Starknet Stirs Airdrop Hopes with Approval of STRK for Fees

• Starknet has approved an update to support STRK tokens for transaction fees.
• The move has stirred anticipation of a token distribution to users.
• The Starknet Foundation revealed some details of a STRK token distribution in December 2023.

With the crypto market again seeing favorable tailwinds amid expected macroeconomic shifts and excitement over a potential Bitcoin ETF , many have tipped 2024 as a big year for airdrops as projects spurn out in the bear market seek to ride the general market excitement.

Among the projects speculators are watching is Starknet, a zero-knowledge-powered Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution developed by Starkware. While the project already launched its token, STRK, on the Ethereum network in November 2022, these tokens have yet to be transferable or tradable. Since the token launch, there has been speculation that Starknet would eventually reward early and active users. While the project confirmed these speculations in December 2023, it failed to give a timeline.

However, the project has now stoked anticipation of a near distribution following the approval of a proposal to allow the use of STRK for transaction fees on the network.

Starknet’s STRK Airdrop Near?

Starknet will implement the Alpha version 13.0 update on its mainnet on Wednesday, January 10, following the conclusion of a recent vote that saw support from 99.86% of delegates.

The update would introduce support for transaction fee payments in STRK in addition to ETH, which is already in use on the blockchain. At the same time, developers contend it would also introduce changes to reduce transaction fees by 25 to 50%.

With the proposal’s passing, calls for the STRK token distribution have intensified, with some users speculating that it could come at the end of January 2024 or the beginning of February 2024. Starknet has yet to give any credence to these claims.

What Starknet Has Revealed About the STRK Airdrop

In December 2023, the Starknet Foundation revealed that it intended to allocate 900 million of the total 10 billion STRK token supply “to reward past and future contributions by users and community members.” At the time, the team asserted that a “provisions committee” would distribute these tokens through multiple programs and phases.

Despite continued delays in distributing STRK to users, the Starknet Foundation has distributed some tokens to selected delegates for governance. The Starknet Foundation disclosed that these delegates include the project’s investors, early contributors excluding Starkware, a builder’s council composed of industry professionals, and delegates chosen from a pool of applicants.

STRK tokenomics allocates 50.1% of the supply to the Starknet Foundation, 32.9% to core contributors, and 17% to Starkware and the project’s investors.

On the Flipside 

• Despite the v13.0 upgrade, using STRK tokens for transaction fees is still impossible until they are made transferable later.
• There is still no clear timeline for the STRK token distribution.
• It is hard to value the STRK token airdrop as it is still not tradable.
• Starknet announced a 50 million STRK distribution to early contributors, excluding those in the U.S., in October 2023.

Why This Matters

The Starknet airdrop remains one of the most anticipated of 2024. Other Layer 2 token distributions like Arbitrum have returned significant value to users, launching some into overnight wealth.

Read this for more on the STRK token:
StarkNet Deploys Its STRK Token On Ethereum (ETH) Mainnet

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