Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has acknowledged a significant milestone achieved by Starknet, a Layer-2 (L2) scaling solution for Ethereum (ETH). Notably, Starknet announced its Stage 1 launch, marking the network’s official entry into decentralization. This development according to L2BEAT, a platform evaluating Ethereum L2 projects, represents Stage 1 of their three-stage framework for assessing security and decentralization. Stage 1 signifies that at least one security mechanism is in place to safeguard against fraud or ensure validity. While it marks a step towards increased trust minimization, some aspects such as upgrades and data availability continue to rely on trust assumptions. Despite this, Buterin’s endorsement of Starknet’s progress suggests his belief in the platform’s potential for a more secure and decentralized operational model. This achievement joins other top-tier L2 solutions in contributing to Ethereum’s scaling efforts.