Astar 2.0: A New Supernova Era of Web3 is Approaching
Introduction
As one of the first parachains to go live in the Polkadot ecosystem, Astar Network’s goal is to create a cross-chain smart contract environment to support enterprises and dApp builders. Astar has proven to be very successful in this endeavor. With excellent technical innovation and strong marketing and operational capabilities, Astar has established itself as the top parachain in the Polkadot ecosystem and has become the most popular L1 infrastructure in Japan and other Asian regions. Up to now, Astar Network’s Total Value Locked is about $216 million (according to the official website), of which about $173 million is locked in dApp Staking, with nearly 21,000 stakers, and it has already entered into collaboration with nearly 140 well-known Web 2.0 enterprises.
It is worth pointing out that a series of new actions recently made Astar Network once again the focus of market attention: the upcoming launch of Astar Supernova zkEVM, the recent accelerated expansion of the Japanese ecosystem, as well as the full launch of Astar 2.0, and so on. All of these ambitious moves give us reason to believe that the project will unleash even greater potential in driving cross-chain interoperability and Web3 adoption.
Astar zkEVM: Supernova is Here!
Astar’s most eye-catching new development is its deployment of zkEVM. As we all know, Ethereum is still the most popular platform for developers to build on and has demonstrated a strong network effect. Ethereum-based Rollup and other L2 scaling solutions have become the hottest tracks at the moment, attracting a large number of users and traffic. Astar’s strategic deployment of L2 solutions is crucial to bridging Polkadot and Ethereum and achieving the vision of a global smart contract platform.
While Optimistic Rollup has been widely used, zk-Rollup has been seen as the holy grail of L2 scaling solutions. zk-Rollup, when combined with Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) technology, allows proofs to be verified without exposing sensitive data, thus maintaining trustless and enhancing security. Many teams are making efforts to drive zk-Rollup’s adoption, and Polygon Labs is one of the leading teams that is performing well.
Just this past September, Astar officially announced a partnership with Polygon Labs to create Astar zkEVM, a new L2 solution for extending the Web3 experience on Ethereum using Zero Knowledge (ZK) technology, developed using the Layer 2 framework of the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK). The testnet for Astar zkEVM, zKatana, has been officially launched on October 23rd, marking another significant milestone in Astar’s journey to offering the most holistic tech stack and empowering builders and enterprises to tap into Web3 securely. Currently, the Astar team is working with Gelato, Safe, Web3Auth, LayerZero, SubQuery, Subsquid, and other crypto-native projects and service providers to test the zKatana testnet and gain trial experience on top of it.
Astar zkEVM serves as a versatile solution for global enterprises. Key attributes of the Astar zkEVM include:
- Speed and Scalability: Through zero-knowledge technology, Astar zkEVM ensures smooth operation even during high transaction volumes.
- High EVM equivalency: Astar zkEVM is equivalent to EVM, which means greater scalability when working with existing Ethereum tools and clients.
- Security: Deriving its security mechanisms from Ethereum, ensuring a robust and secure framework.
- Interoperability: Trustless interoperability with Ethereum and making diverse integrations smoother.
- Cost Efficiency: Significantly reduced transaction costs compared to Ethereum, making it economically advantageous for users.
Launching an L2 on Ethereum is a huge benefit to the expansion of the Astar ecosystem.
- First, there will be more options for builders. With both Astar Substrate (L1) and Astar zkEVM (L2), developers will have more places and tools to create and build with.
- Second, Astar can work more closely with tier-1 projects on Ethereum. The Astar ecosystem will benefit from increased growth in transactions, active users, and liquidity. All of these are key factors in the network’s success and will help attract more Japanese enterprises and real-world use cases to the Astar ecosystem. In addition to Polygon Labs, Astar zkEVM is currently powered by Gelato’s ZkRollup technology, and with the zkRaaS infrastructure services provided and Gelato’s close relationship with Gnosis, the Safe ecosystem can be deployed on Astar zkEVM in the future.
Astar zkEVM will also bring new value to ASTR tokens, such as gas fees for developer tools account abstraction, the introduction of a sequencer burning mechanism, and the burning of incentive tokens to network aggregators, among others.
Astar and Polygon’s zkEVM development is also a major milestone in the successful collaboration between the Ethereum and Polkadot ecosystems. Sota Watanabe, founder of Astar, and Sandeep Nailwal, founder of Polygon, are both very well-known and talented entrepreneurs in the Web3 industry and have already achieved success with their respective projects. According to a poll conducted by the Japan Blockchain Association, 44% of Japanese developers chose Astar to develop their DApp, and 25% chose Polygon. The strong partnership with Polygon Labs will enable both companies to capture approximately 70% of the market share and further enhance Astar’s competitiveness in the Asian market by leveraging Polygon’s vast ecosystem, community, and developer ecosystem. In Web2 application development, it doesn’t matter which cloud service is deployed. That’s why Astar wants to maximize the value for users by achieving mass adoption of Web3 applications rather than focusing on the underlying protocol competition.
Astar’s Booming Web3 Ecosystem in Japan
Currently, the Japanese government is strongly supportive of Web3 and the crypto industry. At the WebX conference in July this year, Prime Minister Kishida reiterated his determination to push forward the development of Web3 and stated that he would strive to create an environment suitable for businesses and individuals to enter Web3, laying the foundation for the Web3 industry to further develop and prosper in Japan.
Astar is one of the lucky ones who have greatly benefited from Japan’s crypto-friendly policies and has now developed into one of the leading blockchains in Japan, gaining a high reputation in the country. Astar has been widely adopted by the government departments of several prefectures and cities, such as Fukuoka, Sendai, Shibuya, etc., and a large number of industry giants have established in-depth business relationships with Astar, such as NTT Docomo, Sony Communications, Toyota, and many others. NTT Docomo, Japan’s №1 mobile operator, said in its latest earnings report that it will invest up to $4.1 billion in Web3 technology development with Astar and other companies.
Along with the technology and product upgrades of Astar 2.0, more and more local Japanese enterprises and organizations have made Astar their first partner choice to enter the Web3 industry. In mid-September, tech and entertainment giant Sony spent US$3.5 million to set up a joint venture subsidiary, Startale Labs, with Astar, with plans to jointly develop Sony Chain, which is expected to surpass the L2 Network Base released by well-known exchange Coinbase in the future.
Earlier this month, Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan was collaborating with Mizuho Bank, Cosmize, Startale Labs Japan, and Blue Lab to tap into Astar’s web3 technology to teach and promote the 500-year tradition of making Kuma Shochu. The partnership program will run on the Astar Network, with COSMIZE (a virtual social platform on the Astar Network) providing technical support for creating and issuing the metaverse space and NFTs, while Startale Labs Japan is responsible for providing full technical support in the areas of blockchain and NFTs.
Up to now, Astar Japan Lab (Astar’s expansion program in Japan) has incorporated nearly 140 organizations and has always been a leader in creating enterprise use cases. Especially for the strengths of Japan’s local gaming and anime industries, it has established strong partnerships with traditional Japanese game studios and mainstream IPs, successfully introducing them to the Web3 world. In the future, Astar will further consolidate its leading position in Japan, and through partnership with Polygon Labs, Astar and zkEVM technologies and Web3 applications will be gradually pushed to the Asia-Pacific and global markets.
The Coming Era of Astar 2.0
Astar has now completed the 1.0 Tech Stack development milestone and is providing a seamless way for many enterprises and organizations to create their own blockchains and dapps. Since Q2 of this year, Astar has announced that it will be moving from phase 1.0 to phase 2.0. The overall goal of Astar 2.0 is to create a multi-chain dApp hub that supports EVM, WASM, and multiple L1s to unlock the potential of Web3 applications to the fullest extent possible, and it includes a number of long-term plans that will play a significant role in Astar’s future development. In addition to the aforementioned Astar zkEVM, Startale Lab and Astar Link are also important components of Astar 2.0.
Startale Lab, a blockchain technology company founded and led by Astar founder Sota, is dedicated to developing the tools necessary to enhance Web3 adoption in the Japanese market and scale it to billions of users. Astar Link serves as a hub connecting all of the blockchain industry’s currently dispersed layers to give developers and users a unified experience. Builders can produce distinctive solutions with no restrictions by combining a high degree of flexibility and customization options. All of this is made possible by specially designed SDKs, which can be built on top of our multi-virtual machine hub for smart contracts to provide a solution for any use case. Astar Link opens up a plethora of use cases that were restricted by a dearth of resources or fragmentation from the gaming and enterprise industries.
Astar Tokenomics 2.0: the Centerpiece of the Astar 2.0 Landscape
Another key in Astar 2.0 that can’t be ignored is Astar Tokenomics 2.0. In response to the challenge of high inflation and the continued growth of the Astar network, the Astar team has invested a great deal of time working with experts to develop new tokenomics. In August, Astar officially announced the launch of Astar Tokenomics 2.0. Compared with the old one, Astar Tokenomics 2.0 mainly focuses on:
- Reducing block rewards by dynamically adjusting the inflation rate through on-chain parameters.
- Increasing the proportion of rewards allocated to stakers and builders.
- Introducing a burn mechanism for tokens.
Astar Tokenomics 2.0 aims to effectively reduce the inflation rate. By design, Astar’s reward per block will be reduced from a fixed 253 ASTR to a dynamic range of 123 to 215 ASTR, and the inflation rate will be reduced from 9.5% to 5.8% (or potentially lower if the burn is taken into account), which will be lower than most mainstream POS blockchains, such as Solana and Cosmos, which are at 7.29% and 16.5% respectively, and lower inflation will create greater value for ASTR holders.
According to the team’s plan, the implementation of Astar Tokenomics 2.0 will take place in several phases. The tokenomics design is currently publicly released and peer-reviewed and will soon be deployed on the Shibuya testnet, with the goal of completing the implementation in Q4 this year.
Astar 2.0 is now in full swing: the full design details of Astar Tokenomics 2.0 have been released and are scheduled to be implemented by the end of this year; Astar zkEVM testnet just launched this week on October 23rd; Startale Labs has been formally established and invested in by Sony and has entered into collaboration with a number of well-known Japanese companies; The Astar Link service has been released. The era of Astar 2.0 has arrived and will bring a better Web3 service experience to more users.
Summary
As one of the top parachains in the Polkadot ecosystem, the Astar team has consistently demonstrated excellent execution and delivery capabilities since its inception and has gained wide recognition both inside and outside the crypto industry. Astar’s existing technology stack has been widely implemented and promoted in Japan and has been adopted by many well-known local companies such as NTT Docomo, Sony, and Toyota, successfully realizing the commercialization of Web3. Astar zkZVM expands with the technical advantages and ecosystem of Ethereum as well as connecting to Polkadot. With the support of Polygon and Astar’s own large ecosystem, Astar will grow steadily on multiple chains in the future. Astar’s tokenomics will also soon complete the optimization and iteration, and the inflation rate will be reduced to a reasonable level to promote the long-term, sustainable development of blockchain. After successfully completing all deliveries of phase 1.0, Astar has become one of the leading blockchains in Japan, officially entering the 2.0 era.
As an early investor and backer of Astar, DFG has always accompanied Astar’s growth and development and firmly believes that the new 2.0 will enable Astar to enter a new explosive growth stage. DFG is also optimistic about Astar’s development in Japan, Asia-Pacific, and across the globe in the long term and believes that Astar will bring more companies into the Astar ecosystem and onboard millions of people to the Web3 world. Astar, like a supernova in the universe, will bring continuous prosperity to the Web3 industry in the future.
About DFG
Digital Finance Group (DFG) is a global blockchain and cryptocurrency investment firm founded in 2015 with assets under management of over $1 billion. Through a wide range of sectors within the blockchain ecosystem such as Web3.0, CeFi, DeFi, NFTs, the Polkadot ecosystem.
Investments include Circle, Ledger, Coinlist, FV Bank, Astar, ChainSafe and over 100 more. DFG intends to create value, through analytical research, based on the most impactful and promising global blockchain and Web3.0 projects that will bring a paradigm shift to the world.
DFG Website: https://dfg.group
DFG Twitter: @DFG__Official
DFG LinkedIn: DFG
