Investing In Astar (ASTR) – Everything You Need to Know

Blockchain technology saw a lot of experimentation, changes, and learning through trial and error over the last 13 years of its existence, and especially since the creation of Ethereum. Developers experimented with scalability, security, making blockchain private and public, making it a simple decentralized ledger, or an entire development platform, and much more.

The same is true for the products developed on the platform, such as smart contracts, DeFi protocols, non-fungible tokens, blockchain games, the metaverse, and alike. The diversity of the ecosystem is quite incredible given how young it is, but all of it is only a part of the bigger picture. You see, blockchains have been developing in isolation from one another, each in its own small ecosystem.

Now, however, they seek to connect themselves to a network, and in doing so, create one major ecosystem. Doing this is meant to deliver all the use cases of every blockchain to every other blockchain. So, for example, a chain that has smart contracts would bring this functionality to a chain that doesn’t. The connection can be used to share liquidity, ideas, unique features, and more. This is what Astar aims to achieve, and today, we wanted to explain what its role in all of this is.

What Problems Does Astar (ASTR) Solve?

Let’s start the Astar review by looking into some of the solutions that the project has to offer. For example, Aster seeks  to achieve:

Interoperability

Astar Network is a dApp hub on Polkadot that supports Ethereum, WebAssembly, as well as layer 2 solutions such as ZK Rollups. The project’s goal is to become a multi-chain smart contract platform and support as many blockchains as possible. It is not the only one seeking interoperability, of course, as connecting blockchains in this way is a method of creating the next version of the internet, the so-called Web 3.0, or simply Web3. Since this has been one of the biggest goals of the blockchain world, however, Astar Network’s contribution to the cause is of great importance.

Adding smart contract support where it is needed

Obviously, not every blockchain was made to be a development platform, suitable for the creation of smart contracts and other blockchain products. Some chains, like the Bitcoin blockchain, or Dogecoin blockchain are simply meant to be used for transactions. However, that doesn’t mean that these blockchains would not be able to benefit from smart contracts.

At the very least, they should have access to them, whether there is interest in using them or not. By establishing interoperability between chains, Astar can bring these functionalities to chains that don’t support smart contracts and enable new use cases for them.

Providing EVM support

Apart from connecting chains, Astar aims to also become a platform that will support different Virtual Machines, as well. The idea is mostly the same, as expanding the reach, influence, and capabilities of EVMs results in the same benefit – expansion of the use cases on the projects that do not have access to them.

Benefits of Astar (ASTR)

Now, let’s take a look at some of the benefits of the Astar project, meaning mostly the things that individual users can benefit from while engaging with the project.

Build Layer2 apps

Let’s start with the fact that the project allows for Layer2 application developers to make a deposit on the Layer1 smart contract, and create Layer2 apps. In other words, through Astar, Layer2 dApps can arrive to chains where they did not have a presence before. Best of all, they arrive at a very simple solution, instead of having to go through major changes in their own structure or something of the sort.

Staking

Astar has its native cryptocurrency, the token ASTR. Those who hold the token can choose to stake it on dApp, as well as the network level. In doing any of the two, users can earn rewards in the form of additional ASTR tokens. This is a fairly simple staking model, but it does the job, which is incentivizing users to hold and stake ASTR.

Governance

Finally, let’s talk about the project’s governance. ASTR token has another use case, and that includes being used for voting on important developments and decision-making that needs to be done in order to have the project evolve and improve further. As a 100% decentralized network, Astar requires its community of token holders to vote or propose changes.

How Does Astar (ASTR) Work?

Astar is a scalable and interoperable infrastructure for Web3. The network was built with Parity’s Substrate framework, and it may very well be a future Polkadot parachain, as well as a scalable smart contract platform.

As most likely know, the Polkadot Relaychain was not designed to ever support smart contracts, which is why Aster’s introduction of them through an alternate method for the smart contracts to arrive there.

Naturally, one of the biggest requirements for dApp developers is scalability, and the devs can then build whatever kinds of apps they wish on Astar Network without having to worry about whether the available scalability will be adequate for its uninterrupted use.

In the end, Aster Network is an open-source project that offers plenty of new opportunities, which is why it is definitely worth your attention.

How to Buy Astar (ASTR)

Currently, Astar (ASTR) is available for purchase on the following exchanges.

Uphold – This is one of the top exchanges for United States residents that offers a wide range of cryptocurrencies. Germany & Netherlands are prohibited.

Uphold Disclaimer: Terms Apply. Cryptoassets are highly volatile. Your capital is at risk. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong..

Kraken – Founded in 2011, Kraken is one of the most trusted names in the industry with over 9,000,000 users, and over $207 billion in quarterly trading volume.

The exchange offers trading access to over 190 countries including Australia, Canada, Europe.  While Kraken accepts residents of the United States (Excluding New York & Washington state), access to Astar (ASTR) is restricted.

Astar (ASTR) — A Polkadot dApp hub

Astar Network is one of the projects that are contributing the most to ensuring interoperability and spreading equal use cases to the projects throughout the blockchain industry. It is bringing new opportunities to developers throughout the industry, regardless of which chain and coin they are supporting, and as such, it is contributing to the faster development and arrival of Web 3.0.

Of course, even with its help, it will be a while before Web3 becomes big and competent enough to actually pose an alternative to the current internet, but every project like this is a small step on our way towards achieving that, and that is of great importance for the future of this entire industry.