Starknet Launches Provisions Program; Airdrop Incoming But Some Users Unhappy

In a move towards further decentralization, the Starknet Foundation has announced the launch of the first round of the Starknet Provisions Program, slated to begin on February 20, 2024.

The Starknet Provisions Program is designed to reward the individuals and groups that have been instrumental in laying the groundwork for Starknet's ecosystem. This includes a wide array of contributors such as Starknet and StarkEx users, Ethereum protocol contributors, stakers, and developers of selected non-crypto open-source projects.

The distribution process is set to commence at 12pm (UTC) on February 20, 2024, and will remain open for claims for four months. Eligibility for the program can be checked via the Provisions portal, with the Starknet Foundation covering all fees associated with claiming STRK through this official channel.

STRK tokens will serve multiple purposes within the Starknet ecosystem, including transaction fee payments, staking, and participation in governance votes, thereby shaping the protocol's future, the Starknet foundation said in a blog post yesterday.

It said the Provisions program is a step towards realizing Starknet's vision of a decentralized, scalable, and inclusive network. Starknet, a Layer 2 scaling solution, leverages STARKs (Scalable Transparent ARguments of Knowledge) to enhance Ethereum's scalability without compromising on security.

The snapshot for the airdrop was taken on November 15, 2023, and allocations range from 500 to 180,000 STRK, based on their activity levels. $STRK is currently trading at $1.68 pre-market on Aevo.

Some users unhappy

But airdrop farmers aren't happy, saying that the distribution plan's focus on developers means that their most valuable users aren't rewarded appropriately. Others, despite being active on the network, didn't have 0.005 ETH (about $14 at the time) in their wallets when the snapshot was taken (one of the qualifying criteria).

"400+ txns, $100k+ vol, active 14 months, 150+ contracts, completed starknet quests, but 0 stark," said a user on Twitter/X. "Starknet re-confirmed the belief of mine that #Airdrop farming anything $ETH-L2-related is not a worthwhile time/investment decision," user CryptoCurb replied.

Since the beginning of 2023, Starknet has seen its total value locked surge from under $1 million to around $58 million, according to DefiLlama data.