BITCOIN SEASON 2: Bitcoin's Missing Piece: Zero-Knowledge Proofs

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4.7 • 698 Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Eli Ben-Sasson announces StarkNet's Bitcoin initiative: native BTC staking, 100M STRK token allocation for lending, and why zero-knowledge proofs are essential for Bitcoin to achieve Satoshi's original vision of peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries. Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder of StarkNet and Zcash, announces StarkNet's major Bitcoin news: native Bitcoin staking on StarkNet. Starknet has 100 million STRK tokens allocated for competitive Bitcoin lending rates and Bitcoin yield strategies. Eli explains why zero-knowledge proofs are the scalability solution Bitcoin needs, how StarkNet enables self-custodial Bitcoin DeFi, and why OP_CAT could be the nine lines of code that save Bitcoin from becoming just another store-of-value asset for the wealthy. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com # Notes: • Bitcoin staking now live on StarkNet • 100M STRK tokens for Bitcoin lending incentives • 500M+ STRK already staked in protocol • 21-day unstaking period for Bitcoin • $1M research fund for OP_CAT development • ZK-STARKs verify million transactions for one cost • RS7 launching Bitcoin yield strategies 00:00 Start 01:46 Bitcoin staking is now live 03:08 What is Bitcoin Staking? 06:07 History of Zero Knowledge Proofs 08:00 ZK & scaling 09:05 How scaling would work 10:57 Covenants (OPCAT, CTV) 11:55 STRK token 14:12 PoW vs PoS 16:09 Practical benefits from staking 20:26 Staking curve & rates 21:57 100M STRK tokens 24:14 Why start with lending? 25:29 Re7 Capital 28:31 Re7 function 36:08 Consensus for covenants - 👋Bitcoin Season 2 is produced Blockspace Media, Bitcoin’s first B2B publication in Bitcoin. Follow us on Twitter and check out our newsletter for the best information in Bitcoin mining, Ordinals and tech! Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here. Questions or want to sponsor? hello@blockspace.media

Transcript

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0:00.0	Starknet basically takes robust post-quantam secure scaling ZK technology and uses it in order to scale blockchains.
0:08.7	Bitcoin was built so that any two parties can interact, can transact with no third party intermediating that.
0:17.2	That is not achieved today and that is what Satoshi set out to do. And we need to reach
0:22.8	down. Jack Dorsey is saying it. A lot of people out there are saying it. You need to find a way
0:27.7	to scale it. And unfortunately, I love lightning. I love lightning. Lightning ain't it. After five,
0:34.3	seven years out there, my mom is not going to use lightning.
0:38.0	My mom can use, in fact, she does use Starknet wallets.
0:41.9	She's not going to be able to use lightning.
0:43.7	It's not going to happen.
0:44.7	Sorry.
0:45.5	Did you forget about OpCat?
0:47.6	We didn't.
0:48.6	We've got Starkware co-founder Ellie Ben Sasson back on the show this time.
0:53.7	My co-host, Will Foxley is hosting this one.
0:57.2	We're hard live at Pubkey. Ellie Talks Opcat, ZK, Bitcoin history, Bitcoin development,
1:03.6	and Starkware's Starknet on Bitcoin. Enjoy the show.
1:21.5	Hey, welcome back to Bitcoin Season 2. It's a little takeover episode. I'm joining. Normally, I'm hosting the mining pod, but Charlie's not in New York, and we have an amazing guest today.
1:27.1	Ellie, welcome to Bitcoin Season 2.
1:28.9	This is your second appearance on the show, first in person.
1:31.1	Thank you, Will.
1:31.9	Always a pleasure to be here.
1:33.6	Yeah, we're super excited for today's conversation, which is all about a new announcement
	...

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