Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin invested in zkEVM network development firm Kakarot Labs in a seed round. Kakarot zkEVM will enable teams to build and deploy Ethereum compatible applications.
Vitalik Buterin invested in ZkEVM project on StarkNet
Kakarot Labs, a zkEVM network development firm, has successfully completed its pre-seed funding round with the participation of Vitalik Buterin and the founders of StarkWare. Kakarot zkEVM is an Ethereum-compatible network written in Cairo, the computational programming language for StarkWare. Protocols and applications built on StarkNet, as well as the entire StarkWare ecosystem use Cairo.
According to the project’s announcement on June 1, Kakarot zkEVM will enable teams to build and deploy Ethereum-compatible applications. Developers will be able to use Solidity, the language of Ethereum. Kakarot will also support interactions between protocols in StarkNet.
We have powered up and entered Super Saiyan mode⚡. Kakarot Labs has officially been incorporated and closed a pre-seed round with top-tier investors.
Let’s unpack our vision, current standing, and the exciting future ahead. 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/VI8QRdPLfw
— Kakarot zkEVM (@KakarotZkEvm) June 2, 2023
Project development roadmap
The development roadmap of the project in question consists of three stages. Initially, Kakarot will run as Starknet Tier 2. The purpose of this phase is to bring EVM to StarkNet and help expand the network’s ecosystem. Next, Kakarot will collaborate with Madara to build the Tier 3 zkEVM, which aims to lower transaction fees and increase scalability through rollup technology.
cryptocoin.com As you follow, Zero-Knowledge Rollup technology has recently received a lot of attention from the cryptocurrency community. Even Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, emphasized the importance of zk-SNARK technology at the EDCON 2023 conference in May. Moreover, the young engineer also mentioned zk-Stark in a 2017 post as a younger sibling that helped to overcome the shortcomings of zk-SNARKs.
However, Vitalik Buterin also stressed that building both zk-Stark and zk-SNARKs requires significant time. The zk-Stark ecosystem, introduced since 2017, still remains relatively modest compared to other scaling solutions like Optimistic Rollup. According to DefiLlama, the Total Locked Value (TVL) on StarkNet is only $11 million. Besides, it represents only 0.5% compared to Arbitrum.
What will be the contribution of the project to the ecosystem?
Within the project, Kakarot will act as a bridge between zkEVM’s ecosystem and Ethereum. Thus, the team hopes to attract more developers and capital to StarkNet. Previously, non-EVM projects have also developed layers compatible with Ethereum for similar purposes, such as Near’s Aurora or Solana’s Neon.
With the completion of the pre-seed funding round and ambitious roadmap, Kakarot Labs aims to contribute to the growth of the Ethereum ecosystem and provide developers with a powerful platform to build decentralized applications. Adoption of Zero-Knowledge Rollup technology continues to expand. That is why the role of projects like Kakarot zkEVM is becoming more and more vital in the evolution of Blockchain networks.
