Overview
- strkBTC, which went live Tuesday, lets users switch between public transfers and a shielded mode that hides sender, receiver, and amount using STARK proofs.
- A five-member federation oversees minting and redemptions, with NEAR Protocol running the bridge that locks BTC on Bitcoin and releases tokens on Starknet.
- Holders can share viewing keys with an independent auditor for selective disclosure, giving regulators or counterparties account access without exposing activity to the public.
- On-ramps come from Atomiq and Garden for BTC and WBTC, and wallets Xverse and Ready X support private transfers inside the new standard.
- Compared with Bitcoin-native privacy like Silent Payments, which hides only the receive address on Bitcoin itself, Starknet’s approach hides balances and transfers off-chain but depends on bridges and a small federation.