The Innovation Hub
As a platform for user-facing smart contracts, Astar strives to become the innovation hub of Web3.0. In Parts 1 and 2 we presented leveraging the unique features of a parachain via the XCM, extending smart contract language capability, and writing complex dApps with WASM contracts as the building block for innovation, yet, these tools are not enough. We believe that innovation starts by knowing what the users want. The dApps Staking mechanism strives to create an environment where the user of the dApp can express what projects they like, and support them as a result. Astar Network works as a user-facing contract platform because the end-users are the one who has the power to support a project, and project teams must build something that users will use in order to sustain themselves through the dApps Staking mechanism.
Through this, we encourage projects with innovative ideas to develop on Astar Network with all the tools we provide and form a community of supporters to sustain their project in a decentralized environment. Moreover, through XCM we believe Astar can become a hub of innovation and interoperability for our developers and users. We want to close our conversation of Astar’s vision by presenting examples of how we can build the future of Polkadot together.
Examples
We can think of several applications of XCM based on the current parachains, potential parachains, and hypothetical parachains; and how they become interoperable with Astar Network.
i. Tornado Cash with Manta
Manta Network is a privacy blockchain that uses UTXO and ZKPs to facilitate private transactions where the counter-party does not require the exposure of sensitive information like account balances to settle a transaction.
The simplest use case of Manta Network for a dApp on Astar would be a “Tornado Cash-like” privacy transaction protocol.
In this use case, the dApp will treat Manta Network as the layer 2 relayer-equivalent for Tornado Cash. Users can deposit their tokens by sending the asset to the Manta Network account, a single UI can control the assets by allowing transfers within Manta Network or withdrawing to a different address in Astar Network.
ii. Hybrid Lending Protocol with Centrifuge, Acala, and KILT
Centrifuge is a blockchain that bridges real-life assets and commodities with on-chain representations that can be used by DeFi protocols.
As the vision of Centrifuge states, the core value proposition for Centrifuge is its ability to provide real-life assets to DeFi protocols. This means that in theory, it will be possible for Astar Network to create a completely decentralized hybrid lending protocol that can collateralize real-life assets for crypto assets, and vice versa, further reducing the gap between on-chain data with reality.
Although this use case will be difficult, in practice for regulatory reasons and feasibility for corporations, with the use of a trusted network KYC like KILT, this will no longer be a problem.
KILT is a blockchain identity protocol for centralized identity verification and attestation. It aims to become the trust layer for blockchains, providing the opportunity for KYC for projects within the Polkadot network via XCM.
Without overcomplicating the architecture, someone can deploy a lending protocol on Astar Network that uses fungible assets brought from Centrifuge, and trade it with a stable coin like aUSD, or any other registered assets on Astar Network; a process similar to the RWA market on AAVE, but with much more flexibility and completely on the Polkadot ecosystem. With the power of KILT’s decentralized identity, we can provide a superior UX than that of the RWA market without going through a rigorous KYC process.
iii. Utility Smart Contract Repository with t3rn Network
t3rn is a composable smart contract platform with an interoperable smart contract failsafe for guaranteed executions. They offer an incentive mechanism for developers and teams who contribute to the open-source smart contract registry that anyone can use, and the contributor will be rewarded every time the contract gets called.
At a glance, we can see many similarities between t3rn and Astar as both of them are WASM smart contract platforms that focus on developer incentivization, and cross-virtual machine of interoperable smart contracts. Some might say that we are competitors with little opportunity for collaboration; and, any collaboration might lead to a zero-sum game of taking smart contracts and dApp projects from each other. However, if we define Astar Network’s position in the ecosystem as strictly a platform for user-facing dApp projects and t3rn as a strictly developer-facing smart contract platform, we can find a very interesting synergy that cannot be found between any other networks.
If we can establish a cross-environment arbitrary smart contract execution standard and open an XCM channel between the two networks, so that both networks can freely read, write, and call from a contract in a different environment (e.g., the XBI standard), then dApps on Astar Network can use utility smart contracts or smart contract libraries from t3rn (alongside features from other parachains)as part of their business logic for the end-user will interact with. In other words, t3rn network can become the NPM or cargo for smart contracts that projects on Astar Network can fully utilize. The library contract developer on t3rn will be rewarded by the system itself, and dApps on Astar will be rewarded by the users through staking, making t3rn an ideal smart contract development environment for Astar.
iv. Universal NFT Marketplace with Statemint, Efinity, Unique Network, and other NFTs
Statemint is a common-good parachain on Polkadot Network for storing state data and custom asset data for the benefit of the entire Polkadot ecosystem. RMRK (pronounced “remark”) is a project built on top of the Polkadot ecosystem, without becoming a parachain, that provides a standard method for creating an NFT on the Kusama relay chain and Statemine/Statemint. Unique Network is a blockchain that focuses on scalable and extendable NFT assets for various use cases. There are several other NFT blockchains or standards that are used throughout the Polkadot ecosystem, but, for this section, we will mainly focus on the two projects.
The Polkadot ecosystem has a major problem with highly fragmented standards amongst the projects. This is most apparent when representing NFTs, as the Substrate framework can support EVM standards, WASM contract standards, and pallet-level NFTs. To be precise, currently, we have the Substrate Uniques pallet, ORML NFT pallet, ERC721 on EVM, PSP34 on WASM contract environment, and several custom-made NFT pallets for certain networks. All of these standards are not compatible with each other in the traditional sense–users cannot manage all of their NFTs from a single place and developers cannot create a generic solution for managing all NFTs throughout the ecosystem (e.g., Polkadot NFT wallet, or marketplaces). This is because before XCM, parachains, and projects in the Polkadot ecosystem are very isolated without any need for pallet standardization. A lack of standardization helps the project to customize and rethink the fundamental concept of NFT to create an innovative solution, but this hurts interoperability in the long run. For example, Unique Network has a unique (pun-intended) NFT pallet that allows custom functionality that is only possible within their network. This means that even if we can teleport the NFT from Unique to a different network, this will strip away the extended feature that can only be used within Unique Network, making some NFTs effectively worthless. This is a problem because we might want to access the mature marketplace and wide array of applications in the metaverse that Efinity provides alongside other NFTs, such as Unique Network, in parallel.
Astar Network is a blockchain with multiple smart contract environments (EVM and WASM) and multiple standards. We also have one of the biggest NFT marketplaces in the Polkadot ecosystem. We believe that Astar Network is capable of becoming the common denominator for various NFTs throughout the ecosystem, and we believe that there is a way to gather all NFTs in the ecosystem into a single universal marketplace that allows anyone to trade, sell, and purchase NFTs from Astar Network without losing any custom functionalities that are only available on a certain chain.
Let’s say we have an NFT marketplace dApp that can support NFTs in both the WASM contract environment and the EVM environment. In this case, bringing the ERC721 NFT from a foreign chain to Astar’s marketplace is as easy as teleporting the NFT to Astar via XCM. Alternatively, the NFT marketplace dApp could decide to integrate directly with the other chain to become a multi-chain marketplace. The same can be said for PSP34 NFTs.
However, this is not applicable for NFTs that are stored at the pallet level without losing certain features or creating a custom adaptor, especially ones that rely on the pallet’s custom functionality, like those on Unique Network. Teleporting might not be a feasible option for the network or the user, and asking the UI to implement it for all cases and networks will be a developer nightmare. But if we use XCM, there is a way to enable full marketplace access without losing any custom features of the foreign network. We can do this by creating an XCM NFT controller contract that shares the PSP34/1155 interface. The controller contract will contain the asset metadata and ownership data of the NFT that exists in the foreign network’s state, effectively creating a shallow copy of the original asset on Astar Network. The owner of the original NFT can sign the transaction for the controller contract on Astar, which will initiate a remote transfer on the foreign parachain where the original exists, and transfer the NFT on behalf of the owner. The controller contract will change the owner of the asset accordingly.
This way, we can have the full metadata of the NFT and the ownership proof in a PSP34/1155-compatible format on Astar Network. So, with a single account users can interact with NFTs from various networks without losing the unique features of the NFT since the ownership of the original asset will be the same as the mirrored ownership on Astar Network. Furthermore, developers will only have to integrate with the Astar RPC and implement the PSP34/1155 and ERC721/1155 interface to access all the NFTs throughout the Polkadot ecosystem.
This is just the tip of the iceberg on how developers on Astar Network can leverage the power of XCM, and how parachains can work together to create an innovative one-of-a-kind dApp.
The Astar Vision
Some of the example use cases described in this paper may not be feasible in practice, some features might not be possible with the current version of XCM, or the development process may be too unbelievably complex for anyone to actually make it. But imagine if there is a utility smart contract that is dedicated to sending XCM calls for specific extrinsics on a parachain deployed on Astar Network, and all developers have to do is load from that contract to fully utilize what the parachain can offer to their dApp. With the right tools, the right mind, and progress from the ecosystem, we believe that this will be the future of dApps in a heterogeneous network of blockchains.
Part 1 here: https://medium.com/astar-network/the-astar-vision-part-1-interoperability-and-multi-chain-dapps-30f014087831
The Astar Vision Part 3: The Innovation Hub of Web3.0 was originally published in Astar Network on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
