contacts you regularly interact with to make sending between those accounts simpler.
@swmansion - A new Starknet SDK for jvm languages is here! It allows an easy interaction w/ StarkNet gateway & nodes, incl. querying state, executing transactions & deploying contracts.
@tarrenceva - First Starknet transaction signed using a key securely generated + stored in my iPhone's secure enclave (Using WebAuthn P256 signer). Signed with FaceID. Account Abstraction in action.
@milancermak - I've just posted a proposal to use felts instead of Uint256 for ERC20 tokens. If you care, please participate in the discussion
@ryanberckmans, @mallowsxyz - Please check this out if you're interested in eth censorship resistance. We built and deployed (onto L1 and StarkNet) a system to give regular users decentralized access to eth app UIs, preventing domain/UI scams and censorship. It's a decentralized home screen for eth.
@odin_free - The StarkNet app project for Ledger Nano S and X.
@_tserg - Felt maxis unite! We have made our felt-based WadRay library public, with plans to have it formally verified by our security team in the weeks ahead.
@0xSpaceShard - New version of the Starknet Hardhat plugin (v0.6.4) has been released! Major speedup by applying the proxy-server optimization to all commands and to the dockerized mode (v0.6.3 only optimized venv mode and didn't optimize starknet-compile).
New version of starknet.py (v.0.4.6-alpha) has been released.
Media highlights
@GuthL - I will be chatting with Nostra who’s joining the #starkNet fam. A lot of fun to come
@zkLend - ICYMI: ZEND&FRIENDS #AMA Infrastructure series 5th episode with @nethermindeth CTO, @0xGreg_ is now live!
@StarkGalaxy1 - A couple of days ago we had the priviledge to play with the Beta Testnet of the @zkLend's Artemis Product and we fell in love with its smooth UI/UX. Have a quick glance at it and get ready for its upcoming public version.
@StarkGalaxy1 - Synthetic BTC Test-Minting on @SerityFinance. Try it out following our Tutorial.
@influenceth - Building Better Blockchain User Experiences w/ @argentHQ, Twitter Space.
STARK Struck Podcast | Episode 2 | Henri Lieutaud with Sylve & Lancelot from briq
Ecosystem Highlights
Want to build on StarkNet? Check out this building on StarkNet page.
@nostrafinance - Welcome to the launch of Nostra, the most versatile liquidity protocol for lending and borrowing.
@nostrafinance - La Famiglia supports decentralized platforms🌹 That's why we're launching our blog on @viamirror
@nostrafinance - Introducing the $5 million Nostra Famiglia Fund
@SandclockOrg - We just made the first deposit to the vault through the official frontend. A small step for man, one giant leap for Sandclock.
@dolvenlabs - Glad to announce 🥳 our latest partnership with Hashstack | @0xHashstack 🔥
@ninth_gg - Thrilled to announce the strategic partnership with @dolvenlabs 🎉
@dolvenlabs - We are happy to announce that our Testnet Eligibility program is now open. ✨
@zkLend - 🚀So, we're delighted to share "MOONLANDING", 👩🚀Artemis #testnet program where you can shape the protocol and earn a bounty too!
@MintSquareNFT - We just launched Mint Square ZK LaunchPad, our white-glove minting and marketing service!
@zksparkofficial - We're very excited to announce a new partnership with @zk_portal
@matchbox_dao - We are thrilled to announce our $7.5m raise 🤩🔥
@matchbox_dao - Yesterday we were thrilled to announce our fundraising! Today we want to tell you more about us and what we are building 🔥
@altzoneio - Here's recap of everything you may have missed 🧵⏬
@magnetyfi - 👋After the success of the first one, quiz number 2 is now open! It will remain open until 21/08 at 16:00 UTC!
@magnetyfi - In the middle of our Magnety Quiz marathon, is there a better time to introduce you to the project?
@yagi_fi - We are pleased to announce that you can now lend DAI and USDC on xBank from the Yagi UI. These opportunities are now listed as third-party vaults in our UI.
@AgeOfEykar - As promised, here is the cool feature. You can now listen to eykar's theme from the website.
@ninth_gg - The 1st Alpha Test Tournament of The Ninth is coming soon!
@FrensLands - We're ready to launch the public test phase 1 ! Tests will start on Monday around 10AM CEST
@SerityFinance - Less than a week in and we're almost at 250 ETH in our CDP contracts to mint #synthetic #btc serBTC on Goerli StarkNet
@fernandezdiego - introduced a new digital identity project called TangoID at EthLatAm that will be used by the city of Buenos Aires.
@jrcarlos2000 - built StarkStream for the ETHSeoul hackathon
@ModulusLabs - The World’s 1st On-Chain AI Trading Bot is now LIVE. Rocky's model inference is validated via StarkNet proofs with every trade! Check out our latest Medium blog all about Rocky.
@CygnusDAO - We are 100% Cairo pilled! Did not think that re-writing our core contracts to bring #Cygnus to #Starknet would be so much fun. Starknet version of our factory will be published soon.
@starknames - StarkNet Name Service (SNS) is live on testnet.
Continually updated list of projects building on StarkNet. 🏗️
Ecosystem stats
The starknet.js package has exceeded 111k downloads.
Weekly StarkNet stats: last week: 276k txs on Goerli,
24k txs on Mainnet. To date: 6m txs on Goerli, 270k txs on Mainnet. Contracts deployed last week: 33.5k on Goerli, 8.9k on Mainnet.
Over 800 ETH have been bridged to StarkNet so far (there’s a cap).
MintSquare Job Offer
Mint Square NFT marketplace is hiring a Business Development & Partnerships Manager to help drive partnerships with projects/creators launching on StarkNet. We welcome candidates with prior partnerships experience and strong understanding of the NFT/blockchain gaming ecosystem. If interested, please apply here.
StarkNet Community & Shamans Highlights
StarkNet Workshop #0: Account Abstraction
A felt based ERC20 token
Simple summary
A proposal for adopting an ERC20 implementation that uses felt instead of Uint256 for better user and developer experience.
Abstract
Due to strict compliance with ERC20 the canonical token implementation from OpenZeppelin uses Uint256. This is a suboptimal choice. As a result, developers have to deal with more complex code and more frustrating experience when building on StarkNet. At the same time, users of StarkNet are forced to pay significantly more for normal operations than if a felt based token standard was adopted.
Preamble
Initially, the decision to use Uint256 was a judgement call by the OpenZeppelin team. There was only a limited discussion 4 when the community was still small (but already then there were calls to use a felt based token). That’s of course completely fine, it allowed for the ecosystem to move forward and build what we have now.
Nevertheless, I believe it’s time to open up the discussion again.
Firstly, now that the ecosystem has grown significantly, the choice of felt vs. Uint256 deserves a new, broader debate.
Secondly, it takes time for best practices to emerge - a prime example is the adoption of namespaces 6 in cairo-contracts v0.2.0. It’s both a breaking change and a change for the better.
Lastly, we still have enough time to switch to felt based tokens. We’re in alpha, things are backward incompatible all the time. Almost no project is on mainnet yet and regenesis 3 is coming up which presents an ample opportunity to fix what’s broken.
Heavily discussed StarkNet Improvement Proposals
A felt based ERC-20 token
Proposal for a standard L2->L1 bridge, for tokens minted on StarkNet
Universal Deployer Contract proposal
[SIMP-4] A standard for writing comments in Cairo contracts
[SIMP] String standardization
[SIMP] Connect accounts to dapps
[SIMP] Wallet Multi Chain Support
[SIMP] Starknet Provider JavaScript API
[SIMP] Check Support for Starknet Provider JavaScript API
[informational SIMP] Comments in StarkNet contracts
Useful links & articles
@Gammax_Exchange - If you’re confused about how ZK-rollups work, read this 🧵👇
@zkLend - his week, we're proud to present our last guest for this series - @ibdotxyz [Iron Bank of Braavos?👀]. Anyway - let’s dive in to our guests!🪂
@MagnetyIntern - Our seventh presentation episode is about @curve_zero , an exciting project building on #StarkNet 🐺
@zkLend - 🤓The piece penned by @bfu_fubrian explores some technical musings on #STARK recursion. 👉Read it now
@ZK_Daily - 1. Why am I bullish on #StarkNet? A non-EVM blockchain? 🚀🚀🚀
@Testnet_Digger - Today's presentation is about @curve_zero , which recently launched its public #testnet!
Developer resources
@henrlihenrli - Storage proofs (SP). It's an unsexy name for a very, very powerful StarkNet tool. #4 in our exploration of why people get excited about StarkNet. Let’s take a look.
@henrlihenrli - Now let's talk about fractal scaling, AKA recursion, AKA "How high is the sky, dad?"
@trialityorg - For anyone looking for the repo from our end to end build of an application on starknet (incl. video)
@DCbuild3r - The Starknet developer guide is live on @devpillme!
@EmpiricNetwork - New guide on how to write upgradeable contracts using proxies on #StarkNet by Empiric Network engineer @RubanRaphael!
@0xGreg_ - My StarkNet @CairoLang @paradigm_ctf challenge is live! Check it out
Dates and Events
next StarkNet community call August 23rd: Multisigs on StarkNet, roadmap updates
@cheechyuanang - Our next Starknet Malaysia Meetup is here! This time we will be sharing 2 of our Starknet projects from @eth_seoul_ and @StarknetHouse Join us! And lets buidl. Aug 27th, register here.
@StarkDefi - Come and join us on our first ever community call on Twitter, Aug 31st, where we will be covering - Team/Products & Services/Crew3 and all things StarkDefi.
@notcentralised - thanks to popular demand we are bringing this @StarkWareLtd meetup to life - this is Episode 1 at the @NotCenHub, Aug 30th.
@stark_con - We’re bringing the StarkNet team first-time ever in India to help you learn more about the StarkNet ecosystem, L2s, ZKRollups, and much more. Register here.
@stark_con - StarkCon is a community-driven conference to bring all the “STARKs” under one roof. The first StarkCon will take place alongside Devcon, the official Ethereum builders' conference in Bogota, Colombia; October.
StarkNet Summit: TBD
You can check out all of the past updates here.
None of the content of this newsletter is financial advice. Always do your own research.
Thank you for reading, and see you next week. ⏳
Special thanks to odin_free, @0xNurstar and StarkNet_Digger for helping me source some of the information! 🔍
Would you like to sponsor this newsletter? Reach out to me.