StarkWare Aims to Scale Bitcoin with ZK-STARK Technology

StarkWare, the company behind StarkNet, plans to make its L2 network a unified scaling layer for Bitcoin alongside Ethereum.

Bitcoin’s biggest challenge is scalability. StarkWare has a vision to change that.

The concept of STARK scaling for blockchains was first introduced by @EliBenSasson at a Bitcoin conference in early 2013.

It’s now time to scale Bitcoin with ZK-STARK, making it more accessible… pic.twitter.com/sdx7sQJzur

— StarkWare ?? (@StarkWareLtd) June 4, 2024

According to the firm’s co-founder, Eli Ben-Sasson, such a significant expansion for the protocol could be realized six months after the implementation of the OP_CAT update in Bitcoin.

The upgrade restores the smart contract functionality to the blockchain of digital gold, which was initially present. In 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto removed the option due to concerns about memory overload and vulnerabilities.

The latest version of OP_CAT for community discussion was proposed in October 2023. In April, the update received the official designation BIP-347. However, this does not guarantee its eventual implementation.

“Once OP_CAT is accepted, implementing the STARK verifier in Bitcoin script will become a reality. This will pave the way for secure and self-sufficient movement between the first cryptocurrency’s blockchain and StarkNet, creating a unified scaling layer for both Ethereum and BTC,” wrote Ben-Sasson.

In his view, the application of ZK-STARK technology by the company will enable Bitcoin to achieve “many thousands of transactions per second.”

He noted that the idea of introducing zero-knowledge proofs into the first cryptocurrency’s network first occurred to him in 2013. Since then, StarkWare has supported several projects in this direction, such as ZeroSync.

In May, StarkWare, in partnership with Cartridge, introduced the ZKThreads framework for scaling decentralized applications on StarkNet.