Starknet Approves Staking Feature, Paving the Way for Decentralization

The Starknet Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum has passed a governance vote to activate staking on its network, offering rewards to stakers based on the total amount of staked tokens.

Earlier today, a governance proposal submitted by StarkWare core developers, "SNIP 18", was approved by a majority of STRK token holders. However, only 0.08% of eligible voters holding Starknet's native token STRK participated in the vote. With the proposal passing, Starknet's token staking feature could soon launch on its testnet, followed by a mainnet rollout in Q4 of this year.

Starknet will allow token holders with a minimum of 20,000 STRK to become stakers, while others can delegate to them. The vote also approved a minting mechanism designed to balance staker rewards against expected inflation. Additionally, stakers will face a 21-day lockup period before withdrawing funds.

StarkWare claims the staking governance vote represents a step towards further infrastructure decentralization. Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO of StarkWare, stated:

"This is a historic milestone for Starknet as we move towards complete decentralization. As one of the first Layer 2s to offer this opportunity to token holders, we are progressively moving towards a network fully operated and managed by the community."

Looking ahead, the network plans to introduce more governance features and staker responsibilities in phases, including potential roles for stakers in the decentralized network's sequencer and prover.