Key Takeaways:
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Starknet is a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum and they are launching a STARK token that could be valuable.
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Interacting with the protocol through the Argent X wallet, StarkGate, dApps, StarkFighter games, and DEXs increase chances of receiving a larger airdrop.
Starknet and the Starknet Token
Starknet is a Layer 2 technology that scales Ethereum securely using zero-knowledge rollups, making transactions more private, cheaper and faster while maintaining Ethereum’s Layer 1 security amongst other smart contract features.
The network has been around since their in-house STARK (Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge) software stack, a proof system, went live on Ethereum mainnet in June 2020. Since then, StarkWare, the team behind Starknet, has gone through multiple rounds of fundraising, and is now valued at $8 billion.
Following this success, the team announced that there will be launching a Starknet token on 13 July, 2022.
#StarkNet Alpha was launched on Ethereum Mainnet in November 2021.
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Now it’s time to advance its decentralization as demanded of an L2 on Ethereum.
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Here’s our decentralization proposal, introducing the StarkNet Token, and the StarkNet Foundationhttps://t.co/zk33gANsin pic.twitter.com/YTd0Uj5NbW— StarkWare (@StarkWareLtd) July 13, 2022
In order to further decentralize the protocol, it is possible that there will perform an airdrop to their early community supporters to reward them for their contribution, although nothing is confirmed at time of writing.
While the airdrop has yet to be confirmed, let’s take a look at how we can interact with the protocol to qualify for a potential airdrop! There will be three portions to this, the first is installing the Starknet wallet Argent X, followed by bridging funds over, and finally interacting with the various dapps that are live on mainnet. You will also need MetaMask installed.
Starknet Wallet: Argent X
In order to interact with Starknet, you will first need a wallet. The most popular right now is Argent X. Let’s take a look at how you can install the Argent X wallet.
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Install Argent X extension
Go to this Argent X on the Chrome webstore and click on ‘Add to Chrome’.
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Set up wallet
Click on ‘Create a new wallet’ on the Argent X wallet and go through each step. If you have created an account previously, you can choose ‘Restore an existing wallet’ instead.
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Your wallet is ready!
Now that you have a wallet, the next step is to send some ETH into this wallet in order to perform some activities.
Pro-tip: The amount that you hold in this Argent X wallet may also be a criteria for a potential ARGENT airdrop. Hence, the more you can hold here the better, but as always never deposit more than what you can afford to lose.
StarkGate
Starknet is the official bridge and we will send a transaction from here first (before we try third party bridges) as the chance for an airdrop using an official bridge is the highest.
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Go to StarkGate and connect with both your MetaMask wallet and Argent X.
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Input your preferred deposit amount. Any amount is fine, but the more the merrier. I recommend sending 4-6 figures worth of ETH if you can afford it, as that was a criteria for the Arbitrum airdrop, where users received points for transactions and deposits that were more than $10,000 in value.
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Once you hit ‘Transfer’, the MetaMask confirmation window will pop up.
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Check your MetaMask transaction’s gas amount: Below $10 is good, between $10-20 is normal, and above $20 you might want to wait for the ETH gas demand to drop.
Pro-tip: You can click on ‘Site suggested’ and select ‘Low’ instead. This might cause your transaction to take a long time to go through but will be cheaper if you are not in a rush.
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If the network is not congested, after a few minutes it will be sent. Finally, open your Argent X wallet to check that you actually received it. You are done!
Note: The network may be heavily congested and can take days for your deposits to go through. For withdrawals, it happens in 2 steps. The 1st step involves a waiting period of several hours, after which you will need to sign the 2nd step in order to complete the transfer.
Orbiter Finance
Now, let’s look at other bridges available.
Orbiter Finance is a cross-chain rollup bridge with a maker system that allows you to send funds and provide bridge liquidity from EVM chains to Starknet with cheaper gas fees. The team also confirmed a future Orbiter token on their Discord; here’s how to use them (and potentially qualify for an Orbiter airdrop as well).
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Input the amount you want to send over. Right now they only support sending amounts 3 ETH and below.
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Click send and check that the gas fees are acceptable. It should be less than StarkGate’s gas fees.
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Now repeat the same process using other EVM chains to cover all your bases. Pro-tip: Make regular transactions and ensure that the total volume is more than $1K.
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Now join the guild and get roles by going to https://guild.xyz/orbiter-finance. The more transactions you make, the higher your rank.
StarkFighter
Now that you have some funds in Starknet, let’s take a break to play some games!
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Go to https://starkfighter.xyz, connect your wallet and play their minigame trying to last as long as possible while avoiding asteroids!
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If you want to submit your score and leave your mark, you need a Stark ID domain. Go to https://app.starknet.id/identities to buy a domain. Starknet.id might even have an airdrop similar to ENS as well. You can adjust the “Years” to 1 to reduce the price.
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If you want a free xplorer.stark subdomain (you’ll only need to cover the gas fees), go to https://xplorer.starknet.id, type your domain name you want and click on register.
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Now go back Starkfighter and play again, you will be asked to sign a message and ‘Tweet’ to participate. Well done you are done!
Interacting with DEXs
For the final step, you want to interact with the core pillar of DeFi – DEXs! Here are the top 3 DEXs in Starknet to participate in.
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Go to JediSwap, Starknet’s leading DEX and click on “Launch App”.
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Trade some ETH into USDC, the more the merrier. Click on “Confirm” on Argent X. You will incur fees such as swap fee, gas fees, and possibly slippage when making swaps, but this can’t be avoided. As liquidity is low, it’s best to avoid large transactions. Split up your transactions if you are looking to increase your volume.
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Now that you have USDC, add ETH-USDC liquidity at this link. Type in the amount you want to add, click “Supply” and click “Confirm” on your wallet.
You are done! Now do this regularly every week on the other top DEXs to increase your airdrop chance and amount. Arbitrum required you to transactions regularly and had a volume criteria as well with the max criteria of over $100,000 in volume; hence, it is possible that Starknet has similar criteria as well.
Bonus: Argent X NFT Drops
Argent is also doing a series of NFT drops over 8 weeks to encourage users to explore Starknet. At the time of writing, they’re currently on their second NFT drop in partnership with JediSwap. To qualify, all users have to do is to perform a swap on JediSwap using their Argent X wallet on Starknet by 23:59 UTC on 23 May 2023. This means if you follow the above steps on interacting with the JediSwap DEX, you’ll qualify for the NFT drop as well as potentially improving your Starknet airdrop chances!
New NFT drop in partnership with @JediSwap, and another step towards proving your early Starknet journey.
How to get it? This is the way 👇 pic.twitter.com/ZN1gQ2vr70
— Argent (@argentHQ) May 17, 2023
Conclusion
Starknet is a highly anticipated scaling solution for Ethereum, and has been said by Vitalik Buterin as the future of Ethereum. Seeing how popular and profitable the Arbitrum airdrop is, Starknet might yield similar rewards as well.
Additionally the team behind Starknet is valued at $8 billion and have also confirmed the launch of a Starknet token. The higher the valuation of the team, the higher the valuation of its token as well. The airdrop will likely be sent to early community supporters to reward them, similar to most airdrops in the past. That said, do note that the team has not confirmed the airdrop as of time of writing.
To qualify for the potential airdrop, users need to interact with the protocol by installing the ArgentX wallet, bridging funds through StarkGate, engaging with various dapps on the network, playing games on StarkFighter, and participating in DEX trading and liquidity provision on top DEXs like Jediswap. Regular interactions and higher transaction volumes may increase the chances and amount of the airdrop.
Overall, participating in the Starknet ecosystem presents a generally low risk and high reward opportunity for users to benefit from the project’s growth and potential token distribution.