Starknet Wallet API

The Starknet Wallet API is the recommended route for most private dapps. Instead of managing private state yourself, your dapp asks the user's privacy-enabled wallet to perform a private action, and the wallet handles keys, notes, proving, and submission.

Use this route when you are building an app on top of existing privacy wallets. If you are building the wallet itself, use the Build Privacy Wallets. If your app needs private DeFi, pair this route with an Anonymizer Contract.

Why most dapps want this route

• No viewing keys in your app. The wallet holds the user's viewing key; your dapp never sees it.
• No note or proof management. The wallet discovers notes, builds the transaction, generates the proof, and submits it.
• Standard Starknet integration. You connect and call through starknet.js and the user's wallet, the same way you already integrate other Starknet actions.

How it fits together

Your dapp talks to starknet.js, which reaches the user's privacy-enabled wallet through the Starknet Wallet API. The wallet runs the STRK20 SDK internally and settles against the privacy pool. For private DeFi, the same call path also triggers your app-specific anonymizer contract.

React hooks or direct WalletAccountV6?

There are two practical ways to use the Starknet Wallet API from a dapp, each with its own page in this section:

• React dapps: use the starknet-start useStrk20 hooks, a convenience wrapper that calls into a WalletAccountV6 (or equivalent) under the hood.
• Outside React, or when you need finer control over connection and proof handling: use starknet.js WalletAccountV6 directly.

In both cases the wallet itself must support the STRK20 wallet API methods, since the ZK proofs and signatures are managed wallet-side.

What you can do through the wallet

Without writing any privacy cryptography, a dapp can ask the wallet to:

• Shield - deposit public ERC-20 tokens into the pool.
• Private transfer - move value privately between registered users.
• Withdraw (unshield) - move tokens back out to a public address.
• Swap - where the connected wallet supports it.

Broader DeFi actions (lending, staking, custom flows) pair the Starknet Wallet API with an app-specific anonymizer contract that the pool invokes atomically.

What to keep in mind

• Wallet support varies. Available actions depend on the connected wallet; detect capabilities before offering an action.
• Edges stay public. Deposits and withdrawals expose public ERC-20 legs and timing, even though in-pool movement is private.
• Verify versions and addresses. Confirm wallet, starknet.js, and pool contract details for your target network before launch.

Choose your route

Read next

• starknet-start
• starknet.js
• Anonymizer Contract Anatomy
• Build Privacy Wallets