StarkNet is one of the major ZK-rollup players with a high chance of a token airdrop. In this article, I will tell you what StarkNet is, what you can do to receive its airdrop and I’ll review some of the most innovative and popular projects that are built on StarkNet in 2023.
What is StarkNet?
StarkNet is a decentralized, permissionless Validity-Rollup (or “ZK-Rollup”) that operates as a secondary network on top of Ethereum. This allows any decentralized application to have unlimited computational power without sacrificing the security and compatibility of Ethereum, as StarkNet uses STARK, a very secure and scalable cryptographic proof system.
The contracts and operating system of StarkNet are written in Cairo, which supports the deployment and growth of any kind of business logic. It is the native language to write smart contracts on StarkNet. Recently, StarkWare announced Cairo 1.0 — an upgradation of the old Cairo language. Compared to its previous version, it is more simplified & efficient and has improved syntaxes, more intuitive libraries, and better compiler integration.
The Team behind StarkNet
StarkNet is created by StarkWare Industries, an Israeli software company that focuses on cryptography. The company employs 70 people and has a large team of blockchain engineers. They also collaborate with some of the top advisors in the blockchain industry including Joseph Lubin, the CEO and founder of ConsenSys, the company behind MetaMask. In May 2022, StarkWare successfully raised $100 million in a Series D funding round led by Greenoaks Capital and Coatue. That puts the company’s estimated value at $8 billion.
Top DApps on StarkNet Ecosystem
StarkNet and its developer tools are being built by a variety of teams and individuals. Some of the notable ones include Alchemy, Argent, Infura, Ledger, and OpenZeppelin. Furthermore, there are hundreds of DApps, services, and wallets building on the StarkNet ecosystem. We will take a closer look at top projects in a minute.
Is there already a StarkNet token?
Yes, StarkNet has deployed their token $STRK on 16th Nov 2022 on the Ethereum Mainnet. However, the tokens are not up for sale yet, as the Foundation is still determining the mechanism for distributing them. This also involves incentive mechanisms for the community, which means an incoming airdrop.
How to Receive Potential StarkNet Token Airdrop?
The best way to receive $STRK airdrop is to interact with protocols on StarkNet. Some of them also do not have a token yet, so using their DApps could give you a chance to receive their airdrops as well, allowing you to earn additional rewards! Let’s take a look at the top projects on StarkNet which you should try out.
1. Wallets
In order to interact with the Starkware ecosystem, you need a compatible wallet. Metamask is currently not supported, so you should use one of the two wallets presented here.
ArgentX — https://www.argent.xyz/
Argent is a decentralized wallet that uses multi-signature security and social recovery. All transactions are automatically blocked unless they are from trusted addresses or you confirm them with multifactor authentication. Recently they’ve announced the launch of four new products: seed-less wallet, 2FA for Argent X, Starknet in mobile, multisig for DAOs.
Braavos — https://braavos.app/
Braavos is a self-custodial wallet on Starknet. It can be accessed on iOS, android and browsers. Braavos is offering a smooth web2-like UX and is developing features that will help users eliminate seed phrases while enabling easy recovery of accounts. In addition to wallets, they’re also planning to provide services like staking, borrowing, and lending. Braavos will also support account segmentation to separate between long-term (high amount) savings and everyday (low amount) spending by supporting withdrawal limits and withdrawal time delay. Recently they’ve announced that their wallet accounts’ contracts are now open source.
2. Bridges
To be eligible for the airdrop, it might be essential to bridge to the StarkNet network from the Ethereum mainnet. To do this, I suggest using StarkGate which is the official bridge built and deployed by the StarkWare team or
Orbiter Finance
Connect your wallet, and send ETH tokens from mainnet to StarkNet. Small amounts should be enough as long as you use the bridge frequently.
Starkgate — https://starkgate.starknet.io/
Orbiter Finance — https://www.orbiter.finance/
3. DeFi
a.JediSwap — https://jediswap.xyz/
JediSwap is a composable AMM on Starknet with near zero gas fees. The only fee involved is a swap fee of 0.3%. Currently, this fee is distributed proportionally among liquidity providers.
JediSwap is live on StarkNet mainet, so you will be able to use it with your bridged ETH.
Strategy: Make some swaps, deploy liquidity (use the ZAP feature)
b.Nostra — https://nostra.finance/
Nostra is the first lending and borrowing protocol live on #StarkNet mainnet.
Strategy: Deposit funds, borrow, repay, withdraw
c.ZKX — https://zkx.fi/
ZKX Protocol is a revolutionary new permissionless swap protocol on StarkNet that uses zero-knowledge proofs. It offers fast and secure transactions and an automated market-maker system. It can support trading pairs with low liquidity, reduce slippage, and be easily integrated with other protocols and applications. It has a lot of potential for various use cases.
Strategy: Sign Up for Testnet
d.zklend — https://zklend.com/
zkLend is a L2 Money-Market Protocol on Starknet that uses zk-rollup technology to achieve scalability, speed, and cost efficiency with Ethereum’s security. The protocol has a dual solution: a permission and compliance-focused solution for institutional clients, and a permissionless service for DeFi users — all while maintaining decentralization.
Strategy: only available on testnet right now — (bridge GoerliEth) — Supply and withdraw funds
4. NFT
a.Starknet [.] id — https://www.starknet.id/
Starknet.id is like ENS for StarkNet. You can mint your StarkNet identity which will serve as your StarkNet passport and on-chain representation — for free. You will also be able to link any data to the starknet identity, from web2 with social media accounts to web3 with ENS domains. The team is planning to build ENS bridges, Starknet id dashboards, and more features. Furthermore you can register a .stark domain.
Strategy: create a starknet identity and register your personal .stark domain.
b.NFT Marketplaces
Mint Square — https://mintsquare.io/starknet
NFT marketplace on zkSync and Starknet.
Aspect — https://aspect.co/
NFT marketplace on Starknet.
Strategy: Buy NFT, List NFT for sale, create NFT
