- StarkNet has deployed its native STRK token on the mainnet;
- The token is not for sale yet. The team is still deciding on the distribution mechanism;
- Users will be able to use the token to vote, stake, and pay transaction fees;
- Shareholders, employees, and independent software developers will be subject to a four-year token lockup period.
StarkNet, a Layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution based on zero-knowledge rollups, has deployed its native STRK token on the Ethereum mainnet, the team announced on Wednesday.
The STRK token, first announced in July, will be primarily used as a governance token. It will also be used for paying transaction fees and staking to ensure randomly selected sequencers are safe. This will depend on how many STRK tokens those nodes stake.
The STRK token, which has a total supply of 10 billion, will be allocated to StarkWare, the parent company of StarkNet, investors (17%), core contributors (32.9%), and StarkNet Foundation (50.1%). Tokens allocated to shareholders, employees, and independent software developers will have a four-year lockup period. They will however be available to be used to vote and stake.
All token holders, including those holding locked tokens, will be able to vote with their tokens both directly and by delegating through Compound’s delegation module. Voting on StarkNet-based on-chain voting systems will also be available, which will reduce gas fees.
StarkNet, which is valued at around $8 billion, said it has yet to decide on the distribution mechanism of the token. It has warned users not to fall for scams.
The news comes on the same day as StarkWare’s main competitor, Matter Labs, announced a new funding round of $200 million. Both companies have been building zero-knowledge-based rollup technologies that help drastically reduce gas fees on the Ethereum mainnet. They do this by taking multiple transactions off-chain and sending them to the mainnet for verification in bundles.
Last month, Matter Labs released what it calls the first zkEVM on the Ethereum mainnet. zkEVM stands for zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine, something that’s widely regarded as the holy grail of Ethereum scaling.
Both firms are also working on Layer-3scaling solutions, with Matter Labs planning to release its version, called Opportunity, in the first quarter of next year.
On the Flipside
- It’s unclear when StarkNet will start the sale of its token.
- It’s also unknown whether they’ll do an airdrop to the community.
- Some say that 50.1% of the total STRK supply going to the StarkNet Foundation is too much.
Why You Should Care
StarkWare is one of the leading Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution developers. Its zero-knowledge rollup StarkNet is one of the most widely used among competitors. The company launching a token is a step forward to securing and scaling the network.
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