93.5% of voting power backed researching a standalone post-quantum chain, though any actual switch would still need another community vote.
Starknet’s community has voted to research whether the Ethereum L2 should break off into its own post-quantum L1, as 93.52% of voting power backed the idea in a non-binding Snapshot poll that closed on Thursday (Oct. 22nd).
The result greenlights research, not a migration, and a real switch would still require another community vote.
What’s the Scoop?
The vote: The weeklong poll drew 3,236 votes representing ~489M STRK in voting power, with 4.57% voting No and 1.91% Neutral. It opened on Oct. 15th, a week after the L1 idea first surfaced, and StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson called the outcome “a clear YES.”
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The rationale: Starknet says it aims to be fully post-quantum by 2027, two years ahead of Ethereum’s 2029 target, but can’t get there as an L2 while it relies on Ethereum for its bridge and data availability. Or as StarkWare put it, “we can’t depend on Ethereum moving fast enough to ensure our safety.” Ben-Sasson also pegs quantum’s arrival at “2 years,” arguing that AI is speeding up progress on hardware, error correction, and qubit-efficient algorithms.
What’s settled: A joint StarkWare and Starknet Foundation working group now leads the research, and Ben-Sasson told Cointelegraph he hopes to have a draft whitepaper out for review in November. The Foundation has also said STRK stays the network’s token, with no new token, and that bridges from Ethereum will remain open. There’s no L1 timeline yet.
What’s at stake: Starknet is a Stage 1 ZK rollup on L2BEAT securing ~$390M, including ~$279M canonically bridged from Ethereum. Going independent would likely mean those assets lean on Starknet’s own consensus rather than Ethereum’s, a tradeoff the research will need to tackle. Meanwhile, STRK trades near $0.052, up ~34% over the past month but down ~29% this week, per CoinMarketCap.
William M. Peaster
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William M. Peaster, Senior Writer, has been with Bankless since January 2021. Immersed in Ethereum since 2017, he covers the onchain frontier with a particular interest in art, games, and other culture apps. He has a background in creative writing and writes fiction in his free time.