Starknet

About Starknet

Starknet is an Ethereum Layer 2 network built by StarkWare, an Israeli cryptography company. Unlike EVM-compatible L2s, Starknet uses STARK proofs and its own programming language, Cairo, to achieve some of the highest throughput and lowest fees of any Ethereum scaling solution. It was founded by Eli Ben-Sasson, a computer science professor at Technion who co-invented the STARK proof system.

StarkWare previously built StarkEx, a permissioned scaling engine used by dYdX, Immutable X, and others. Starknet is its permissionless successor. STRK launched in February 2024 through a Provisions Program that notably included not just Starknet users and developers but also Ethereum validators, EIP authors, and open-source developers outside of Web3.

Starknet's distribution is heavily weighted toward the builders and backers of the protocol. Early Contributors take the largest share at 20.04%, reflecting the years of cryptography research and engineering that preceded the mainnet launch. Investors at 18.17% and StarkWare at 10.76% carry the same four-year vesting schedule, meaning a significant portion of supply was approaching circulation just months after the airdrop, a point of significant controversy at launch. The 9% Community Provisions pool funded the February 2024 airdrop, with a further 9% in Community Rebates to incentivise ongoing network usage. The 12.93% grants and development partner allocation is directed toward teams building on Starknet. At 18% of total supply combined, the community-facing allocations are modest relative to insider holdings, which drew criticism from the DeFi community at launch.