Layer 2 blockchain · settles to Ethereum
Starknet ticker STRK
Summary
Validity rollup on Ethereum. StarkWare-run sequencers order transactions into L2 blocks and agree on them by a vote among the sequencers; the proposer gives sub-second pre-confirmations. Block execution by the Starknet OS program is proven with StarkWare's S-two prover (live on mainnet since late 2025), proofs for many blocks are aggregated recursively by StarkWare's SHARP service (L2BEAT says the older Stone prover still produces the top of that aggregation), and a verifier contract on Ethereum must accept the proof before Ethereum's copy of the Starknet state moves forward. Compressed state diffs are posted to Ethereum as blobs so anyone can rebuild the state. STRK and wrapped-BTC stakers attest to blocks to earn rewards, but in the current phase they do not propose or finalize blocks. 3571114151725
Design
- System
- Layer 2 blockchainStarknet Mainnet is a validity (zero-knowledge STARK) rollup on Ethereum: it posts compressed state diffs to Ethereum and a verifier contract there must accept a STARK proof before the new state root counts. Execution is the Cairo VM; Solidity bytecode does not run on it. Since v0.14.0 (1 September 2025) fees are paid only in STRK; ETH remains an ordinary token on Starknet. It is not grouped with the Ethereum and EVM settlement family, because that label would imply EVM compatibility, which Starknet does not have.
- Settles to
- EthereumState diffs go to Ethereum, normally as blobs, and the core contract updates only after SHARP's verifier accepts a proof; the transaction then shows as accepted on L1. StarkWare's roadmap gives about 3 hours to L1 finality after v0.14.2 and targets under 1.5 hours for v0.15; these are targets, not measurements. A withdrawal becomes usable once its block is proven and then needs a separate Ethereum transaction (for StarkGate anyone may send it). Per L2BEAT there is no forced inclusion or escape hatch; only a Security Council minority can bypass the sequencers, with no deadline.
- Settlement family
- Its own design
- Scarce resource
- Other
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Other
- Who makes blocks
- Sequencers operated and controlled by StarkWare, taking turns as block proposer. The Grinta (v0.14.0, September 2025) announcement and version notes describe three; L2BEAT, citing StarkWare's current mainnet configuration, describes five equal-weight permissioned sequencers needing 3 of 5 votes under v0.14.3. No current StarkWare page states the count. Stakers only attest (phase 2 of a 4-phase staking plan).
- Fork choice
- No open L2 fork choice: blocks agreed by the permissioned sequencer vote are canonical, and the absolute guarantee comes only when a proof covering the block is verified on Ethereum. In January 2026 StarkWare reverted 18 minutes of already-accepted L2 blocks after a sequencer execution bug.
Qualifications
- Scarce resource · Partial. STRK and approved wrapped-BTC tokens can be staked, and validators must attest to one block per epoch to earn rewards, but in the current phase stake does not choose block producers or finalize blocks; StarkWare's sequencers do.
- Finality · Partial. Starknet reports stages: pre-confirmed (a proposer's promise), accepted on L2 (agreed by the sequencer vote) and accepted on L1 (covered by a proof verified on Ethereum). Only the last is Ethereum-backed; in January 2026, 18 minutes of accepted-on-L2 activity was reverted.
- Sequencer set · Contested. The Grinta announcement and the v0.14.0 version notes (September 2025) describe three StarkWare sequencers; L2BEAT, citing StarkWare's current mainnet configuration, describes five permissioned StarkWare sequencers with a 3-of-5 vote under v0.14.3. The count may simply have changed, but no current StarkWare page confirms it. Both sources agree StarkWare controls all of them.
- Privacy · Partial. Since v0.14.2 the STRK20 framework lets tokens such as strkBTC and USDC be shielded, but it is opt-in per asset and each shielding user's viewing key is shared with a third-party auditor who may disclose activity on legal request. Ordinary transactions stay public.
- Evm compatibility · Not applicable. Starknet runs Cairo contracts on the Cairo VM; EVM bytecode and Ethereum externally owned accounts do not exist there.
- Settlement family · Partial. Filed as other: Starknet is a STARK validity rollup on Ethereum whose contracts are written in Cairo and run on the Cairo VM; Solidity bytecode does not run on it, and the ethereum-evm value would imply EVM compatibility, which Starknet does not have.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Security and Scalability
- Gives up
- Decentralized operation: StarkWare runs every sequencer, there is no way for users to force a transaction in or exit if the operator censors or stops, the Security Council can upgrade the core contracts instantly, and in September 2026 it had six addresses temporarily restricted after a lending-protocol oracle incident.The security emphasis means state transitions are checked by STARK proofs on Ethereum and state diffs are published there; StarkWare says this kept an incorrect sequencer execution in January 2026 from reaching finality on Ethereum, although it had to revert 18 minutes of Starknet blocks. That guarantee covers correctness, not liveness or censorship resistance. L2BEAT rates Starknet Stage 1: regular upgrades wait 8 days, emergency upgrades by the 9-of-12 Security Council have no exit window.
- Full node at home
- Practical at home 13262728Juno lists 4 CPU cores, 8 GB of RAM or more and a fast NVMe SSD for a node that keeps in sync and can do validator attestations; Pathfinder recommends 4 cores, 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. Both need an Ethereum websocket RPC endpoint, and the Starknet docs suggest a hosted provider; running your own Ethereum node adds Ethereum's much larger requirements. Pathfinder checks Starknet state against Ethereum. A full node verifies and serves data but cannot produce blocks, which only StarkWare's sequencers do.
- Throughput claims
- No classified figure recorded
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Independent softwareLimited scope | The protocol has no built-in swap; third-party services provide it. Garden settles swaps through hashed time-locked contracts (HTLCs) and lists Starknet (WBTC) among its supported chains, and Atomiq documents trustless Bitcoin swaps into Starknet enforced by on-chain verification of Bitcoin block headers. No StarkWare swap tool is cited. Limited: the cited services cover Bitcoin-linked assets only. Contract risk and liquidity were not reviewed. 313238 |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Light clients | Built into the protocolLimited scope | Starknet's rollup protocol produces what a light verifier checks: state is committed in Merkle-Patricia tries whose root, once proven, is recorded on Ethereum, so storage values can be checked with inclusion proofs against it; Pathfinder verifies state against Ethereum this way. Limited: only state accepted on L1 (covered by a verified proof) can be checked, and no dedicated Starknet light client was reviewed. 6728 |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | No payment or state channel layer anchored to Starknet was reviewed. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Every Starknet account is a smart contract with its own validation logic (multisig, session keys, passkeys), and multicall is built in. Contracts are written in Cairo. 12 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Independent softwareLimited scope | No protocol feature cancels or delays a sent payment. Because every account is a contract, wallets can build recovery: the open-source Argent account contract, used by Argent's Starknet wallet (now named Ready), lets guardians replace lost owner keys through an escape that the owner can override during a security period, 7 days by default. Its publisher is Argent (Ready), not StarkWare; no StarkWare recovery tool is cited. Limited: this recovers control of an account (part b) and does not reverse payments. 23339 |
| Rollups | Unknown | Starknet's SN Stack offers appchain frameworks (StarkWare's sequencer, Madara, Dojo's Katana) and rollup service providers, but no specific rollup settling to Starknet mainnet was verified. Starknet itself is a rollup on Ethereum. 22 |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | Established in the ecosystemEkubo, MySwap, AVNU (aggregator) | Ekubo documents a concentrated-liquidity AMM deployed on Starknet (and on EVM chains with V3). Starknet's DeFi directory also lists MySwap, AVNU, Fibrous and the Layer Akira order book. Liquidity depth was not measured. 2129 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | Established in the ecosystemUSDC (Circle) | Circle lists natively issued USDC on Starknet (0x033068F6539f8e6e6b131e6B2B814e6c34A5224bC66947c47DaB9dFeE93b35fb). StarkGate also keeps a legacy bridged USDC route from Ethereum, so more than one USDC representation may exist. Native means issuer-issued on Starknet, not a protocol asset. 930 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | Algorithmic or hybrid stablecoins on Starknet were not reviewed. |
| Bridges | Native to the protocolStarkGate (Ethereum), strkBTC bridge (Bitcoin), Layerswap, Stargate, NEAR Intents, Garden Finance | StarkGate, developed by StarkWare, moves ETH and ERC-20 tokens between Ethereum and Starknet through L1-L2 messaging; withdrawals are released on Ethereum after the block is proven. strkBTC is backed by BTC locked on Bitcoin, with the bridge run by a five-member federation. Starknet's bridge page lists the third-party routes, which were not reviewed individually. Risk: Per L2BEAT the StarkGate and core contracts can be upgraded instantly by the 9-of-12 Security Council or after 8 days by a 2-of-6 StarkWare multisig, and users have no forced exit if the sequencers censor them. StarkGate can also cap withdrawals at 5% of a token's locked value per day during a security incident. The strkBTC bridge is federated, with a trustless design only on its roadmap. 89182025 |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemVoyager, Starkscan, ViewBlock, OKLink, Cartridge explorer | Starknet's explorer page and developer integrations page list these. Voyager refused automated fetches during this review, so it was not opened directly. Explorer indexes are not canonical consensus. 1219 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinLedger (through Braavos or Ready), Trezor (STRK on Ethereum or Solana only) | See custody rows: Ledger signing for Starknet accounts goes through third-party wallet apps with Ledger's Starknet device app; Trezor lists STRK only on the Ethereum and Solana networks, and its firmware has no Starknet signing. 34363740 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | Through an intermediaryBraavos or Ready (the former Argent X) wallet apps, signing with Ledger's official Starknet device appSame as native: Unknown | Can: Create a Starknet account in Braavos and sign its transactions on a Ledger device running the Starknet app, per Braavos's guide Can: Use a third-party wallet such as Braavos or Argent X with the device, as Ledger's own Starknet page suggests Cannot: Rely on Ledger's own app as the documented place to manage a Starknet-network account: the reviewed guide has users deploy and manage the account in BraavosLedger's Starknet page lists Starknet and mentions both Ledger Live and third-party wallets, but its text is generic. Braavos's guide (June 2024, updated March 2025) installs the Starknet app through Ledger Live developer mode; whether that is still required was not checked. 34353639 |
| Trezor | None foundSame as native: No | Cannot: Sign Starknet-network transactions or control a Starknet account: Trezor's Starknet page lists only Ethereum and Solana as networks, and Trezor's firmware support data has no Starknet entryTrezor supports STRK only as a token copy on Ethereum and Solana, which a Trezor can hold through Trezor Suite, MetaMask or Rabby; under the shared custody rule a token copy on another network does not count as custody on Starknet. Assets held on Starknet itself need a different signer. 3740 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for Starknet yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 27, 2026; next review was due Oct 7, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
-
Security Council disclosed temporary restrictions on six addresses after the Vesu oracle incident
Following the Vesu and Pragma oracle incident on 4 September 2026, the Starknet Security Council instructed that six addresses associated with it be temporarily restricted. The note says all restrictions were lifted after the Council finished its investigation.
- Implementation:restrictions applied and later lifted
- Release:notice posted on the forum
- Activation:no restrictions in force according to the notice
Sources: Starknet Community Forum — Vesu incident Note (external site) · Starknet Documentation — Security Council (external site)
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Pathfinder v0.24.0 added support for Starknet v0.14.4 and changed WebSocket behaviour
Software Mansion released Pathfinder v0.24.0, a Starknet full node. It updates the node's execution libraries so it can follow Starknet v0.14.4, and StarkWare's v0.14.4 pre-release notes list Pathfinder v0.24.0 as the required version. The release is marked breaking: WebSocket clients of the node's RPC must now answer server pings, which the node uses to detect inactive connections. It also caps WebSocket connections (1,024 by default) and puts a 30-second default timeout on trace requests forwarded to the feeder gateway.
- Implementation:released as a stable version (not a pre-release)
- Release:v0.24.0 published on GitHub on 2026-09-01 and marked Latest at review time
- Activation:takes effect when an operator installs it; the v0.14.4 network upgrade it supports is scheduled for mainnet on 2026-10-05, after this review, pending governance approval
Sources: Software Mansion (GitHub) — Pathfinder v0.24.0 (external site) · Starknet Community Forum — Starknet v0.14.4 Prerelease Notes (external site) · Software Mansion (GitHub) — Releases: software-mansion/pathfinder (external site) · Pathfinder (Software Mansion) — Pathfinder introduction (external site)
-
Cairo v2.20.0 compiler release removed generated panic wrappers from the core library
StarkWare published version 2.20.0 of the Cairo compiler after three release candidates. It lets code read tuple elements with dot notation (t.0), accepts more constant expressions and recompiles faster after small edits. It also breaks some existing code: the core library no longer includes the wrapper functions generated by #[panic_with], such as u256_sub and array_at, and using the #[panic_with] attribute now produces a deprecation warning unless the project opts in.
- Implementation:released as a stable version after release candidates rc.0 to rc.2
- Release:v2.20.0 published on GitHub on 2026-07-23
- Activation:no network activation; applies when a developer compiles with this version
Sources: StarkWare (GitHub) — Cairo v2.20.0 (external site) · StarkWare (GitHub) — Releases: starkware-libs/cairo (external site)
-
StarkWare published v0.14.3 pre-release notes: faster blocks and an automatic minimum-fee rule
The pre-release notes scheduled v0.14.3 for mainnet on 6 July 2026. It cuts the typical block slot from 2 to 1.5 seconds with a lower per-block gas target (SNIP-40), adjusts the minimum L2 gas price automatically from the STRK/USD price (SNIP-35), switches the core contract's program hash to Blake, and drops support for JSON-RPC 0.8. L2BEAT's governance team said it was inclined to vote against, citing sequencer fee incentives.
- Proposal:SNIP-35 and SNIP-40 proposed in April and May 2026
- Implementation:Released
- Release:scheduled for mainnet on 2026-07-06
- Activation:described as running on mainnet by L2BEAT at review time
Sources: Starknet Community Forum — Starknet 0.14.3 pre-release notes (external site) · Starknet Community Forum — [SNIP-40] More frequent blocks (external site) · Starknet Community Forum — SNIP 35 - Automatically adjust base fee to STRK price (external site) · L2BEAT — Starknet (external site)
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Starknet v0.14.2 went live with in-protocol proof verification for private transactions
StarkWare announced v0.14.2 on mainnet. Transactions can now carry an off-chain execution proof that the network verifies natively (SNIP-36), which enables the STRK20 shielded-token framework. The release also raised storage costs while lowering base L2 gas prices, and upgraded StarkGate token contracts.
- Proposal:SNIP-36, SNIP-37 and SNIP-13 changes
- Implementation:Released
- Release:v0.14.2 on mainnet
- Activation:active on mainnet from the announcement date
Source: Starknet — Starknet v0.14.2: The Privacy Engine Arrives (external site)
-
StarkWare reported a mainnet halt and an 18-minute reorg on 5 January 2026
A sequencer execution bug around reverted nested calls produced an incorrect result. StarkWare dropped 18 minutes of activity (09:24 to 09:42 UTC), paused sequencing until 14:17 UTC, deployed a fix, and said the proving layer stopped the faulty execution from reaching Ethereum.
- Implementation:fix deployed on 2026-01-05; further prevention measures announced
- Release:incident report published
- Activation:network restored at 14:17 UTC on 2026-01-05
Source: Starknet — Starknet Incident Report - January 5, 2026 (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Starknet through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- Sources differ on how many sequencers run: three in the September 2025 Grinta announcement and version notes, five with a 3-of-5 vote on L2BEAT for v0.14.3. No current StarkWare page states the count. Both say StarkWare controls all of them.
- Starknet's chain-information page still lists mainnet as v0.14.2 and its version-notes page stops at v0.14.1, while the forum scheduled v0.14.3 for mainnet on 6 July 2026, L2BEAT describes v0.14.3, and StarkWare's public feeder gateway reported v0.14.3 for the latest mainnet block on 27 September 2026; the official docs lag the network.
- No measured time from transaction to proof verified on Ethereum was found; the roughly 3-hour figure is a roadmap target.
- The mechanism the Security Council used to restrict six addresses in September 2026 (sequencer filtering, contract pause or other) is not described in the reviewed pages.
- Individual Security Council members are named only by affiliated organization; their identities and signing thresholds for each action were taken from L2BEAT and a 2024 blog post, not re-verified on Ethereum.
- Decentralized validation by stakers was planned for v0.15 in September 2026, but the next scheduled release is v0.14.4 on 5 October 2026 (pending governance); when stakers will vote on blocks is not settled.
- Current Starknet chain size and disk growth were not captured; Juno gives no disk size and Pathfinder gives 1 TB as a recommendation.
- Whether Ledger's own app can manage a Starknet-network account, and whether the device app still needs developer mode, was not confirmed.
- No Trezor path for the Starknet network itself was found; Trezor lists STRK only on Ethereum and Solana, and its firmware support data has no Starknet entry.
- The relationship between Circle-issued USDC and the older StarkGate-bridged USDC on Starknet, and how wallets label them, was not reviewed.
- Algorithmic or hybrid stablecoins, other stablecoin issuers (for example Tether) and liquidity depth were not reviewed.
- Third-party bridges (Layerswap, Stargate, NEAR Intents, Garden) and the strkBTC federation's trust model were not reviewed beyond Starknet's own summaries.
- No rollup or appchain settling to Starknet mainnet, and no channel layer, was verified.
- The identity of the third-party auditor holding STRK20 viewing keys and the rules for its disclosures were not reviewed.
- Voyager returned HTTP 403 to automated fetches; its listing relies on Starknet's own pages.
- No throughput claims were recorded; Starknet's roadmap throughput statements are projections without a stated method.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- Introduction to Starknet's protocol (external site)
- Accounts (external site)
- Transactions (external site)
- STRK (external site)
- Staking (external site)
- State (external site)
- Data availability (external site)
- L1-L2 messaging (external site)
- StarkGate (external site)
- Security Council (external site)
- Version notes (external site)
- Developer integrations (external site)
- Running a full node (external site)
- Starknet Grinta: The Architecture of a More Decentralized Future (external site)
- S-two Is Live on Starknet Mainnet (external site)
- Starknet v0.14.2: The Privacy Engine Arrives (external site)
- Starknet Incident Report - January 5, 2026 (external site)
- strkBTC is Live: Private Bitcoin Arrives on Starknet (external site)
- Block Explorers & Monitoring tools (external site)
- Bridges & On-Ramps (external site)
- DeFi Apps on Starknet (external site)
- SN Stack (external site)
- Starknet 0.14.3 pre-release notes (external site)
- Vesu incident Note (external site)
- Starknet (external site)
- Hardware Requirements (external site)
- Hardware Requirements (external site)
- Introduction (external site)
- Introduction (external site)
- USDC Contract Addresses (external site)
- Supported Chains and Assets (external site)
- Introduction (external site)
- Escape Process (external site)
- Starknet Wallet (external site)
- LedgerHQ/app-starknet (external site)
- Braavos Wallet x Ledger: How to use Starknet with Ledger (external site)
- Starknet wallet (external site)
- HTLCs (external site)
- Ready developer documentation (external site)
- Trezor firmware coin support data (common/defs/support.json, main branch) (external site)
Report an error
Found something wrong or out of date? Reporting is free, and every chain goes through the same process. Published corrections appear in the public log.
Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding