Astar

What is Astar (ASTR)?

Astar is one of the largest smart contract platforms in the Polkadot ecosystem, supporting both WASM and the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

One of several blockchain projects pushing the bill regarding cross-chain connectivity and interoperability, Aster also has bridges into Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Cosmos, Polygon, and more.

Made by developers, for developers, Astar also deploys a unique Build2Earn model to empower developers to get paid through a decentralized application staking mechanism for the code they write and dApps they build.

Offering solutions for scalability, interoperability, and fairly incentivizing developers, Astar takes care of infrastructure and lets developers focus on doing what they do best.

When was Astar Launched?

Astar is the holder of a parachain slot on Polkadot, which it began leasing on the 17th of December, 2021. The lease is scheduled to end in October 2023, but parachain slots can be extended if required.

Astar was formerly known as Plasm and went to the mainnet in early 2022. It was founded by Sota Watanabe, who is backed by Astar Network CTO Hoon Kim and CMO Valeria Kholostenko.

The project is considered a rising blockchain star and firm favorite in Japan, winning the Product of the Year award at the 4th annual Blockchain Awards conducted by the Japan Blockchain Association. Watanabe also bagged the Person of the Year award at the same event, his second win in consecutive years.

Watanabe was featured in Forbes as one of Asia and Japan’s 30-under-30. He is considered one of Japan’s leading entrepreneurs and is reportedly helping the Japanese government, which has made Web3 a part of its national strategy.

How Does Astar Work?

Astar is Japan’s leading layer 1 blockchain and the first public blockchain from the country to be listed there, a significant landmark given Japan’s strict listing regulations.

It is also a parachain on Polkadot, meaning that it operates independently in all things bar security. Parachains have their own logic and are completely configurable but rely on the Polkadot relay chain for consensus.

Astar is built on Parity’s Substrate, which allows it to inherit the scalability of Polkadot while sharing significant interoperability with all other chains on the network. As a result, Astar and the other parachains can transfer data and tokens between each other seamlessly.

The project leans on Polkadot’s sharding technology for scalability but enhances this by incorporating layer 2 vertical scaling, including the Optimistic Virtual Machine.

Astar is the mainnet as far as the entire Astar Network is concerned, but it also includes the Shibuya standalone testnet. Prior to deploying on Astar, however, the project also operates the Shiden parachain on Kusama, which is often described as Polkadot’s canary environment.

How is the Astar Network Secured?

As a parachain on Polkadot, Astar is secured by Polkadot’s nominated proof-of-stake (NPoS) consensus mechanism.

In this system, any DOT staker can elect to become a validator or nominator on the network. Additionally, validators take part in consensus, validate blocks on parachains, and vote on any changes to the DOT network that may be proposed.

Validators are also critical to cross-chain transactions between Polkadot parachains. They move transactions from the output queue of one parachain to the input queue of the target parachain in a secure and trustless manner based on Merkle trees.

The nominators secure the Polkadot relay chain by selecting trustworthy validators. They delegate staked DOT tokens to specific validators, granting these validators greater voting power.

What is the Use of ASTR?

The ASTR token is Astar Network’s primary utility token. It is used for on-chain governance, payment of transaction fees, and dApp staking.

DApp staking is a scheme invented by the Astar core team where token holders can stake ASTR tokens on dApps they enjoy and wish to support. By doing so, the staker earns ASTR tokens from block rewards. In addition, the dApp developers are also rewarded based on the amount staked on them.

This dApp staking mechanism is the driving force behind Astar’s Build2Earn initiative and makes Astar unique. It provides developers with financial incentives and a basic income rather than going through grant programs and other fundraisers as they would on other networks.

How Much ASTR is In Circulation?

The ASTR token had a total supply of 7 billion at genesis, with over 3.8 billion currently in circulation. It carries a 10% annual inflation rate, and a single ASTR token is divisible by 18 decimal points.

30% of the initial supply was allocated to users and early supporters, while 20% was saved to fund the parachain auction bid in 2021. As is normal for parachain tokens, a certain amount is kept in reserve for the same purpose, amounting to 5% in Astar’s case.

Astar’s early financial backers received 10% of the token supply, the same as the Foundation, and the founding team took away 5%.

The project has a long list of investors, including Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Huobi Ventures, OKEx Blockdream Ventures, DFG, Crypto.com Capital, and many more.

How Do You Buy ASTR?

You can buy ASTR tokens on many of the top cryptocurrency exchanges, which may come as no surprise given the investment made in the project by the venture arms of those same exchanges.

If decentralized exchanges are more your thing, several DEX platforms within the Polkadot ecosystem offer the ASTR token.

How Do You Store ASTR?

You can store ASTR tokens using a cryptocurrency wallet. Since Astar was developed using Substrate, a Polkadot native wallet, or Metadot, can be used easily. It’s also possible to configure a common wallet like Metamask for the Astar network. Alternatively, you could use a wallet like Clover, Nova, Fearless, or Math Wallet to store ASTR tokens.

It’s also possible to store ASTR on an exchange account, but while you may be granted some form of staking reward, you can’t choose which dApps you’d like to stake on. Therefore, you have no control over which (or any) developers are being rewarded via your tokens.

Is ASTR a Good Investment?

Astar is a popular project, especially in Japan, and is considered one of the most exciting projects in the Polkadot ecosystem. It already boasts over 50 apps and over 500,000 community members.

While the project has significant backing from a whole host of VC firms, it appears to be one of the spearheads of the Web3 revolution. Furthermore, it focuses on blockchain interoperability, which is a buzzword for a reason.

Perhaps most uniquely, the ASTR token links holders to developers in a way that no other project provides. This allows ordinary investors to do far more than just cheerlead and provides a rapid path forward for true dApp development.