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StarkWare’s Million-Dollar Vision: Scaling Bitcoin with Zero-Knowledge Technology

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TL;DR

  • StarkWare has announced an initiative to scale Bitcoin and Ethereum using zero-knowledge (ZK) technology, backed by a $1 million research fund. The initiative aligns with Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of enabling everyday micropayments.
  • The Bitcoin community is considering a technical proposal known as OP_CAT. If approved, it could enable potential STARK scaling on the Bitcoin blockchain. StarkWare supports OP_CAT and describes it as “the safest path for Bitcoin to scale.”
  • StarkWare recently introduced a new scaling framework, ZKThreads, which could prevent trapped funds and enhance the scalability of decentralized applications.

StarkWare, a leading blockchain technology company, has announced a bold initiative to bring Bitcoin to the masses. Backed by a $1 million research fund, the company aims to use zero-knowledge (ZK) technology to scale Bitcoin and Ethereum simultaneously.

The initiative is centered around Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge (STARK) cryptography, a form of ZK technology. StarkWare’s announcement aligns with Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of enabling everyday micropayments and creating a scalable solution to support global Bitcoin transactions.

StarkNet, a recognized permissionless and decentralized rollup for Ethereum, will serve as the cornerstone for the scaling solution of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Rollups function by consolidating hundreds of thousands of transactions off-chain, and then validating them on-chain at a significantly reduced cost.

StarkWare CEO and co-inventor of cheat-proof ZK cryptography, Eli Ben-Sasson, stated in a press release, “Bitcoin today is mighty, but still a fraction of what it can be.”

Boasting a valuation of $8 billion from its latest funding round, StarkNet declared that it initiated trials of zero-knowledge proofs on Bitcoin back in March. This followed their pledge to release their technology under an open-source license.

StarkWare’s Million-Dollar Vision: Scaling Bitcoin with Zero-Knowledge Technology

The Potential of OP_CAT

The Bitcoin community is currently considering a technical proposal known as OP_CAT. If approved, it could pave the way for potential STARK scaling on the BTC blockchain. Ben-Sasson expressed StarkWare’s support for OP_CAT, describing the OP_CAT Bitcoin soft fork as “the safest path for Bitcoin to scale.”

Introducing ZKThreads

This announcement follows StarkWare’s recent introduction of a new scaling framework, ZKThreads. Louis Guthmann, head of product/market strategy at StarkWare, believes that the framework can prevent trapped funds and enhance the scalability of decentralized applications, potentially preventing a recurrence of incidents like the FTX-Alameda collapse.

StarkWare’s ambitious plans demonstrate the potential of ZK technology to unlock and benefit Bitcoin and the broader blockchain community. As the company seeks to promote research into OP_CAT, the future of Bitcoin could be on the brink of a significant transformation.

The post StarkWare’s Million-Dollar Vision: Scaling Bitcoin with Zero-Knowledge Technology appeared first on The Cryptocurrency Post.

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Aptos launches Confidential APT with encrypted balances on mainnet

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Aptos said Confidential APT is now live on mainnet, bringing opt-in encrypted balances to the network while keeping wallet addresses visible. The feature is positioned for compliant use cases including payroll, treasury and business-to-business settlement.https://twitter.com/Aptos/status/2084481961553445096

The Aptos account said transactions are verified with zero-knowledge proofs, allowing the network to confirm that transfers are valid without exposing the underlying amounts. The update is meant for users who want confidentiality for specific transfers rather than full anonymity across the network.

A separate governance page tied to the rollout shows the proposal as executed, matching Aptos’ public statement that the feature has been enabled on mainnet. The material linked from that page describes Confidential APT as part of Aptos’ on-chain privacy features.

How the feature is framed on Aptos

According to Aptos, Confidential APT is opt-in, so users can still use standard transparent transfers if they prefer. The company’s framing focuses on enterprise and institutional settings where transaction amounts may need to be hidden while counterparties remain identifiable.

The launch adds a privacy layer at the transaction level, but it does not by itself indicate broader usage or adoption. It does, however, give Aptos a live mainnet mechanism for hiding balances on selected transfers.

The post Aptos launches Confidential APT with encrypted balances on mainnet appeared first on The Cryptocurrency Post.

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NEAR says Machine Payments Protocol now uses NEAR Intents for agent settlements

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NEAR Protocol said the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) from Stripe and Tempo now integrates with NEAR Intents, allowing agents on MPP to settle across more than 30 chains using NEAR infrastructure.

The update was shared by NEAR Protocol on X, where the team described the integration as live and pointed readers to public SDK and documentation for the payment method. The announcement frames NEAR Intents as part of the settlement layer for agent payments rather than as a standalone consumer product.

Settlement across multiple chains

According to the post, the integration gives any agent using MPP a way to settle payments across 30-plus chains. The announcement did not add further technical detail in the post itself, but it did direct users to the public documentation for the NEAR payment method.

MPP, or Machine Payments Protocol, is designed for programmatic payments between software agents and services. In this case, NEAR is presenting Intents as the mechanism that helps route those settlements across chains through its infrastructure.

The timing and scope of the change were stated by NEAR Protocol itself, which makes the integration the central confirmed development. The announcement did not include a broader rollout timeline, usage data or terms for availability beyond the public SDK and docs link.

What NEAR is highlighting

The key change is not a new token feature or a market-facing launch, but a payment-routing integration aimed at agent settlements. That places NEAR Intents inside an emerging category of machine-to-machine payment infrastructure, where the practical value depends on whether developers adopt it for real transactions.

For now, the confirmed claim is narrower: NEAR says MPP can now use its Intents system for cross-chain settlement, and the public documentation is available for developers who want to build around it.

The post NEAR says Machine Payments Protocol now uses NEAR Intents for agent settlements appeared first on The Cryptocurrency Post.

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NEAR AI says IronClaw 1.0 is now deployed as part of July shipments

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NEAR Protocol said its July shipments included NEAR staking for NEAR AI compute going live and the launch of IronClaw 1.0 on mainnet, marking a new step in the project’s AI and agent-related rollout. In a blog post announcing IronClaw 1.0, NEAR AI said the release is deployed across NEAR Foundation and NEAR AI.

The official recap also grouped the updates with broader AI and agent infrastructure changes, suggesting the deployments were part of a wider set of July deliveries rather than a standalone launch. That framing matters for readers tracking the project’s product pace: the post presents staking and IronClaw as live components, not as plans or test-stage features.

What NEAR said changed

According to the recap shared by NEAR Protocol, NEAR staking for NEAR AI compute is now live. The same update says IronClaw 1.0 has launched on mainnet, adding an additional deployment milestone to the project’s AI stack.

A separate post from a member of the project community also pointed to staking mechanics for NEAR AI compute and IronClaw hosting, but the clearest public confirmation in the material comes from NEAR’s own recap and the IronClaw 1.0 announcement.

The available information does not spell out all operational details of the deployments in one place, but it does make one thing clear: NEAR is presenting both the compute staking component and IronClaw 1.0 as active releases rather than future roadmap items.

The post NEAR AI says IronClaw 1.0 is now deployed as part of July shipments appeared first on The Cryptocurrency Post.

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