Left hand Bitcoin, right hand Ethereum: Starknet is building a new cornerstone of the digital world

Translation and proofreading: Starknet Chinese Community

Featured Quick View

• Introducing STARK proof technology into the Bitcoin network significantly expands the application scenarios of Bitcoin
• Make Ethereum's digital commonwealth more inclusive
• Flexibly leverage the advantages of Ethereum and Bitcoin

Financial system in urgent need of reshaping

The Starknet Foundation is committed to building a world of power sharing, paid creativity, and equal opportunities for everyone. As Starknet L2 gradually becomes the first protocol to support both Bitcoin and Ethereum settlements, it is necessary to discuss this vision: how this vision has guided us to where we are today; why we believe the Bitcoin network can help us achieve this vision.

The limitations of the current digital world are obvious: funds, data, and power are concentrated in the hands of a few, making it difficult for the majority to obtain opportunities and participation rights, resulting in insufficient diversity, lack of creativity, and innovation vitality in the entire Internet. This is not the original intention of the Internet. However, as with the development trajectory of many things, we often choose to turn a blind eye to the problem because we are accustomed to the status quo, until cracks appear in the system and we are shocked to realize the problem.

The Rise of Digital Gold

The financial crisis of 2008 was such a moment of system collapse. We have seen the limitations of the traditional financial system at a painful cost: the inability to establish absolute trust in financial institutions, and we also realize the urgent need for a mechanism that allows everyone to independently control their assets. So, Bitcoin was born.

Bitcoin was born in 2009, opening a long-envisioned but unrealized financial new era. For the first time, we have a truly global currency system - no need for intermediaries, no need for traditional bank accounts, free from government intervention and policy regulation. This community-driven monetary system is open to everyone regardless of wealth, social status, or nationality.

As with many emerging technologies, Bitcoin encountered technical bottlenecks and negative impacts caused by malicious actors in its early days, which double-constrained the popularization of Bitcoin. Slow transaction speeds, complex user experiences, limited token use cases, and the early labeling as 'mostly used for illegal activities' have all become obstacles to Bitcoin's development. Therefore, although Bitcoin has been well known to the public, it has never been able to break through the mainstream market, nor has it been able to unleash its full potential to change the world.

The birth of global public infrastructure

Six years after the birth of Bitcoin, another important player in the blockchain field emerged. Unlike Bitcoin, which simply focuses on monetary properties, Ethereum aims to establish a global public infrastructure platform where people can create various decentralized applications ranging from monetary systems to identity authentication and governance mechanisms. In a sense, Ethereum is a global computer. However, like Bitcoin, Ethereum was initially limited by its own technological bottlenecks: complex user experiences, new conceptual frameworks, and a completely new programming language all restricted the initial popularity of Ethereum.

As of today, although there are many L1, L2, and L3 projects emerging in the market, Bitcoin and Ethereum are still the largest and most influential projects in the Web3 space. They are also the most hopeful key forces to popularize this world-changing technology to everyone. And this is exactly where Starknet comes into play.

Achieve Web3 scalability

Although Starknet was initially deployed on Ethereum, it is not only for Ethereum. Starknet aims to use STARK proof technology to provide scaling solutions for any blockchain, creating a secure and trustworthy digital world through complete verifiability. From the beginning of the project, we have envisioned that this possibility is equally applicable to the Bitcoin network. After years of research and exploration, we finally have the ability to put this vision into practice.

Starknet is building the necessary infrastructure and establishing corresponding partnerships, marking not only significant progress but also exciting developments. Perhaps even more anticipated is the new possibilities this step will bring and its significant implications for the entire digital world.

The New Cornerstone of the Digital World

By supporting developers to build applications that settle on both the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks using the same code, we will significantly expand the application scenarios of Bitcoin and make Ethereum's digital commons more inclusive through faster transactions, higher scalability, and lower costs. Developers will have the freedom to choose between the two major blockchains for the first time, allowing them to flexibly leverage the advantages of Ethereum and Bitcoin according to specific application scenarios.

Satoshi Nakamoto's original vision was to build a large-scale, peer-to-peer payment system that operates without centralized institutions, a vision that has yet to be fully realized. By introducing STARK proof technology into the Bitcoin network, we are helping to fully realize this technological blueprint. This will trigger a huge revolution in financial inclusion and accessibility, open up new markets, and lay a solid foundation for reshaping the digital world. All of this not only aligns closely with Satoshi Nakamoto's original vision but also with the ideals that the Starknet Foundation has always pursued.

Today, we are at the forefront of this exciting revolution, and Starknet is leading the way.