Control profile
- Transaction ordering
- A small permissioned distributed sequencer cluster orders transactions while staking validators attest; fully permissionless sequencing is not yet live.
- Escape hatch
- Validity proofs and Ethereum data availability protect state integrity, but a permissioned proposer failure can freeze withdrawals until the proposer path recovers.
- Upgrade authority
- Regular upgrades provide roughly an eight-day notice and practical seven-day exit window. A Security Council can execute emergency upgrades without delay.
- Liveness record
- The ZK proof system prevents an invalid state transition from settling on Ethereum. The narrower operating set can still interrupt ordering or withdrawal progress, and the system remains exposed to an emergency council action without a user notice period.
Ketju assessment
APPROVED WITH LIMITS. Starknet clears the most important distinction that the instant-upgrade L2s do not: a normal upgrade is announced early enough for a user to exit under the prior rules. Ethereum data availability and validity proofs further constrain what a sequencer can do. The limit is material, not cosmetic. Sequencing and proposing remain permissioned, emergency council action is immediate, and the maturity grade depends on reproducible source and verifier guarantees that require continuous monitoring.
Observable review triggers
- L2BEAT removes Stage 1 status or records a reproducibility-based maturity downgrade
- The regular-upgrade exit window falls below 7 days
- The Security Council threshold is lowered
- A proposer outage freezes withdrawals for more than 12 hours
These triggers make the judgment monitorable. They are not predictions; each identifies a fact that would revoke or force review of the current assessment.
Advisor implementation questions
- Does the client’s thesis require censorship resistance, or primarily low-cost settlement?
- Can the client exit without cooperation from the normal transaction-ordering party?
- Who can upgrade bridges or contracts, and what delay applies?
- Does the asset introduce an issuer weaker than the chain grade?
- What evidence will show a halt, censorship event, or governance change?
Research sources
- Starknet Documentation — Protocol introduction — validity proofs, sequencing, Ethereum settlement
- Starknet — Security Council — emergency authority, council design
- L2BEAT — Starknet — Stage 1, upgrade delay, withdrawal failure mode
Sources were accessed 2026-08-19. Primary documents and measured control conditions can change; the review triggers above govern off-cycle reassessment.