Should Starknet Leave Ethereum? Voters Back Post-Quantum L1 Research at 93.52%

3,200 Votes on One Question

Should Starknet leave Ethereum (ETH)? The network’s community has now answered, and emphatically. A week-long governance vote asking whether Starknet should research an independent, post-quantum layer-1 blockchain closed on Thursday, October 22, with roughly 3,200 votes cast. The result, recorded on the public vote registry of the Starknet governance portal, shows 93.52% of voting power in favor of exploring the transition, leaving roughly 6.5% of participating power opposed or withheld. The registry lists the proposal under Starknet’s governance namespace, so anyone can verify the tallies on-chain. Although the poll is non-binding, StarkWare says it drew the highest participation in the network’s governance history, and the company abstained entirely to leave the decision with the community. What the outcome authorizes is research, not a move. StarkWare and the Starknet (STRK) Foundation may now study what an independent L1 would look like, while any actual departure from Ethereum would require a separate, binding vote that has not yet been scheduled. Until such a vote passes, Starknet continues to operate as an Ethereum layer-2 network, as it does today. StarkWare first put the idea forward on October 8, when it posted the question on the network’s community forum in deliberately blunt terms: should Starknet become an independent, post-quantum L1? The phrasing turned an engineering debate about security dependence into the widest consultation the network has run. Starknet already uses hash-based STARK proofs and supports programmable accounts that can adopt post-quantum signatures designed to keep private keys safe against a future quantum computer. Its bridge and data availability infrastructure, however, remain tied to Ethereum’s own upgrade timeline, and closing that gap is what this vote addressed. COINOTAG followed the ballot from the start, when the seven-day vote went live on October 15 with the same question attached.

STRK Stays While Research Begins

The outcome allows StarkWare and the Starknet (STRK) Foundation to stand up a working group that will examine the proposed transition and draft more detailed technical proposals. The proposal on the Starknet forum also fixes several parameters of any future move: STRK would remain the network’s native token, no new token is planned, and existing bridge protocol connections between Starknet and Ethereum would stay open. For STRK holders, the immediate readout is stability: the token they hold does not change, no migration or swap is planned, and the routes for moving assets in both directions keep functioning. StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson set the pace for the research. “We’re beginning work on a whitepaper even before we start the weekend, and hope to release a draft for public scrutiny in November,” he said. In June, StarkWare laid out a three-phase quantum-resistance roadmap covering cryptographic upgrades, smart-contract migration and the infrastructure Starknet (STRK) shares with Ethereum. A sufficiently capable quantum computer could eventually break the elliptic-curve cryptography that secures most blockchain signatures today, which is why hash-based schemes such as STARK are already considered quantum-resistant. StarkWare’s Quantum Hub reports that it has already processed a transaction on Starknet’s live network using technology built to withstand quantum attacks, though it remains experimental and has not yet undergone a security audit. An exit would also move where Starknet’s data availability lives, a structural question the working group must resolve before any binding proposal could be drafted. Ben-Sasson has set a 2027 target for making Starknet quantum-resistant, ahead of Ethereum’s own projected timeline. “Ethereum’s target of 2029 to become quantum-safe is too late, and deadlines slip,” he said. The sequencing now runs: a whitepaper draft in November, technical proposals from the working group after that, and only then, potentially, the binding vote that would decide whether Starknet departs from Ethereum (ETH).

The Exit Question Stays Open

COINOTAG’s read: this week’s result is a mandate for a paper, not a fork. Record turnout gives StarkWare cover to fund the research, yet nothing on-chain changes for STRK holders, whose token and bridge routes are untouched. The market has not priced an exit either: our earlier coverage recorded STRK sliding 15.1% in 24 hours from the $0.1265 October peak, and STRK technical analysis still frames the token in a pullback rather than a breakout. The untested, unaudited state of the quantum technology behind the plan argues for DYOR discipline among holders. The decisive question, whether research becomes an actual departure from Ethereum, now waits on a binding vote nobody has scheduled.