The Mastermind Behind StarkWare and Zcash

Eli Ben Sasson began researching cryptographic and zero-knowledge proofs of computational integrity when he was a student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science in 2001.

Before StarkWare, he was working as a researcher at Harvard, MIT, and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. In 2005, he served as a full-time professor at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. His research within theoretical computer science focused on proofs and computation.

Sasson is interested in the practical implementation of scalable proof systems for computational integrity and privacy. In 2013, he became the first to introduce cryptographic proofs to the blockchain, which can transform the integrity, security, and efficiency of computations.

He co-invented STARK, FRI, and Zerocash cryptographic protocols, and is also the founding scientist of the Zach company. He says he is mesmerized by the beauty of mathematics and how blockchain empowers people to use it.

He founded an organization named StarkWare where he is the co-founder, president, and chairman of the board. He also participated in an event, Ethereal Summit Tel Aviv 2019 on September 15, 2019.

StarkWare’s Advance Technology to Improve Scalability

StarkWare is a technology company that develops technology called STARK- scalable transparent argument of knowledge. It improves the scalability of the blockchain. It was founded on the basis of theoretical research conducted by Ben-Sasson and Riabzev and others at the Technion. This is the technology that makes thousands of transactions in a single batch away from the basic layer of Ethereum.

StarEx is the technology offered by StarkWare, a scaling engine that was launched on Ethereum in June 2020. In June 2021, StarkWare launched its second platform called StarkNet. It is permissionless and can be used by developers to build their scalable decentralized applications.

In April 2019, Ben Sasson was sued because Technion claimed that he and Riabazev were violating its intellectual property. The institute said Ben established StrakWare for his research without consent and demanded 50% of his stake in the company. However, in 2020, both sides reached a settlement and Ben Sasson left Technion.

StarkWare has raised $6 Million in seed money. In series A round which was led by Paradigm, VC fund by Fred Ehrsam, the company raised $30 Million. In Series B round in March 2021, the company raised $75 Million.

The Ethereum Foundation also gave $12 Million to the company. Further, $50 Million was raised in a series C round, led by Sequoia. The total money raised is $163 Million and this brings its value to $2 Billion, making it a Unicorn. In the Series D round led by Greenoaks Capital and Coatue Management, it raised 100 Million, which brings the value to $8 Billion.

Summary

Eli Ben Sasson is very innovative, declaring that a proper framework for testing and deployment will be added with the aim of making writing contracts on StarkNet. Important upgrades are anticipated across the StarkWare solutions.