Ethereum Merge was 'executed flawlessly,' says Starkware co-founder

Published at: Sept. 29, 2022

As the dust settled over the Ethereum network’s highly-anticipated transition to proof-of-stake (PoS), Eli Ben-Sasson, the co-founder of Starkware, gave his thoughts on its execution and potential for the future.

Speaking to Cointelegraph’s Gareth Jenkinson at the Token2049 event, Ben-Sasson shared his thoughts on the current situation post-Merge and how it affects layer-2 projects like Starkware. In addition to that, the executive also gave his thoughts on the adoption and interest for layer-2 products and the crypto winter.

Looking back at the Ethereum Merge’s execution, Ben-Sasson rejoiced that the transition was flawless and said things happened as they should. The executive explained that:

“The most important thing is that it was executed flawlessly. Everything that was supposed to happen did happen. And none of the things that people were worried about did happen. And that's terrific news.”

Additionally, the executive also highlighted the importance of the new Ethereum network being better for the environment. “It reduces the carbon footprint. That's the big thing, and it also bodes very well for the potential of future improvements,” he said.

According to Ben-Sasson, the Merge also makes Ethereum a better settlement layer and a more friendly platform for layer-2 solutions. The executive highlighted that this is a very important development for their products at Starkware as they could then offer scaling, compression of computation and other improvements that their technology can deliver.

Apart from the Ethereum Merge, Ben-Sasson also shared that most of the adoption and interest in Starkware solutions are with projects that were also successful in the layer-1 Ethereum. This includes nonfungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain gaming and decentralized finance (DeFi). In addition to that, the executive shared his expectations for the future. He said that:

“I expect that at some point, the ability to run much more massive computation with very low gas footprint will lead to completely new and unforeseen applications that are going to be far more important.”

With everything that’s happening, the executive also shared his belief that despite many people describing the crypto and blockchain space’s current situation as a crypto winter, their team feels different. “We feel it as spring towards the balmy summer,” he said.