Starknet Taps STARK Proofs for Scalable Ethereum Fees

Starknet's recent fee model change aims to achieve high throughput and low gas costs by leveraging STARK proofs on Ethereum. The native Account Abstraction feature, integrated directly into the Starknet OS and sequencer, allows accounts to decide whether a paymaster can cover fees during the fee transfer phase. This design differs from ERC-4337, where a separate EntryPoint contract calls a paymaster.

The current fee calculation considers various variables, including L1 data, computation costs, and storage operations. The cost depends on the amount of data sent to L1, specifically state diff information and L2 to L1 messages. Computation costs include trace steps, L1 proof verification, and L2 computation costs.

The protocol uses ETH as the payment currency but plans to transition to STRK. If a paymaster lacks sufficient funds, the entire transaction reverts. Cairo 2.5 and the Paymaster advantage provide tighter integration than the modular ERC-4337 approach, reducing gas overhead and fragmentation.