STRK’s L1 Bet: Eli Ben-Sasson on Starknet’s Exit Plan

Starknet is considering researching a move from its current role as an Ethereum Layer 2 to an independent, quantum-resistant Layer 1, but no exit decision has been made. The seven-day poll is non-binding and asks whether to study the option; Eli Ben-Sasson said about 99% of votes then supported research and fewer than 1% opposed it. Camille cited 2027 as a possible target, but Ben-Sasson did not confirm that timeline. If the poll passes and support holds, he expected a report with recommendations in two to three weeks, followed by possible answers or options for another vote within three weeks to a month.

Ben-Sasson framed the proposal as a security response, not a departure from Starknet’s longstanding focus on post-quantum security. If quantum computing broke Ethereum’s cryptography, Starknet could lose the security it inherits as an L2 and face reorgs, loss of state finality, or arbitrary failure. He said Starknet could remain an L2 if Ethereum became post-quantum secure quickly, but doubts that will happen in time. Starknet’s account abstraction, post-quantum-safe wallets, and ZK-STARK technology are part of its readiness effort, but he stressed that no complete system is post-quantum secure today and that a chain’s underlying cryptography must be replaced to make it safe.

The proposed L1’s architecture and purpose remain unsettled. Research must compare proof of stake with proof of work, and consider whether the chain should be a store of value that also settles L2s or a more programmable network. Other open questions include speed, finality, optional privacy, general-purpose smart contracts, and whether it should serve only as a settlement layer for L2s. The team also needs to work out how bridges could be secured during a quantum catastrophe. Ben-Sasson described a chain that could offer a safe haven to users of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and other networks as a dream, not a settled design.

Ben-Sasson said requests from sovereign wealth funds, large investors, and crypto-project leaders have increased the urgency, while advances in AI are accelerating quantum-computing research and work on its algorithms. Starkware would like to help Bitcoin address quantum safety, but he sees Bitcoin development’s ossification as an obstacle. He said Starkware’s Bitcoin offering had been live for a year and supports privacy-preserving transactions and staking. Ben-Sasson said Starknet’s team has experience delivering production systems based on STARKs and that he is highly confident it could deliver quickly if it commits; the decision, he said, should not be driven by STRK’s price.

STRK rose from about $0.05 to $0.12 in the five days after the news and later traded around $0.07. Ben-Sasson made no prediction about its future. He also described Starknet privacy tools already in use: users can provide liquidity privately on Ekubo through shadow accounts, and Zcash can be routed through Near Intents to Starknet before being shielded. He called this “programmable Zcash,” combining privacy with programmable DeFi, and said private lending and borrowing applications are planned. He characterized financial privacy as a basic human right and argued that concerns about illicit use do not outweigh it. He said Starknet’s solution is compliant and can offer ways to reveal viewing keys, while declining to share details of discussions with major players and external parties about infrastructure needs, including scale and privacy.

Offmarket is a Starknet-built privacy interface for Polymarket, designed to route activity through Starknet while preserving a Polymarket-like experience; entry options include credit cards and other chains. At launch it had a $1,000 deposit cap and about $1.5 million in its pool, which Ben-Sasson described as temporary guardrails. The host raised questions about insider trading, market manipulation, and whether trade histories would be shared with authorities, but the discussion ended before Ben-Sasson answered. Ben-Sasson said Starknet’s novel DeFi is currently aimed at retail users and could interest institutions later; the episode characterized institutional crypto activity today as focused mainly on payments and custody, with broader DeFi participation a possible next step.