Starknet Begins Independence Research With 93.52% of Participating Voting Power in Favor
Key Facts
The Starknet Foundation announced that a poll on researching network independence closed with support from 93.52% of participating voting power, and that work had begun to study that path. A joint working group from StarkWare and the Starknet Foundation is conducting the research, according to the foundation's announcement on the community forum. The work focuses on whether Starknet could become an independent, quantum-resistant Layer 1 network. The proposal has thus moved from gauging participants' interest to the research stage, led by the joint team the foundation announced after voting ended. The foundation stressed that the poll result "does not grant approval for Starknet to transition to a Layer 1 network," leaving the support tied to exploring that path.
For holders of the network's token, the governance proposal provides for continued use of STRK if the proposed independence framework proceeds. It states: "STRK is the token, and there will be no new token." The framework also includes keeping bridges from Ethereum to Starknet open, according to the proposal published on the community forum. This places continued use of the existing token and continued connectivity with Ethereum among the proposed arrangements for the independent network. On the timing of a transition, the proposal said "there is no timeline for this yet," as the project enters the stage of researching the feasibility of independence.
The independence research intersects with Starknet's roadmap for developing quantum resistance, which includes changes to hashing, contract storage and its connection to Ethereum. The first phase aims to replace elliptic-curve-based hashing in areas including state commitments and address derivation, according to the network's explanation. On implementation, StarkWare's migration tracker reported that version 0.14.3 replaced Pedersen hashing with a construction based on Blake2s-256. This replacement applies to hashes of the operating system program and its configuration, the scope of the change specified in the official tracker. The company confirmed that the change is already live on mainnet, as part of the technical work carried out to update its cryptography.
The roadmap's second phase aims to provide tools that allow existing contracts to adopt quantum-resistant storage, according to Starknet. This approach seeks to preserve those contracts' interfaces while changing the storage arrangements they use. The network described the goal as enabling contracts to adopt this storage "without breaking their interfaces." Tools for migrating existing contracts' storage remain at the research stage, according to StarkWare's official migration tracker. Work yet to be released includes public specifications, an implementation, a published toolkit and a developer workflow, the implementation components needed to make this transition available to existing contracts.
At the account level, StarkWare says Starknet's programmable accounts can already use tools to verify post-quantum signatures. Using these tools does not require a network-wide protocol fork, according to the company's explanation of the system's architecture. This allows verification tools to be adopted through programmable accounts, within the approach the company outlines for upgrading signatures. But verifying post-quantum signatures requires more computation than common signature schemes, according to StarkWare. The company says the STARK proof system gives the network a way to accommodate this additional computational burden associated with verification.
The technical relationship with Ethereum remains part of the quantum-resistance roadmap's third phase, which Starknet says is "moving in parallel with Ethereum." This phase includes shared dependencies on the bridge and the data availability layer, according to the network's presentation. In this context, the Ethereum Foundation aims to achieve quantum resistance across the execution, consensus and data layers by December 2029. These efforts are being developed within a broader push to update cryptographic tools, in which the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology announced the adoption of federal standards for post-quantum cryptography. The institute said the commerce secretary approved the three standards numbered 203, 204 and 205.
On the next governance steps, Starknet's proposal states that the research will lead to more detailed proposals and polls on the path to independence. The joint team from StarkWare and the Starknet Foundation is leading the research phase that began after the result was announced. The design phase forms part of the process preceding a request for formal approval of the transition, according to the foundation's announcement. That approval will be sought after research and design are complete, placing the actual transition decision before a subsequent governance step. The dated milestone in the development of quantum resistance is Ethereum's December 2029 target for the execution, consensus and data layers.