Optimistic and Validity Rollups: Analysis and Comparison between Optimism and StarkNet

TL;DR

This paper compares Optimistic and Validity Rollups, analyzing their mechanisms, performance, and compatibility to address blockchain scalability while minimizing trust assumptions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis and comparison of Optimistic and Validity Rollups, highlighting their differences, advantages, and limitations in blockchain scalability solutions.

Findings

Optimism offers faster withdrawal times compared to StarkNet.

StarkNet utilizes STARKs for validity proofs, enabling secure scalability.

Cost and recursive application vary between the two rollup types.

Abstract

The thesis addresses the problem of scalability in decentralized blockchains in the context of the trade-off between transaction throughput and hardware requirements to participate in the network. Rollups are presented, that is technologies to verify on-chain blocks executed off-chain by minimizing the assumptions of trust. The variant of the Optimistic Rollups, in particular of Optimism and the use of invalidity proofs through interactive binary search and of the Validity Rollups, in particular of StarkNet, and the use of validity proofs through STARKs are discussed. Finally, the two solutions are compared on withdrawal time, on the cost of transactions and techniques to minimize it, on the possibility of applying the technology recursively, on compatibility with Ethereum and on the licenses used.