Quick start - 5 minutes overview
What is Kakarot ZK-EVM?
Kakarot is a ZK-EVM built in Cairo, the provable language that powers Starknet and all the StarknetOS chains (also called CairoVM chains, or Starknet appchains).
Kakarot enhances and extends Starknet by making it a DualVM environment. Starknet effectively becomes EVM compatible; allowing the use of both CairoVM and EVM for builders & users. Additionally, Kakarot strives to push more innovations to the L2 space, participating in governance initiative such as Rollup Improvement Proposals (RIPs) and Rollcall.
How can I use Kakarot ZK-EVM?
As a user and developer, you can interact with Kakarot ZK-EVM in the same way you would interact with Ethereum mainnet or any other Ethereum-based chain (use Metamask, Rainbow, build with Foundry or Hardhat, etc.). Change the RPC URL and it "just works". That being said, Kakarot is still in alpha testnet phase 🚧 and unexpected behavior may still occur. Reach out to us on discord to report bugs 🐛.
Though we aim at no difference at all between Ethereum and Kakarot ZK-EVM — and we actually work toward passing 100% of the official Ethereum Foundation test — they are currently some small difference recorded in the differences between Kakarot and Ethereum page in this documentation website.
As a user, how can I interact with Kakarot ZK-EVM?
Head over to the survival guide section to find useful links for our alpha testnet. Again, change the network to Kakarot in your wallet and it should "just work".
Adding Kakarot Sepolia to Metamask
You can add Kakarot Sepolia to Metamask by clicking the button below:
Or by add a new network manually to Metamask: open the Metamask extension. Click "Add Network". Choose "Add a Network Manually". Then fill the fields:
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Network Name | Kakarot Sepolia |
| RPC URL | https://sepolia-rpc.kakarot.org |
| Chain Id | 1802203764 |
| Symbol | ETH |
| Block Explorer | https://sepolia.kakarotscan.org/ |
As a developer, how can I build on Kakarot ZK-EVM?
For developers as well, change the RPC URL, and it should "just work".
In case you encounter some unknown bug or want to discuss new features, you can:
- Join our discord and get support: https://discord.gg/kakarotzkevm
- Ask us anything on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KakarotZkEvm
What differentiates Kakarot ZK-EVM?
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Agile and lightweight: Kakarot is built on Cairo, a provable VM, enabling cryptography efforts to be separated from engineering. As a result, Kakarot's code is lean, highly auditable and easily extensible. A strong example is the EOF set of Ethereum Improvement Proposals probably coming in Pectra, which are easy to implement for Kakarot and extremely hard for circuit-based ZK-EVMs.
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Interoperable and modular: Kakarot enables a DualVM environment on Starknet chains. Solidity contracts can call into Cairo programs, and vice-versa. Starknet apps can gain exposure to EVM ecosystems, and EVM apps can finally land on Starknet for minimal costs.
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Highly-performant and future-proof: Building on Kakarot means benefiting from all the future upgrades of the Cairo stack. For instance, with the release of Stwo, an extremely fast prover by Starkware expected in early 2025, Kakarot apps will directly experience 100-1,000x improvements in ZK proof generation performance.
For a deep-dive into the Kakarot design, check out the architecture overview.