Starknet said in a post on X on Thursday that it is actively considering becoming a Layer 1 network. According to the post, that step could make Starknet the first fully quantum-resistant network, with 2027 set as the target.
Under its own post-quantum roadmap, Starknet is currently a Layer 2 network that publishes its state data to Ethereum as blobs.
Ben-Sasson raises the idea publicly
Minutes before Starknet’s post, StarkWare co-founder and CEO Eli Ben-Sasson put the question to his followers. He asked whether Starknet becoming an L1 for post-quantum agility would be a good idea or a bad one.
He pointed to two pressures. The first was the quantum threat, which he said may be much closer than many think. The second was AI, which he said is becoming more powerful than people can process. Taken together, he wrote, the situation calls for “bunker mode.”
Ben-Sasson also listed three requirements for a chain to be future-proofed: the right cryptography, crypto agility, and becoming an L1. He said the post was tied to a talk he gave at Token2049 on Thursday.
The roadmap released on June 30
On June 30, StarkWare published a three-phase post-quantum roadmap for Starknet.
The first phase replaces Pedersen hashing with BLAKE2 across the state, chain environment, and consensus layers. It also plans consensus signatures based on post-quantum schemes such as Falcon-512.
The second phase covers the migration of existing contracts.
The third phase addresses two Starknet dependencies on Ethereum: the bridge’s messaging layer and blob data availability.
In that roadmap, StarkWare said those issues would be resolved as Ethereum’s migration progresses.
No decision on an L1 move has been announced
The June 30 roadmap did not mention turning Starknet into an L1.
It also said that all protocol-level changes to Starknet are subject to approval through the network’s governance process.
Neither Ben-Sasson’s Thursday post nor Starknet’s own post said whether a decision on the L1 idea would be made, or when such a decision might come.