Overview
- strkBTC went live on Starknet on Tuesday, May 12, offering a choice between standard public transfers and a privacy mode.
- In shielded mode, STARK proofs verify transactions while hiding the sender, receiver, and amount from public view.
- A five-member federation oversees minting and redemptions, with NEAR handling the bridge and Atomiq and Garden supplying BTC and WBTC routes.
- Users can share viewing keys for audits, and Starknet routes those keys to an independent third‑party auditor.
- The launch follows a broader shift to build Bitcoin privacy in adjacent systems like Liquid, WBTC with RAILGUN, Fedimint, and Cashu rather than changing Bitcoin’s base layer.