# Report: Benchmarking Stylus: StarkEx Verifier

**URL:** <https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/report-benchmarking-stylus-starkex-verifier/29993>\
**Category:** Domain Allocator Offerings (prev Questbook)\
**Created:** [September 19, 2025, 8:56am UTC](https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/report-benchmarking-stylus-starkex-verifier/29993 "2025-09-19T08:56:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![LimeChain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@LimeChain](https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/u/LimeChain)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2025, 8:56am UTC](https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/report-benchmarking-stylus-starkex-verifier/29993/1 "2025-09-19T08:56:21Z")

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**Name of your project** : Benchmarking Stylus: StarkEx Verifier

**Link to your Questbook application:** [Benchmarking Stylus: StarkEx Verifier](https://questbook.app/dashboard/?proposalId=67ebeff216e7410ad7a0c9f6&grantId=67d802bd46da2f90cc3267b0&chainId=10&role=builder)

**Link to your website/socials, others:** [GitHub](https://github.com/LimeChain/stylus-starkex-benchmark)

Previous Stylus-EVM benchmarks confirmed Stylus’s gas efficiency for isolated, computationally intensive tasks. This proposal aims to extend that analysis with a sophisticated, real-world benchmark. Specifically, it will compare the gas costs of StarkEx’s on-chain STARK verification logic against its equivalent implemented in Rust and deployed on Stylus.

This [code repository](https://github.com/LimeChain/stylus-starkex-benchmark/) aims to benchmark the gas costs between EVM and Stylus contracts for GpsStatementVerifier.verifyProofAndRegister functionality.

## Performance Against KPIs

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/uploads/arbitrum1/original/2X/a/acd3be81d15b93874b97ba90292512dd50dcdd09.jpeg)

## Qualitative Impact & Community Feedback

The project successfully demonstrated that Arbitrum Stylus can replicate the full StarkEx verification pipeline — from verifyProofAndRegister in GpsStatementVerifier through memory page validation, constraint polynomial evaluation, and FRI verification — in a way that is both faithful to the original Solidity implementation and adapted to Rust’s computational model.

This means we have proven that complex, computation-heavy verification logic (like zk-STARK proof checking) can be ported from Solidity to Rust under Stylus without loss of correctness, while preserving the modular workflow (GpsStatementVerifier → CpuVerifier → CpuConstraintPoly → FRI).

The key outcome is therefore not only gas savings (quantitative), but the validation that Stylus is a viable execution environment for industrial-grade zero-knowledge verifiers, opening the door for real-world adoption in ecosystems already depending on StarkEx.

Twitter thread about the grant completion: [https://x.com/LimeChainHQ/status/1968310359221297202](https://x.com/LimeChainHQ/status/1968310359221297202)

## Financial Summary

- _Milestone 1. Research how to port over auxiliary contracts: 17% budget allocation_

- _Milestone 2. Translate Memory Management Logic: 20% budget allocation_

- _Milestone 3. Translate Auxiliary Contracts: 18% budget allocation_

- _Milestone 4. Translate STARK verification logic: 35% budget allocation_

- _Milestone 5. Deploy, test and compare contracts: 10% budget allocation_

## Future Plans & Continued Ecosystem Alignment

LimeChain has contributed to the creation of the Stylus kit, as well as delivering a few benchmark projects. We are looking forward to continuing our contributions to Stylus and overall improving the overall Arbitrum developer experience.