Eli Ben-Sasson on Bitcoin, Starknet, and the Future of Decentralization

In this episode [The Rollup], Andy sits down with Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder and CEO of StarkWare, to dive deep into the evolving landscape of crypto and blockchain. Eli shares his 12+ years of perspective in the industry—from launching Zcash in 2014 to building StarkWare and Starknet today—and explains why the future of crypto lies in a return to fundamentals. We discuss:

• Why crypto still lacks global product-market fit

• The cycles of hype vs. long-term fundamentals (payments, stablecoins, credentials)

• Why fully decentralized systems (Bitcoin, Starknet) are the true end state

• Institutional adoption, stablecoins, and the role of corporate chains

• The coming wave of Bitcoin staking on Starknet

• Decentralizing the sequencer and scaling Ethereum with ZK-STARKs

• The importance of privacy, UX, and self-custody for mainstream adoption

Eli also explains why he believes Starknet is best positioned to become the Bitcoin settlement layer, shares updates on Starknet’s decentralization milestones.