---
title: "Starknet (STRK)"
url: "https://caper.network/wiki/daos/networks/starknet"
updated: 2026-09-03
license: CC-BY-4.0
license_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# Starknet (STRK)

| Type | Ethereum L2 validity (ZK) rollup / network DAO |
| --- | --- |
| Governance token | STRK (governance, staking & gas) |
| Governance mechanism | vSTRK + STRK, delegated voting on Snapshot X |
| Steward | Starknet Foundation (non-profit) |
| Initial supply | 10,000,000,000 STRK (minted Nov 30, 2022; inflates via staking/block rewards) |
| Builder | StarkWare (Cairo, STARK proofs) |
| Website | [starknet.io](https://www.starknet.io) |

## Overview

[Starknet](https://www.starknet.io) is an Ethereum layer-2 built by [StarkWare](https://starkware.co) on validity proofs: transactions are executed off-chain and a [STARK proof](https://docs.starknet.io/learn/protocol/intro) is verified on Ethereum, inheriting L1 security without re-executing every transaction. Contracts are written in [Cairo](https://www.cairo-lang.org), a language purpose-built for provable computation. Protocol stewardship sits with the non-profit [Starknet Foundation](https://www.starknet.io/blog/introducing-the-starknet-foundation/) and, increasingly, with STRK holders voting through the [governance portal](https://governance.starknet.io).

Starknet belongs to the family of L2 _network DAOs_ this wiki tracks — communities that govern a rollup's contracts and treasury through a token — alongside [Arbitrum](/wiki/daos/networks/arbitrum-dao), the [Optimism Collective](/wiki/daos/networks/optimism-collective), [ZKsync](/wiki/daos/networks/zksync-era) and [Polygon](/wiki/daos/networks/polygon). What sets it apart is that STRK is not a pure governance chip: it also pays gas and secures consensus, so the same asset carries three distinct jobs.

## STRK: one token, three jobs

Ten billion STRK were created in May 2022 and minted on-chain on [November 30, 2022](https://docs.starknet.io/learn/protocol/strk); supply inflates over time as the protocol mints staking and block rewards on a community-set schedule. The initial allocation splits across early contributors (20.04%), investors (18.17%), StarkWare (10.76%), grants and development partners (12.93%), community provisions and rebates (9.00% each), and the Foundation's strategic reserves and treasury (10.00% and 8.10%). Investor and early-contributor tranches unlock monthly [through March 2027](https://docs.starknet.io/learn/protocol/strk).

The token does three things. It is the **gas asset** — since [v0.14.0 (Sept 1, 2025)](https://docs.starknet.io/learn/protocol/strk) transaction fees on Starknet are paid only in STRK. It is the **staking asset** that secures sequencing, consensus, proving and data availability. And it is the **governance asset** that weights votes over protocol upgrades. Bundling gas, security and voting into one token is a deliberate contrast with [ZKsync](/wiki/daos/networks/zksync-era), whose ZK token votes but never pays gas.

## Governance: vSTRK, delegation and Snapshot X

To vote with STRK held on Starknet, a holder wraps it 1:1 into **vSTRK**, a token dedicated solely to governance. Voting power is the sum of STRK held on Ethereum L1 and vSTRK held on L2, and — as in most large token-DAOs — that power can be [delegated](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/voting/voting-and-delegation) to a representative rather than voted directly. Votes run on [Snapshot X](https://governance.starknet.io), the on-chain successor to off-chain Snapshot, so tallies are settled by contract rather than by a signature server.

Starknet's governance opened in [phases](https://www.starknet.io/blog/starknets-governance-first-phase/). In the first phase a professional **Builders' Council**, seated by the Foundation, held 23.3% of voting power as a competence backstop while the broader delegate base matured. The Foundation has since run an application-based, _tiered_ delegate program through the [governance portal](https://governance.starknet.io): it lends STRK voting power to vetted delegates, and delegates who miss participation standards risk having that power reallocated — a design meant to keep delegated weight active rather than dormant, one of the failure modes catalogued in [how DAOs fail](/wiki/dao-governance/concepts/analysis/how-daos-fail).

## Progressive decentralization: staking and consensus

Starknet is decentralizing its stack in numbered stages rather than all at once. **Staking v1/v2** are live, letting STRK holders stake — directly or by delegating to a validator — with a seven-day unstaking delay; validators currently attest to blocks. **Staking v3** — validators attesting _and_ proposing blocks — was dated Q4 2025 / Q1 2026 in the [2025 roadmap recap](https://www.starknet.io/blog/how-starknets-q3-paved-the-way-for-bitcoin-decentralization-and-the-future-of-crypto/), and **v4**, which fully decentralizes both the sequencer and the prover, was dated 2026. That schedule has slipped: as of 21 August 2026 Starknet's own documentation states the staking protocol "is currently in its second phase on both Sepolia and Mainnet," the second of four, with block proposing still listed as a third-phase duty ([Starknet docs, Staking overview](https://docs.starknet.io/staking/overview/)). Read a numbered decentralization roadmap as a statement of sequence, not of date — the ordering has held, every announced deadline in it has not.

On the sequencing side, the **Grinta** release (v0.14.0, Sept 1, 2025) moved Starknet to multiple sequencers running [Tendermint consensus](https://docs.starknet.io/learn/protocol/intro) with a 1/2 threshold — three sequencers operated by StarkWare at launch, with community-run sequencers to follow. Governance and staking are the two levers that hand each of these roles from StarkWare to the token community over time.

## Bitcoin as a second security asset

In 2025 Starknet became the first rollup to run a **dual-token consensus**: alongside STRK, staked Bitcoin can help secure the network, with STRK carrying 75% and BTC 25% of consensus weight (a BTC staking-power weight of 0.25). Within weeks of the [launch](https://www.starknet.io/blog/how-starknets-q3-paved-the-way-for-bitcoin-decentralization-and-the-future-of-crypto/) more than 650 BTC (~$72M) were staked and over 1,000 bridged. Admitting Bitcoin into consensus and validating the bridge design were themselves decided by [on-chain governance votes](https://governance.starknet.io) — a concrete case of the token community, not a core team, setting the rollup's security model.

## How Caper relates

Starknet's answer to the risk that delegated power goes stale is _procedural_: seat a competent council early, then lend voting weight to delegates on the condition that they keep showing up, and claw it back when they don't. It is a good design for keeping a large token-holder base engaged. [Caper](/wiki/foundations/what-is-a-caper) works on a smaller, earlier-stage problem and answers it differently. Instead of curating who holds power, it gives every holder who has voted or traded a credible [exit right](/blog/the-exit-right) — the ability to leave on defined terms and reclaim a canonical share of the treasury — so the discipline on a bad decision is that participants can walk with their fair slice, not that an underperforming delegate loses a seat. Both are ways to keep governance honest; one manages representatives, the other keeps the door open.