Holders of STRK are voting, overwhelmingly so far, in favour of a proposal that could see Starknet separate from Ethereum and become an independent layer-1 blockchain designed to resist attacks from quantum computers. The vote, which opened on October 15 at 04:35 ART on the governance.starknet.io platform, is non-binding but marks the first formal gauge of community appetite for such a move.
Starknet currently operates as a layer-2 scalability solution for Ethereum, launched gradually from late 2021 and reaching its first implementation stage in February 2022. It functions as a rollup backed by ZK technology to cut transaction costs, and relies on STARK proofs built on hashes along with native account abstraction. Its infrastructure, however, still depends on Ethereum components for bridges and data availability.
The vote was announced by StarkWare, the development firm behind the network, as a way to measure interest among STRK holders in pursuing quantum resistance through full independence. Early results show 99.95% of preferences in favour, with more than 316.4 million votes cast for "Yes" against just 155,200, or 0.05%, opposed. Each STRK token carries one vote. The voting period closes on October 22.
The quantum question behind the proposal
The proposal is tied to concerns about the long-term security of Ethereum's current cryptographic signatures. Ethereum relies on BLS signatures, which are considered vulnerable to Shor's algorithm, a method that future quantum computers could in theory use to break them. Ethereum developers presented a draft in August 2026 for a new deposit contract intended to transition the network toward more robust algorithmic signatures, but broader layer-1 upgrades addressing the quantum risk are not expected until around 2029.
That gap appears to be the motivation behind Starknet's proposal: rather than wait for Ethereum's own migration timeline, the network's community is weighing whether to pursue quantum resistance on its own terms, as a sovereign chain.
What happens if the vote passes
Should the affirmative result hold once voting closes, the next step would be a formal research stage leading to more detailed technical proposals, rather than an immediate technical split. No new cryptocurrency would be created under the plan; STRK would remain the sole asset of the ecosystem. Communication bridges with Ethereum would also stay open, suggesting the two networks would retain some level of interoperability even if Starknet's consensus and security architecture became fully independent.
For now, the vote functions as a sentiment check rather than a binding decision. But the scale of support recorded in its early days signals that a substantial share of the Starknet community is prepared to consider a future in which the network no longer depends on Ethereum for its underlying security guarantees.
