Blockchain Developer Platform Alchemy Launches Public Support for ZK Rollup Starknet

Alchemy, which provides tools for software developers to build apps for blockchains, released a public version of its platform for Starknet – seen as a project to watch because of the combination of two hot technologies, zero-knowledge cryptography and account abstraction.

Although Alchemy's dapp store lists 39 blockchains, the company said that the Starknet integration is key because of its “fast-growing developer community” and the project’s “pioneering approach to zero-knowledge rollups.”

Starknet is a ZK rollup, which scales a main blockchain by bundling transactions and processing them for faster and cheaper on a separate one. ZK Rollups use some cryptography known as “zero-knowledge proofs,” to ensure that a transaction is valid by only showing a small amount of information about that transaction before posting it back to the main blockchain (in this case Ethereum.)

Starknet also has native account abstraction, which allows users to access blockchains via smart-contract wallets, making the experience easier.

The integration of Starknet into Alchemy’s suite could be a sign of demand from developers to build more with account abstraction. "Alchemy makes it easy to build dapps, and Starknet provides the scale and features they need," said Gal Ron, a product manager and blockchain researcher at StarkWare.

“Native AA unlocks a ton of flexibility and room for innovation for wallet UX,” Alex Miao, a software engineer at Alchemy, told CoinDesk in an email. ("UX" is short for user interface.) “Developers can incorporate customizable account permissions, build in safeguards to run at the wallet level, and create simple transaction flows. This empowers developers to build for a world where end users and businesses are always represented by a smart-contract wallet.”

Read more: Ethereum Upgrade Could Make It Harder to Lose All Your Crypto

UPDATE (May 4, 2023 18:04 UTC): Adds quote from StarkWare.