# StarkWare Development and Ecosystem Updates

**Published:** 2026-06-12T22:41:32.155Z  
**Topic:** Starknet  
**Sentiment:** neutral  
**Publisher:** TrendWatcher — https://www.trendwatcher.in/article/b626fea5-d512-410b-a69e-7047b7f853b6

StarkWare continues to advance its blockchain scaling technology through new cryptographic provers and Bitcoin research, following previous growth efforts.

StarkWare, a developer of layer-2 blockchain scaling systems, has remained active in the technology sector through various partnerships and research initiatives [1, 2, 3]. While the provided sources detail the company's ongoing technical developments, they do not contain information regarding a 30% reduction in the firm's workforce.

**Key takeaways**
* StarkWare is collaborating with Chainlink Labs to integrate price feeds into the StarkNet ecosystem to support application development [1].
* The company unveiled "Stwo," a new cryptographic prover designed to increase transaction speeds and lower costs for users [3].
* StarkWare researchers recently contributed to a paper outlining a method for implementing "covenants" on the Bitcoin blockchain without requiring a soft fork [2].
* The firm previously reached an $8 billion valuation during a funding round [1].

## Advancing Scaling and Cryptographic Research
StarkWare has focused on expanding the capabilities of its StarkNet ecosystem through strategic infrastructure integrations. The company joined Chainlink’s SCALE program, an arrangement that allows StarkNet tokens to cover operating costs for oracle nodes, thereby providing developers with more affordable access to data feeds [1]. According to StarkWare co-founder and President Eli Ben-Sasson, this partnership is intended to enable a new generation of scalable Web3 applications [1].

In addition to its work on Ethereum scaling, the firm has pursued research into Bitcoin programmability. StarkWare researchers Victor Kobolov and Avihu Levy co-authored a paper titled "ColliderScript: Covenants in Bitcoin via 160-bit hash collisions" alongside other industry developers [2]. The research suggests that implementing covenants—which could unlock new wallet and vault features—might be feasible on Bitcoin today without the need for a soft fork [2]. While some developers, such as BitVM contributor Robin Linus, noted that the current method is computationally intensive and not yet practical, he described the underlying concept as an "ingenious" idea [2].

## Technical Upgrades to Prover Technology
StarkWare continues to refine its core scaling technology, most recently announcing the development of a new cryptographic prover named "Stwo" [3]. Provers are essential components for layer-2 networks because they generate the proofs necessary to link networks and share security with a base layer [3]. By building upon the open-source "Stone" prover, the company aims to make transaction processing faster and more efficient [3]. The new prover will also incorporate "Circle STARKs," a cryptographic protocol announced in collaboration with Polygon, which is designed to further optimize proof generation for zero-knowledge rollups [3].

## Why it matters
StarkWare’s recent activities reflect a broader industry push to enhance the programmability and efficiency of major blockchains like Ethereum and Bitcoin [2, 3]. By developing faster provers and exploring new ways to add features to existing networks without complex upgrades, the firm seeks to lower costs and improve user experience across decentralized applications [2, 3]. The company’s trajectory remains centered on these technical milestones as it continues to build out its scaling infrastructure [1, 3].

## Sources
1. CoinDesk — [StarkWare Partnering With Chainlink for StarkNet Growth](https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/02/06/starkware-partnering-with-chainlink-for-starknet-growth)
2. CoinDesk — [Bitcoin Developers Working With StarkWare, Blockstream Claim Breakthrough on New Features](https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/11/07/bitcoin-developers-working-with-starkware-blockstream-claim-breakthrough-on-covenants)
3. CoinDesk — [StarkWare Unveils New 'Stwo' Cryptographic Prover That's 'Blazingly Fast'](https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/02/29/starkware-unveils-new-stwo-cryptographic-prover-thats-blazingly-fast)
4. Business Insider — [Layer-2 Blockchain Developer StarkWare Plans ‘Cairo’ to Verify Layer-3s](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/layer-2-blockchain-developer-starkware-plans-cairo-to-verify-layer-3s-1033047930)

---
Cite as: TrendWatcher, "StarkWare Development and Ecosystem Updates", https://www.trendwatcher.in/article/b626fea5-d512-410b-a69e-7047b7f853b6