Starknet to hand over 10% of network fees to devs, $3.5M in initial distribution
Layer-2 network Starkware and the StarkNet Foundation are set to distribute 10% of network fees to developers, as part of a pilot program called “Devonomics.”
In a Dec. 12 announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Starkware CEO Yuri Kolodny said it will temporarily allocate 8% of network fees to decentralized app developers and 2% to infrastructure engineers and core developers through a clear and transparent voting process. .
“It's all about giving builders a strong voice in shaping the builder network,” says Kolodny.
The DevOnomics initiative will begin with an initial distribution covering all transaction fees accumulated from the launch of the platform until November 30, 2023.
Starkware founder Eli Ben-Sasson added that while the model could host multiple iterations, it could have a broader impact on the Ethereum ecosystem and help developers “weather” the rest of the cryptocurrency's prolonged winter:
It's a bold attempt to change the way developers think about intellectual property and monetization and ensure that they are properly rewarded for their work.
Ben-Sasson said the broader ecosystem is also seeing a “tremendous amount of blockchain brain drain,” as talented developers leave the sector due to the cryptocurrency bear market and its financial implications.
Initial distributions will be in ETH before transitioning to the Starknet management token STRK. On December 1, Cointelegraph reported that the distribution of the STRK token has not yet been completed, the foundation warns users of lies and scams related to the new L2 asset.
The new program comes at a time of increasing developer activity on the platform. According to data from Venture Electric Capital, in October, full-time developers on Starknet showed a 14% increase in blockchain projects, which showed a total decrease of 28%.
Ben-Sasson attributes this to the increase in developer numbers in the Starknet ecosystem due to the January 2023 update of the Cairo programming language.
“In a word, Cairo. In a world dominated by Solidity, the language is increasingly emerging as a compelling solution for writing smart contracts,” explains Ben Sasson.
“Its ergonomics and usability have shown great progress in 2023. Today it is attracting interest outside the STARK ecosystem – a growth not seen in statistics.”
Starkware said the initiative aims to support both established and new developers, contributing to the expansion of the Starknet ecosystem. Currently, zero-knowledge-based StarWare is the sole operator and fee collector on StarNet, but this is expected to change as the network becomes more decentralized.
Ben-Sasson also told Cointelegraph that Starknet has ambitions to have the largest number of developers in the Ethereum ecosystem. It states that a layer-2 network is more scalable and computationally efficient than any other L2 network.
“StarkNet will have orders of magnitude more than Ethereum and a lot more computation than on L1, so it could even surpass Ethereum's developer ecosystem,” said the founder of Starkware.
Related: Ethereum L2 Starknet aims to decentralize core parts of its benchmark network.
In November, Starknet outlined plans to improve the decentralization of three major parts of its encryption solution.
According to industry analytics platform L2beat, Starknet is the ninth-largest Layer-2 network with a cap on $137 million. Since the beginning of 2023, TVL has increased more than 2,600%.
Additional reporting by Gareth Jenkinson.
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