StarkWare LTD, the company behind the L2 privacy solutions zkSTARKS and StarkEx, has announced a Turing complete platform called Cairo.
Hello, Cairo!
1st production-grade Turing-complete STARK framework.Already on Mainnet: @reddit demo.
Powering all upcoming systems: @deversifi, @Immutable, @dydxprotocol.Need low gas for general computation at massive scale? There’s Cairo for that https://t.co/VJams09cXe
— StarkWare (@StarkWareLtd) August 31, 2020
Cairo is the “first production-grade platform for generating STARK proofs for general computation”. Everything from their Reddit Bake-off submission to their upcoming deployments of DeversiFi, Immutable, and dYdX, all is written in Cairo.
The Great Reddit Scaling Bake-off was the first time when StarkWare deployed Cairo with upcoming deployments including:
Since each partner of StarkWare has different computation needs, Starkware created a flexible swiss army knife platform in the form of Cairo. Cairo stands for CPU Algebraic Intermediate Representation (AIR) and includes a single AIR that verifies the instruction set of this “CPU”.
Cairo comes with a single AIR that can verify any Cairo program. The Cairo AIR verifies the computational integrity and the correctness of the post-execution state of the system. With Cairo, new business logic doesn’t require a new smart contract. It only requires a different Cairo program.
Cairo programs are written in an assembly-like programming language (called, Cairo as well) with features like memory, function calls, recursion, and branching conditions. The team has created powerful development tools including a compiler from the Cairo language to Cairo byte code, a virtual machine that simulates Cairo executions, a debugger, IDE integration, and the single Verifier smart contract written in Solidity.
Cairo’s AIR is relatively simple, which leads to efficiency and low amortized costs, for both the on-chain Verifier and the off-chain proving service. It also leads to increased security, because auditing a single simple AIR is safer than auditing multiple complicated application-specific AIRs.
The team plans to release new generations of Cairo frequently. These will offer enhanced functionality, better performance, and powerful optimizations. Currently, the team is “dog-fooding” Cairo and improving it on a weekly basis with the help of their partners”.
It’s harder to implement zkrollups for defi because supporting all defi requires supporting general-purpose computation inside a SNARK, which is hard!
(Though @StarkWareLtd is trying, see their recent Cairo release https://t.co/rT2GnxWhAX)
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 1, 2020
We’ll be keeping a close eye on Cairo. You can do the same by following Starware on Twitter.
Tarang discovered ETH in 2018 and has been actively involved in DeFi after finding PoolTogether in 2019. He’s most interested in the DEX sector as a frequent user and participant in Uniswap and Kyber Network alongside lending protocols like Aave. Tarang’s active presence in DeFi has given him a front-row seat to cutting edge trends and real-time developments. Stay up with Tarang by following him on Twitter.