Starknet Update: Airdrop & Growth Challenges

Introduction

The Starknet protocol took centre stage a few months back with the long-awaited distribution of its native token, STRK, via an airdrop. Early adopters were rewarded with over 700 million STRK out of the allocated 1.8 billion, resulting in a surge of activity and valuation for the previously illiquid asset.

However, if you’re remotely involved in the crypto space, you would know that the launch didn't go as smoothly as planned. Due to inconsistencies in the calculation process, some recipients received millions of tokens more than others. This led to immediate sell-offs by some holders, causing a sharp decline in STRK prices. Despite this initial setback, Starknet has since moved ahead with significant advancements and developments.

Growing TVL But Faltering Price

Starknet's Total Value Locked (TVL) has surged to an impressive $1 billion, marking a remarkable 600% increase since its deployment. This impressive growth has positioned Starknet as a formidable contender in the Layer-2 space, closely following giants like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Manta in terms of liquidity depth. However, the outlook for Starknet's native token is less optimistic. At the time of writing, the token has experienced a significant decline of approximately 60% from its all-time high of $3.66.

Nonetheless, the protocol’s technical outlook remains promising, with its team gearing up to introduce a new design feature called "parallelization." This feature, which is one of the reasons behind Solana’s ability to facilitate fast and cost-effective transactions, is expected to further enhance Starknet's capabilities.

Aims for Superior Performance

The parallelization feature, also commonly referred to as "multitasking for rollups”, is slated to be rolled out in the second quarter as part of an upgrade. The enhancement will empower Starknet to handle a larger volume of transactions concurrently, leading to enhanced throughput and quicker L2 finality.

Speaking on parallelization, Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO of StarkWare was quoted as saying:

“It's like a subway station with one entrance point tackling congestion by opening more entrances”.

The team believes that by addressing existing bottlenecks, this new feature will facilitate faster and more efficient transaction processing on the network. Furthermore, Starknet appears to be strategically targeting specific areas such as gaming to bolster its overall potential.

Starknet Eyes Crypto Gaming

The Starknet Foundation has recently formed a Gaming Committee to enhance its gaming ecosystem. This six-member committee comprises representatives from the Starknet Foundation, Starkware (the primary company behind Starknet), and various gaming and Web3 organizations such as Unstoppable Games, Focus Tree, Cartridge, and Loot Realms.

The committee's primary objective is to create programs that will entice developers from the interactive entertainment sector. To support this initiative, the Starknet Foundation has committed 50 million STRK tokens to fund proposals aimed at strengthening the gaming ecosystem.

Still an Uphill Journey

While Starkent is leaving no stone unturned to become the de facto L2 network on Ethereum, it’s facing the perils of becoming one. On April 5th, Starknet faced a significant outage during which no new blocks were generated for four long hours.

In response, Starknet issued an official statement detailing that a rounding error bug was responsible for the block reorganization, which led to a transaction backlog. Although block production resumed as normal, the backlog prevented the network from operating at full capacity.

Conclusion

In the past few months, Starknet's journey has been nothing short of a rollercoaster ride of high expectations, significant achievements, and noteworthy challenges. With a rapidly growing TVL and several ambitious plans for protocol enhancements, Starknet seems to be positioning itself for greater scalability and efficiency. While more challenges undoubtedly lie ahead, the Starknet Foundation’s resilience and determination might pave the way for a promising future in the ever-evolving landscape of blockchain technology.