CoinDesk Podcast Network - BITCOIN SEASON 2: Bitcoin’s Missing Piece: Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Eli Ben-Sasson announces StarkNet's Bitcoin initiative: native BTC staking, 100M STRK token allocation for lending, and why zero-knowledge proofs are essential for Bitcoin to achieve Satoshi's original vision of peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries.


Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder of StarkNet and Zcash, announces StarkNet's major Bitcoin news: native Bitcoin staking on StarkNet. Starknet has 100 million STRK tokens allocated for competitive Bitcoin lending rates and Bitcoin yield strategies. Eli explains why zero-knowledge proofs are the scalability solution Bitcoin needs, how StarkNet enables self-custodial Bitcoin DeFi, and why OP_CAT could be the nine lines of code that save Bitcoin from becoming just another store-of-value asset for the wealthy.

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# Notes:

• Bitcoin staking now live on StarkNet

• 100M STRK tokens for Bitcoin lending incentives

• 500M+ STRK already staked in protocol

• 21-day unstaking period for Bitcoin

• $1M research fund for OP_CAT development

• ZK-STARKs verify million transactions for one cost

• RS7 launching Bitcoin yield strategies

00:00 Start

01:46 Bitcoin staking is now live

03:08 What is Bitcoin Staking?

06:07 History of Zero Knowledge Proofs

08:00 ZK & scaling

09:05 How scaling would work

10:57 Covenants (OPCAT, CTV)

11:55 STRK token

14:12 PoW vs PoS

16:09 Practical benefits from staking

20:26 Staking curve & rates

21:57 100M STRK tokens

24:14 Why start with lending?

25:29 Re7 Capital

28:31 Re7 function

36:08 Consensus for covenants

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