The Starknet Foundation is betting that privacy and compliance can coexist on the same blockchain. Its new incubator program, called Proof of Privacy, is now accepting applications from teams building on STRK20, the privacy framework that quietly went live in early June.
Think of it as a startup accelerator, but instead of pitching the next food delivery app, teams are competing to build the most useful privacy tools in decentralized finance. The first cohort will receive eight weeks of mentorship and milestone-based support.
What STRK20 actually does
The framework, which launched around June 9-10, introduces zero-knowledge privacy features for ERC-20 tokens. It lets users shield their balances and make private transfers without moving assets to a separate, purpose-built privacy chain.
The technical architecture relies on client-side zero-knowledge proofs built with StarkWare’s Stwo prover and Cairo programming language. These proofs conceal the sender, receiver, and amount of a transaction from public observers.
