What is StarkNet?

StarkNet is a general computation platform secured by Ethereum.

It allows writing smart contracts that can manipulate Ethereum assets: ERC20, ERC721, or any other smart contract state.

Starknet pushes execution of the smart contracts to the edge of the network

• Only one node, the prover, executes the payload and generates a proof of correctness
• Every node in the network verifies the proof of correctness, and updates its state if valid.

Intuitively, if computational work is executed by one node instead of all of them, it lowers the cost of execution

• Your usual token transfer are less expensive -> scaling in numbers
• You can imagine more powerful contracts -> scaling in complexity

What is Cairo?

Cairo is a programming language that allows writing provable programs.

Cairo does not compile to CPU instructions, but to arithmetic instructions with specific properties, allowing this magic:

• I show you a program, its inputs, its outputs, and a proof of validity
• You can verify the proof, and be certain that the output is valid, without executing the program itself