Starknet & Alpen to build a shared Glock verifier on Bitcoin

We’re announcing a collaboration with the Starknet Foundation to build financial infrastructure for Bitcoin that’s open and neutral. The Starknet Foundation has awarded Alpen Labs a grant to support us in executing on our vision for open, interoperable financial rails for Bitcoin that best serve the needs of Bitcoin’s economy.

This collaboration marks a significant step in Starknet's evolution as a Bitcoin-based financial layer. It also unites world-class researchers around a shared goal: creating an open, interoperable financial system for Bitcoin—allowing users to do more with their Bitcoin while maintaining ownership, sovereignty and need for minimal trust in entities.

A credibly neutral financial system for Bitcoin

The first step of this journey is enabling our Glock verifier on Bitcoin to support verification across multiple systems simultaneously. We’re developing this shared verifier as a public good that can be used by many Bitcoin-based systems.

By making this critical piece of infrastructure a public good, we aim to foster interoperability among Bitcoin ecosystems—reducing fragmentation and enhancing the user experience, all while preserving users’ control over their money. The grant-funded collaboration will accelerate the development and audit of this shared verifier.

Let a thousand layers bloom

Starknet will be the first of many reputable, mainstream systems to leverage the Glock verifier—alongside Alpen—to secure BTC deposits from their users. At the heart of this initiative is Strata, the layer that will coordinate verification across offchain systems such as Alpen and Starknet on Bitcoin. Strata will facilitate interoperability between these systems, laying the groundwork for a truly open Bitcoin financial ecosystem.

We'll share deeper insights into Strata’s design and development as we bring more credible teams into this vision.

What’s next

Glock’s development is progressing rapidly. We’ve commenced audits for Glock’s codebase to ensure its production-ready Alpen’s mainnet launch.

To stay updated on our progress and upcoming releases, join our Telegram groups for Alpen and Glock.