Starknet v0.13.0: Support for Fee Payment in STRK, Reduced Transaction Fees

Starknet v0.13.0 is live on mainnet.

Starknet v0.13.0 focuses on 2 aspects: It lays the groundwork for a new transaction version, v3, and it will facilitate a significant reduction to transaction fees.

Added on January 11th, 2024: v0.13.0 will come with another mainnet upgrade on January 15th that will include various performance improvements. See this post for details.

V3 Transactions

V3 transactions will facilitate transaction fee payments in Starknetā€™s native token, STRK, once it becomes transferable. Fee payment in STRK will come in addition to Ether (ETH), the token with which users have paid fees until now.

As a Validity Rollup, Starknet has operational costs in L1 gas and, consequently, in ETH. V3 transactions will allow users to pay in STRK for their L1 gas consumption. To charge maximally accurate fees, the sequencer will use oracles to quote the rate of STRK/gas.

The oracle services will be provided by Pragma and Switchboard, with a further fallback to manual price-setting. For a more detailed discussion, see this community forum thread.

By enabling fee payment in STRK, Starknet v0.13.0 opens the doors to upcoming features in the roadmap that will be developed specifically for STRK fee payments.

These features will be released in future versions and include:

  • Fee Market: Will allow users to compete for blockspace during congestion, enabling those willing to pay for priority. There is already a design for this feature based on Ethereumā€™s EIP-1559.
  • Paymaster: Modeled after Ethereumā€™s EIP-4437, Starknetā€™s Paymasters will enable entities other than the transaction sender to pay transaction fees on the senderā€™s behalf. Native account abstraction on Starknet will make the process of using the paymaster much easier.
  • Volition Mode: Permitting users and developers to opt out of expensive L1 data availability in favor of much cheaper alternatives, e.g. L2 data availability.

Transaction Fee Reduction

Starknet v0.13.0 will also include some transaction fee reductions:

  1. Cairo step/builtin costs: 50% reduction

  2. L1 data availability:

    1. 10% across the board for DA
    2. constant 240 gas discount per tx + 312 gas discount per every contract changed

For erc-20 transfers, the DA fee reductions add up to 25%!

Items (1) and (2.1) above are possible due increasing block size in the near future (this is already being priced in). For the first item, larger blocks mean more steps per proof submitted to L1 (for more details, see the documentation on the transaction fee mechanism). For the second, according to our estimates, a 2x increase from the current blocksize will cause more ā€œbatchingā€ of storage updates, justifying a reduced cost from users. Item (2.2) is due to a more accurate pricing of transactions.

Voting on Version upgrade

Starknet v0.13.0 is live on Goerli testnet, and on Sepolia integration and testnet.

You can read more about this new transaction type here and here.

This marks a momentous occasion for the entire Starknet ecosystem. We eagerly anticipate the development team transforming the token release into a truly pivotal event, transcending it from a mere conceptual launch to a genuine milestone in decentralization. The incorporation of commission payments in STRK with the Starknet v0.13.0 update is fantastic news. Wishing the team continued success and full-throated support from the community! :point_right: :point_left: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Starknet v0.13.0ā€™s deployment on testnet is a significant milestone, emphasizing two pivotal advancements. Firstly, the introduction of V3 transactions marks a transformative shift by allowing fee payments in STRK alongside ETH, leveraging oracles from Pragma and Switchboard. This flexibility opens avenues for upcoming features, such as the Fee Market, Paymaster, and Volition Mode, designed to enhance user experience and adaptability. Secondly, transaction fee reductions, notably the 50% reduction in Cairo step/builtin costs and L1 data availability improvements, underscore Starknetā€™s commitment to efficiency. With these strides, Starknet v0.13.0 lays the foundation for a more versatile and cost-effective decentralized ecosystem. :point_right: :point_left:

What a rationale behind the reduction in Cairo step/builtin costs and the adjustments in L1 data availability fee?

The final phase has started off wonderfully

Really good update for starknet user with the lower gas feeā€‹:saluting_face::muscle:

Lfg starknet
Other l2 need to learn from you guys .
OG moves
More work less noise

What a great milestone for the Starknet team. Congratulations :raised_hands:

V3 transactions represent a monumental leap forward for Starknet. The 50% reduction in Cairo step costs and the L1 data availability optimizations are welcome news for everyone on Starknet. These changes signify a commitment to lowering the barrier to entry and making the network more accessible to a wider user base.

Finally Starknet making huge step to decentralization, thank you team

Hi @webjar, I addressed this in the fee reduction section. Do you have a specific question?

This marks a momentous occasion for the entire Starknet ecosystem. We eagerly anticipate the development team transforming the token release into a truly pivotal event, transcending it from a mere conceptual launch to a genuine milestone in decentralization. The incorporation of commission payments in STRK with the Starknet v0.13.0 update is fantastic news. Wishing the team continued success and full-throated support from the community!

Hi Ilia,
Regarding the fee changes. It would be great to update this document here Gas and transaction fees :: Starknet documentation

From you description it looks like the weight of the steps will be divided by 2. But not sure i get how the l1 gas changes apply to the formulas, but it look more complex than just a lower š‘š‘¤ value.

Also, will all transactions benefit from this improvement or onlye the new Tx V3?

Thanks!

Hey @sgc-code!

The documentation change is a great suggestion, but I think we should wait until weā€™re closer or after the mainnet upgrade. Then Iā€™ll prioritize it. What do you think?

All transactions will benefit from the cost reduction :slight_smile:

Great! This is a huge milestone!
Now adoption can come to every mobile user - biometrics for easy payments and low fees without ā€œcomplicated expensive Ethā€ Just buy STRK onramp and use it.

I think the ā€˜Timelineā€™ section is missing in the proposal. How many days will it take for v0.13.0 to go live on Mainnet after the vote is accepted?

Ser,the timeframe for v0.13.0 to be deployed on the mainnet has been posted in another topic, please take a look:Starknetā€™s third vote is coming - Starknet Alpha v0.13.0

The evolution of the development of the Starknet ecosystem is incredible. Last year we had delays, this year we are already surprised with good news, congratulations to everyone!
Iā€™m looking forward to v0.13, I think itā€™s an important step for Starknet to attract more users and set up a solid ecosystem, reducing fees will be an important step towards this.

Actually, this update comes to fulfill what was promised with the L2, the decrease in network fees, I think that this great change will make many more projects join this great ecosystem. :blue_heart:

Great milestone! Iā€™ve seen Starknet improving since as early as 2021 and having witnessed how they have managed to increase the TPS, I am sure Volition will be an even greater step and will work as intended from the get go!