The workshop focused on the fee mechanism design for Starknet, broken into four key questions:
- Protocol-Level Resources: Starknet must decide how to manage and price distinct resources (e.g., execution, proving, bandwidth, and storage). Unlike Ethereum, which unifies these under “gas,” Starknet needs to balance separate L1 (Ethereum interaction) and L2 (Starknet operations) costs.
- Resource Conversion: Starknet operations must be translated into measurable units of these resources. This includes assigning costs to atomic operations like Cairo’s “libfunks.” The process involves benchmarking to ensure fair pricing.
- User Bidding Structure: Users must bid on L1 gas, L2 gas, and resource limits, aiming for simplicity while ensuring fair market functionality. The mechanism should shield users from complex calculations, offering predictable costs for transactions.
- Charging Mechanisms: Inspired by Ethereum’s EIP-1559, Starknet’s system will aim to simplify fee dynamics by setting a block-level gas price while allowing for priority-based bidding during congestion. Fees should avoid strategic overbidding while reflecting resource usage accurately.
Key insights included:
- L1 and L2 costs are treated separately due to their uncorrelated nature. L1 costs, influenced by the broader Ethereum ecosystem, cannot be merged with L2 resource costs.
- Starknet will introduce two primary resources: L1 gas (for Ethereum interactions) and a unified L2 gas (for internal operations), balancing user simplicity and technical efficiency.
- The protocol must implement efficient methods for pricing and congestion management while considering latency and security trade-offs.
- Ethereum’s EIP-1559 model was praised for its effectiveness in minimizing strategic bidding and enabling better fee predictability.
