Storage Proofs: Harmonizing Ethereum's Ecosystem
Giving blockchains awareness
Ethereum is really good at connecting rollups, but not so great at enabling them to communicate. If rollups could share data, trades could happen between Arbitrum and Optimism instantly. So much more would become possible, making Ethereum an open hub instead of a series of separate bridges. Let’s dive into the details.
Sections
Why Do We Need Storage Proofs?
What are Storage Proofs?
What Can Storage Proofs Do?
What’s the State of Storage Proofs Today?
Closing Thoughts
My Other Writings
Why Do We Need Storage Proofs?
Ethereum’s blockchain is about 16.5 million blocks long, a massive database of transactions dating back 8 years. Rollups add a ton more transactions to the total, ballooning the size of Ethereum’s ecosystem to massive proportions. That’s all fine, the problem is the accessibility of that data - especially between rollups.
Just like blockchains, rollups don’t have access to data from the outside world. The only way they could obtain information is through oracles, which are essentially people who provide data to the blockchain. People are not the ideal medium though - cryptography does a much better job of proving facts beyond any doubt. That’s where storage proofs come in.
What are Storage Proofs?
Storage proofs are bits of data that prove something happened on a particular blockchain. They can prove anything that happened onchain - account balances, transactions, all the good stuff. This can allow for shared liquidity between rollups - i.e. sell ETH on Arbitrum and receive USDC on Starknet. No more bridges!
But how do they work? Well, first storage proofs trace a path through the blockchain to find a specific block, then an event inside that block. This is possible on Ethereum because of how the data structure is set up - in trees where every piece of the tree has an index (called a key value). To brush up on how Ethereum’s Merkle Tree is set up, read my past write-up here.
After finding a specific block and event, the next step is just proving that event. Proving just means creating a cryptographic proof with information about that event. This proof is very small, about the length of a wallet address, and it cannot be faked. It provides a guarantee that something happened.
What Can Storage Proofs Do?
As mentioned, one of the biggest things storage proofs achieve is harmony across Ethereum’s rapidly expanding ecosystem. Any rollup can access information that happened onchain - either on L1 or any L2. This destroys any barriers that separate liquidity today, since confirmation of a trade on one rollup is enough of a guarantee to release funds on another rollup.
There are also substantial benefits to DAO participation. DAO votes often happen on rollups to reduce transaction costs, so if your tokens aren’t on that rollup then you can’t vote. Bridging tokens to a rollup is often very expensive, so many people don’t vote. With storage proofs though, you can hold your tokens anywhere - even on Ethereum - and vote across rollups without the need to bridge.
What’s the State of Storage Proofs Today?
Storage proofs aren’t something far off in the future - they’re actually already live! Starknet is the first rollup with storage proofs, so it can access information across any optimistic or validium (which are specific types of) rollup. Other rollups are likely to include the feature in the future.
Closing Thoughts
Ethereum used to be just a single layer 1, but times have changed. The ecosystem Ethereum’s become has a dire need for awareness of what’s happening inside of it. Storage proofs have come to the rescue, allowing access to information - and liquidity as a result - from anywhere in that ecosystem.
Thank You & Additional Reading!
Thank you for reading! Here are some more resources if you'd like to dive deeper.
Storage Proofs: Trustless Cross-Chain Information Access on Starknet
StarkNet Workshop #11: All about storage proofs with Herodotus
‘Storage Proofs’ Touted as Alternative to Hack-Prone Bridges in Multichain World by Margaux Nijkerk
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