Bware Labs has received a development grant from the Starknet Foundation for extending support for the network within Blast, the company’s flagship product. Blast is a decentralized blockchain API platform designed to solve Web3 access challenges related to reliability, latency, and centralization.

The purpose of Bware Labs has always been to enable blockchain developers in fulfilling their most ambitious building endeavors. As part of this commitment, we have always worked together with chains and networks in order to foster the best possible resources and toolings. Starknet is no exception, with our collaboration starting over a year ago by integrating support for the network within Blast! 

What is Starknet?

Starknet is a Layer-2 solution that enhances Ethereum transactions by making them faster, more affordable, and more secure through the use of zk-STARKs technology. 

It effectively addresses the challenge of balancing scalability with widespread consensus. Starknet uses a sophisticated mathematical approach to strike a balance between system capacity and inclusive participation. Its reliability is anchored in the strength of concise and transparent proofs that verify computational accuracy. This approach allows influential entities to expand Starknet’s capabilities while ensuring its integrity is verifiable by everyone using universally accessible verification tools.

Starknet ensures the security of its low-cost transactions and high performance through the implementation of the STARK cryptographic proof system. The Starknet ecosystem, including Starknet contracts and the Starknet Operating System, is developed in Cairo, a purpose-built, specialized programming language designed for this environment.

Cairo – The Language of Scaling

Cairo stands as the pioneering Turing-complete language designed for crafting verifiable programs suitable for a broad range of computations. Its design echoes the high-level structure of Rust, aiming to provide a similar experience where developers can efficiently and safely craft code.

A key advancement in Cairo 1.0 is its revamped syntax, drawing inspiration from Rust to foster a more user-friendly language that simplifies both reading and writing processes. This latest iteration of Cairo promotes the creation of safer code through features like strong typing, ownership, and borrowing, while also enhancing expressiveness.

Furthermore, Cairo 1.0 debuts Sierra, a novel intermediate representation that guarantees the provability of every Cairo execution. This attribute renders Cairo 1.0 especially fitting for decentralized networks like Starknet, offering robust protection against Denial of Service (DoS) attacks and bolstering resistance against censorship.

Extended Support for Starknet within Blast

As aforementioned, Starknet has been added to Blast in September 2022. Currently, Blast supports the network with both Public APIs and Dedicated RPC endpoints for Starknet Mainnet, Starknet Testnet and Starknet Testnet 2, with a service availability at 99.9%. Blast serves a daily average of 1.73M calls on the Public API and a daily total of 3.4M calls across all accounts.

With this new step in our cooperation, we plan to further enhance services for Starknet builders who use Blast. Major changes include the increase of the throughput for the free tier and the Starknet Public API to 100 API calls/second to account for the Starknet Feeder Gateway deprecation. Moreover, Blast will add multi-version support in the UI for all Starknet endpoints and will integrate Starknet into the list of Blast Builder APIs.