Cairo

StarkNet's smart contract language, designed by Starkware to translate efficiently into STARK proofs. Cairo 1.0+ (2023) is Rust-inspired with traits, pattern matching, and explicit immutability. Not EVM-compatible — Solidity contracts must be rewritten in Cairo. The trade-off: dramatically faster STARK proving than EVM-based ZK systems, at the cost of higher developer onboarding friction.