April 4, 2022 — Here at Astar, we are on a mission to make Web3 a reality. Our ultimate goal is to create the infrastructure and ecosystem that allows people to own their data and assets free from intermediaries. We are striving to create an internet that is decentralized, interconnected, and interoperable. As a multi-virtual machine multichain smart contract hub, we are striving to be radically open, transparent, and trustless.
Needless to say, to reach our lofty ambitions, we have to break down our vision into measurable milestones — Rome wasn’t built in one day after all. The first quarter of 2022 has been spectacularly successful for Astar Network, and in this article, I’ll be sharing our important wins from the past three months.
Astar Network Launch
On January 17, 2022, Astar Network was officially born when we became the third parachain to go live on Polkadot’s mainnet. When we launched we enabled smart contract EVM smart contract compatibility. Winning the third parachain auction slot on Polkadot and subsequently launching Astar Network in the Polkadot ecosystem was a monumental milestone.
Layer 1 Bridge Integrations
In keeping with the Web3 vision, one of Astar’s primary goals is to create bridges with every major layer 1 chain in order to create interoperability and interconnectivity among blockchains. In the first three months, with the help of our friends at Celer Network, we successfully created bridges with some of the most important layer 1 blockchains including Ethereum, Polygon, and Binance Chain just to name a few.
Astar Incubation Program
To spur innovation and Astar Network’s ecosystem growth, we launched the Astar Incubation Program and our first two participants, ArthSwap and Starlay, became the top dApps in our ecosystem in short succession. As part of our incubation program, our partners received diligent support from Astar’s core team on technical implementations, business operations, and marketing. Starlay is now the №1 lending protocol on Polkadot and is eyeing an IDO on ArthSwap’s launchpad in April 2022.
ZK-Plonk Implementation
We now have a testable version of ZK-Plonk. ZK-Plonk is one of the layer2 protocols similar to ZK-Rollups. ZK is an abbreviation for Zero-Knowledge and is a scaling solution designed to help us manage transaction volume as our network grows. ZK is the key privacy and scaling solution for our long-term growth. We began implementing cutting-edge layer2 solutions because our ultimate goal is for our blockchain to support billions of people, and we can only do so with the most cutting-edge layer2 solutions.
Ink! Contract support on Parachain
As a multi-virtual machine smart contract platform, we are committed to supporting both EVM and WASM smart contracts on Astar. Although it’s critical to have EVM support right now, we believe that WASM will become the dominant virtual machine in the long term. Ink! is the programming language used for writing WASM smart contracts. Ink! is to WASM what Solidity is to EVM. We began supporting Ink! on our testnet, Shibuya. In 2022, Ink! support (and WASM) will be an important focus for us as we roll it out on Shiden and Astar.
XCM Integration
Polkadot’s architecture allows parachains to natively interoperate with each other, enabling cross-blockchain transfers of any type of data or asset. We are in the early stages of implementing XCM to allow transactions between our parachain and the relay chain. This will be another important technical implementation as having interoperability among Polkadot parachains via the relay chain is key to growing the overall network.
Astar Types Package
We rolled out the new Astar types package in Q1. Types package is a library to help smart contract developers make dApps more easily and interact with custom Astar pallets such as dApps staking possible from applications. The new Astar-type package will open up the door for more projects to integrate with the Astar network, expanding our ecosystem.
EVM Tooling
For EVM developers looking to make more efficient smart contracts on Astar, we now have EVM tooling called precompiles to facilitate this. A precompile means a common functionality for smart contracts which has been compiled so that Ethereum nodes can run more efficiently. These contracts are now natively implemented in our ecosystem.
About Astar Network
Astar Network is the #1 TVL Smart Contract Hub for WASM + EVM on Polkadot. Since winning its Parachain auction in January 2022, Astar Network has become the top Parachain in the Polkadot ecosystem in terms of Total Value Locked ($1.5B+) and most Ethereum assets transferred over ($200M). Astar Network is the leading smart contract hub that connects the Polkadot ecosystem to Ethereum, Cosmos, and all major layer 1 blockchains. Astar Network supports dApps using multiple virtual machines — namely WASM and EVM — and offers the best technology solutions and financial incentives via its Build2Earn and Astar Incubation Program for Web3 developers to build on top of a secure, scalable, and interoperable blockchain.
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Astar Q1 Roadmap Achievements was originally published in Astar Network on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
