StarkWare Plans to Scale Bitcoin Network with ZK Technology

The Starknet team has unveiled a plan to expand the scalability of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

StarkWare plans to scale the Bitcoin network using ZK technology

Specifically, following the significant attention garnered by the OP_CAT proposal within the Bitcoin community, StarkWare has identified this as an opportune moment to introduce Zero-Knowledge (ZK) technology to the ecosystem.

Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO and co-founder of StarkWare, shared:

"Starknet will be the first network to settle transactions simultaneously on both Bitcoin and Ethereum, expanding Bitcoin's scalability to thousands of transactions per second. This plan is set to materialize within 6 months after the OP_CAT upgrade on Bitcoin is implemented. We won't need to deploy a new network, and DApps will be able to choose network infrastructures for transaction settlement."
In parallel, StarkWare has also announced a $1 million development fund for researchers looking to contribute to this initiative.

StarkWare noted that while Bitcoin was not previously fully ready to integrate STARK verification mechanisms, Ethereum was ready at that time. However, following the Taproot upgrade in November 2021, Bitcoin has become prepared to scale and support low-cost payment formats.

It should also be noted that contract pattern discussions on Bitcoin have been ongoing for many years, exemplified by mechanisms such as Check Template Verify (CTV), OP_CHECKSIGFROMSTACK (CSFS), and LNHANCE since 2013. OP_CAT was one of Bitcoin's initial opcodes. However, this opcode was deactivated by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto in 2010 due to security concerns.

OP_CAT is seen as a foundational proposal for contract pattern applications on Bitcoin. From here, applications such as transaction reversals, financial value storage apps, automated payments, and bond trading can be conveniently developed.

Recently, a proposal to reintroduce OP_CAT through a soft fork has been announced by authors Ethan Heilman and Armin Sabouri.

The proposal states that OP_CAT will simplify Bitcoin's feature set, support the development of decentralized protocols, and multi-signature mechanisms.

Despite vigorous community debate over risks during OP_CAT deployment, Ben-Sasson remains optimistic in his assessments and explains the purpose of the application development fund is to explore potential risks associated with this proposal. StarkWare commented:

"OP_CAT will provide a framework on Bitcoin, suitable for integrating scalability mechanisms through STARK. This Zero-Knowledge proof mechanism verifies large-scale computational tasks without excessive resource consumption or revealing detailed information in the data."
Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, OP_CAT remains a controversial proposal receiving diverse opinions, with many alternative approaches potentially offering similar benefits. When asked about this issue, Ben-Sasson stated:

"We are still open to supporting other great initiatives. However, the level of personal custody and scalability potential of these approaches varies. Nevertheless, we want to see a more comprehensive future, where the largest networks are maximized and stable. That's what makes this new proposal special. Starknet will provide greater bandwidth. This will enable applications for everything to be developed directly on the Bitcoin platform."
Previously, StarkWare confirmed its involvement in supporting several Bitcoin projects such as ZeroSync (a ZK Proof integration solution with Bitcoin for transaction scalability). Additionally, the company is conducting research to potentially integrate Validity Rollups into the Bitcoin network in the future.