StarkWare CEO responds to criticism surrounding Starknet's STRK token airdrop

Despite many mixed opinions from the cryptocurrency community, StarkWare still maintains the Starknet STRK token allocation plan.

StarkWare CEO responds to criticism surrounding Starknet's STRK token airdrop

Starknet unlocks 13% of the total STRK supply just 2 months after the airdrop

As reported by Coin68, on February 14, the layer-2 solution on Ethereum wasStarknetdetails have been announcedairdrop event of 700 million STRK tokensfor early users and members who have contributed to the development of the project. The airdrop date is February 20, 2024.

However, many crypto users, after learning that they did not meet the conditions to receive the airdrop, turned to criticize Starknet for setting too high standards, as well as "excessively" favoring the programmers instead of the developers. Early users spent hundreds of dollars but received nothing in return, while developers only needed to make small contributions such as fixing spelling errors to receive an airdrop.

The conflict intensified when someone pointed out STRK's token unlocking schedule. Accordingly, in April 2024, just 2 months after the airdrop, Starknet will release up to 13% of the total token supply to the development team and investors, meaning that the circulating token supply at that time will be reduced. will increase 3 times.Based on STRK's current early trading price, the above tokens will be worth up to 2.15 billion USD. Unlocking tokens too early has caused many people to worry that there will be enormous selling pressure.

Normally, the tokens of the project and investors will be locked within 1 year from the time of token issuance (TGE), to reduce selling pressure as well as confirm long-term commitment. However, in the case of Starknet, the project chose the TGE time in November 2022, when STRK's smart contract is deployed. By November 2023, Starknet announcedMoving the token unlocking time for investors and team to April 2024because at that time the token was not ready yet.

However, the cryptocurrency community felt "cheated" because of Starknet's above TGE calculation, saying that the project was not transparent and clear. By timing TGE so long ago, Starknet essentially shortened the waiting time for tokens to be unlocked, resulting in investors and projects being able to receive funds just 2 months after the airdrop event.

Amid the tension, many people have "dug up" a statement previously made by a Starknet developer, claiming that the project does not owe users anything but must constantly ask for airdrops, and at the same time call them are "beggars". The director then had toPost an apology to the communitybecause of his impulsive statements.

Another user pointed out StarkWareraised capital up to 225 million USD at a valuation of 8 billion USDin the past, but still need to push up the unlocking schedule for the development team.CEO StarkWare gave an explanation to the community

In an interview with Decrypt , CEO Eli Ben-Sasson of StarkWare (the developer of Starknet), admitted that STRK's allocation mechanism is unlike common projects in the cryptocurrency industry. Even so, the CEO refused to change the allocation plan to appease the community. He said:

“The unlock schedule for the development team and investors is an area where we do not follow the usual standards. But at Starknet, the way we build is different from other projects and therefore evaluate things from a different perspective.”

Mr. Ben-Sasson said having a long lockup period is designed to increase credibility in the developer behind the airdrop. But there are still other factors that represent that trust, and the StarkWare CEO is confident that what Starknet has done in the past has affirmed the seriousness and what the project can achieve in the long run. term.

Mr. Ben-Sassnon added:

“Let's directly address the most prominent issue right now. What people are concerned about is whether the developers of StarkWare and Starknet will continue to accompany the project and build it wholeheartedly in the next 3 months or 1 year. Let me make this official statement, as CEO of StarkWare, that the sole goal of StarkWare's 150-person team going forward will be solely to continue expanding Starknet.”

The CEO also gave the example of himself resigning his professor position at a famous university in Israel to work for StarkWare, and has no intention of returning to his old job.

Regarding the scenario where investors in Starknet will sell tokens as soon as they are unlocked, Mr. Eli Ben-Sasson believes that sooner or later it will happen. Starknet has decided to shorten the token unlocking time because it believes that investors deserve to be rewarded for supporting the project from the early days, as well as not placing too much risk on the project team taking advantage of it. Token allocation mechanism for private gain. He concluded:

“There should not be any unnecessary delay in token unlocking as we are confident that we will continue to be with Starknet for a long time.”