Starknet Opens Vote on Leaving Ethereum to Become a Post-Quantum L1

Starknet opened a seven-day governance poll on Thursday asking STRK holders whether the network should research leaving Ethereum to run as an independent, post-quantum layer 1. The vote is a temperature check: a "Yes" result starts research, not a transition, and no timetable for one has been published.

The poll is titled "Should Starknet become an independent post-quantum L1?" and is listed on Starknet's Snapshot space as Q3 SNF Poll 2026. It runs from Oct. 15 to Oct. 22 and gives STRK stakers and delegators three options: support further research, oppose it, or stay neutral pending more information. Results are visible as soon as the poll closes, per the governance post.

What a Yes Vote Would and Would Not Do

Per the governance post, a "Yes" starts a research effort that leads to more detailed proposals and polls. A "No" keeps Starknet's post-quantum work on its current L2 path, and "Neutral" leaves the thread open until the missing answers arrive. None of the three options authorizes a transition, and StarkWare has committed to no date for one.

The poll follows StarkWare's Oct. 8 statement that it is actively exploring an independent post-quantum L1 with greater control over its own security. The timing argument is structural: the parts of Starknet that depend on Ethereum, including its bridge and data availability, are tied to Ethereum's timeline, and an independent L1 removes that dependency, the governance post says. No timeline for that exists yet.

The Security Starknet Would Own

Starknet describes itself as a permissionless validity rollup "intended to scale Ethereum while retaining Ethereum's security and decentralization." Settling to Ethereum is what supplies that security. An independent L1 would run its own.

The network's proving layer is already ahead of most chains on this. Starknet's proofs use STARKs built on collision-resistant hash functions rather than elliptic-curve arithmetic, so the proof system itself never depended on quantum-vulnerable cryptography, per StarkWare's June 30 quantum readiness roadmap.

Two surfaces remain, and both resolve only once Ethereum migrates: the bridge's messaging layer, which uses secp syscalls, and blob data availability, anchored by a KZG commitment. StarkWare estimates that removing the secp syscalls takes about one month after Ethereum's migration, and that removing them earlier would break the bridge. The same roadmap notes that every protocol-level change needs governance approval and that no timeline is guaranteed.

What the new chain would look like is still open. No final design for consensus, data availability, bridging or migration has been published. One reply in the governance thread argues the deeper problem is decentralization, saying the current Tendermint consensus "is inadequate and must be completely overhauled."

Where STRK Holders Stand

The token does not change. The governance post is explicit:

Whatever the path, STRK is the token, with no new token. Bridges from Ethereum to Starknet will stay open.

Voting weight sits with stakers and delegators, and the result is a signal, not an instruction. An actual exit would need a separate governance process beyond this poll.

STRK traded around $0.076 to $0.078 on Thursday across major trackers, with market capitalization between roughly $570 million and $600 million, after the rally that followed StarkWare's Oct. 8 posts and a pullback since.

Starknet's stated goal is a fully quantum-resistant network by 2027. Ethereum developers set up a dedicated post-quantum team in March and are targeting initial protocol-level protections by 2029. Results from the Starknet poll land on Oct. 22, and anything past research would need another proposal and another vote.