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STARK

A STARK is a transparent, hash-based proof system for verifying computations without a trusted setup ceremony.

FBFenwei BianAuthorSeptember 19, 2026
  • glossary

A STARK, short for Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge, is a proof system that uses public randomness rather than a secret setup trapdoor. Its assumptions rely largely on hash functions. STARK proofs are generally larger than pairing-based proofs such as Groth16, but they avoid a trusted setup ceremony and can verify large computations efficiently.

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About the author(s)

Fenwei Bian

Software Developer & Writer • Namefi
Author

Fenwei Bian is a software developer in her thirties who spends her working hours in pull requests and her weekends with her hands in soil or sawdust. Years of open source on GitHub taught her that names are interfaces: a good one is clear, honest about what it does, and kind to whoever has to use it next.

She gardens because it rewards patience and punishes wishful thinking, and she does woodwork because a joint either fits or it doesn't. Both habits show up in how she writes about naming — measure twice, check the source, and don't sand over a rough spot and hope no one notices.

For Namefi she writes about how domain markets actually move, the practical trade-offs of tokenizing and flipping names, and picking a domain you'll still be glad you own in twenty years.

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