First published 21 February 2024, the day after the claim opened. Expanded in October 2026 so the token is not described as a share of StarkWare, and so a 0x string is not described as an Ethereum address. Starknet is a rollup. It executes transactions away from Ethereum and posts proofs back, rather than waiting out a challenge week the way an optimistic rollup does. StarkWare built the prover. The Starknet Foundation ran the token programme. STRK is the token. Ethereum without the jargon is the chain the proofs are posted to. What is Optimism (OP)? is the challenge-window design. STRK is not OP, and it is not ETH.
Ten billion STRK were created, minted on the chain on 30 November 2022, and only opened for a public claim on 20 February 2024. The claim ran until 20 June 2024. It is closed. The first round offered more than 700 million, inside a provisions slice of 900 million. Tokens that were not claimed went back to the programme. A site that says claim STRK, and asks for a recovery phrase, is not the foundation. A wallet signature is not a handshake.
Ten billion was the creation. Locks and mints sit around it
Investor and early-contributor tokens unlock on a monthly schedule that runs through March 2027. An unlock is coins that already existed. The protocol can also mint new STRK for staking and similar rewards. A price times 10 billion counts locked coins, and it misses a later mint. The explorer is the count. Holding STRK is not equity in StarkWare and not a claim on the foundation.
At the February 2024 launch, a user could pay the Starknet fee in STRK or in ETH. The rollup’s payment to Ethereum, for publishing data, is still ETH. The coin the wallet asks for is the setting that day. Staking STRK was described as a later step, for choosing who orders transactions. If a lock is open, the screen shows the wait. Staking is a lock and a queue, not a savings account.
A Starknet account can be written with a 0x prefix. It is not an Ethereum account. Contracts are written in a language called Cairo. This page will not walk through one. The wrong network is still the wrong city. A withdrawal to Ethereum is a bridge. A bridge is extra software, not a tunnel. Nothing here is an instruction to claim, to stake, or to buy STRK.
