Centralized Exchanges + dApp Staking: A Key to Supporting Builders on Astar

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In regard to the 5% Burn Proposal, we saw many comments related to the Unstoppable Community Grants and the Community Treasury that feeds its. In order to address it and give more insight on how the foundation plans to support this, Im sharing this post which will give more clarity on how we are aiming to align our exchange partners with the community and its builders. Please feel free to read it and give any input or other ideas on how we can work with exchanges.

Centralized Exchanges play a pivotal role as gateways to the broader Web3 ecosystem. Not only do they facilitate the entry of new users into the web3 space, but also serve as essential platforms for education and awareness. At Astar Network, we recognize the immense potential of partnering with these exchanges to foster growth, drive brand awareness, and highlight our unique tech features. This post aims to give context to an idea we have been brewing for a while involving CEXs, and at the same time collect the community’s thoughts and comments on it.

The Strategic Importance of Centralized Exchanges

Centralized exchanges (CEXs) are often the first point of contact for many entering the web3 market. Their user-friendly interfaces, robust security measures, and extensive educational resources make them ideal platforms for onboarding new users. By working closely with these exchanges, we can ensure that more people learn about Astar Network and the transformative potential of our technology.

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Building Strong Relationships with Top Exchanges

Over the years, our team has cultivated strong partnerships with several leading exchanges. These collaborations have not only helped us reach wider audiences but have also reinforced our reputation within the web3 community. Our successful campaigns and joint initiatives with these exchanges have laid a solid foundation of trust and mutual respect.

Given this strong track record, we are confident in our ability to propose and execute more innovative and impactful campaigns. We aim to move beyond the typical strategies and create unique initiatives that truly resonate with our community and highlight our distinctive features, such as the dApp staking and our Community Treasury.

Showcasing Astar’s dApp Staking

Astar’s standout features is our dApp staking mechanism. This innovative tech allows users to stake their tokens in decentralized applications (dApps) built by the many teams and builders on our network. The user is earning rewards while simultaneously supporting the builders and the growth the ecosystem. By working with centralized exchanges, we can create tailored campaigns that educate users about the benefits of dApp staking, streamline the user staking experience within the exchange, and encourage users to participate and stake. It must also be stated that it has enabled the success of one of the cornerstones of our network – the Community Treasury.

The Community Treasury, Its Users, and You

One of the key outcomes we aim for with collaborating with exchanges is the strengthening of our Community Treasury. This treasury is open to Astar’s global user base, and numerous funding proposals, ranging from sponsoring events, to coordinating and spreading Astar nodes around the world, have been passed. It allows for creative ideas to be finance and grants access and opportunities to users of all different skill levels and backgrounds. For over 2 years, the community treasury has been instrumental in supporting a range of activities aimed at promoting and growing the network.

Here’s a handful of ways on how it has contributed to various initiatives:

  1. Supporting Astar Ecosystem Agents Program

    The treasury, and the continuous rewards it creates with support of it stakers, has been the main source of funding for its existence. The impact the agents have had on ecosystem and its community cannot be overstated. So much so that some have gone on to contribute as Astar core-team members themselves!

  2. Meetups, Workshops, and Developer Education

    Organizing and financing workshops and meetups, which are essential for community building and education, have been supported by the treasury. These events provide opportunities for casual users and developers to learn about Astar’s technology, share knowledge, and collaborate on projects. They also help onboard new developers and teams to the Astar platform, forming a vibrant and knowledgeable base of users and builders.

  3. Decentralization - Spreading Astar Nodes Around the World

    Funds have been used to create the “Peers Program” which aimed to deploy Astar nodes using Raspberry Pi devices, promoting decentralization and network security.

  4. Hackathon Partnerships

    Hackathons and competitions supported by the treasury encourage development on the Astar Network. For example, the community treasury supported Astar’s involvement in the one of the largest hackathons in Mexico, ETH Cinco de Mayo.

  5. Marketing and Community Engagement

    Marketing campaigns, content creation, and promotional activities funded by the treasury increase Astar’s visibility and attract new users and developers.

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Unstoppable Community Grants Program

Our growth strategy involves bolstering the Unstoppable Community Grant (UCG) program, which is closely tied to the size and health of the Community Treasury. This program is designed to support builders and innovators in and around our ecosystem, providing them with the resources they need to develop their projects. By being linked to the Community Treasury, it means more funds equates to more builders being supported. Learn more about the UCG here: Unstoppable Community Grants - Overview - Google Slides

Centralized exchanges can play a vital role in this initiative by creating staking campaigns that can directly contribute to the Community Treasury’s reward production. Collaboration like these will enhance the UCG program and ensure that more true builders benefit from the resources available.

Your Voice Matters!

As we embark on this exploration, we want to hear from you, our community. Your thoughts, ideas, and feedback are invaluable as we develop these new ideas around campaigns and initiatives to support builders. We encourage you to share your insights and participate in discussions about how we can leverage our partnerships with centralized exchanges to reach the true potential of Astar Network.

We look forward to your input and continued support as we navigate this exciting path ahead

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Thanks it was insightful

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Hello Maarten,

Thank you always for providing valuable and clear information. The content was very well-organized and easy to understand. This will allow me to convey the details about the community treasury of Astar Network more accurately to those around me as an agent!

In particular, I expect there will be updates in the future regarding the following points, and as a business person, I look forward to supporting and helping grow the web3 market in Japan.

Over the years, our team has cultivated strong partnerships with several leading exchanges. These collaborations have not only helped us reach wider audiences but have also reinforced our reputation within the web3 community. Our successful campaigns and joint initiatives with these exchanges have laid a solid foundation of trust and mutual respect.

Given this strong track record, we are confident in our ability to propose and execute more innovative and impactful campaigns. We aim to move beyond the typical strategies and create unique initiatives that truly resonate with our community and highlight our distinctive features, such as the dApp staking and our Community Treasury.

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Thank you for sharing. I have a few questions.

  • Is it correct to understand that if dApp Staking is implemented within CEXs, all of it will be staked in the “Community Treasury”?
  • I think there would be development costs to implement dApp Staking within CEXs. Who would bear these costs?
  • Currently, token listing support for CEXs is being provided through the “TGE Catalyst Grant”. Is this grant being funded from the Community Treasury?
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Might be there’s a cost to be covered but, pretty much that (CMIIW) Binance cold wallet is the largest ASTR holder in terms of CEXs if I follow the tx. And those ASTR are sitting silently not being staked at all (again CMIIW). So this strategy is pretty much to strengthen our primary core feature which is dApp staking.

Since Maarten mentioning it that all staked ASTR on CEXs only goes to Community Treasury, I guess CEX won’t be preparing dApp staking dashboard on their own UI. So I really support this program.

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Excellent attempt, thank you.

My question is basically the same as @bao 's and I am waiting for your answer to it.

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Thank you for sharing.

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Hi Bao

Thanks a lot for your questions.

  1. When talking with CEX in the current phase, it’s easier to get them staked on 1 dApp instead of letting them build up a complete dApp Stake integration. What we are currently doing and testing is working with a proxy contract, where, for example, the Astar Foundation can decide the dApp to be staked on or the dApp the exchange wishes to stake on.

  2. Development costs within CEX are on Astar Foundation. To be fully transparent, when exchanges see traction in a certain asset, they usually just ask for a marketing budget and take the integration cost on themselves.

  3. No this is not funded by the community treasury but by Astar Foundation. In case it would come from Community Treasury, this had to get community approval.

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This is a topic I’ve been considering as well.

I believe that a very simple model where users on CEX can only stake and unstake, receiving interest over different periods, would be ideal. Currently, with dApp staking, users cannot receive interest during the voting period and must participate in the dApp’s voting. I think one solution to this problem could be staking through the Astar Treasury, which might resolve this issue to some extent.

The most important factor, in my opinion, is how simply and intuitively users can perform staking.

Upbit has a staking menu.

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Very insightful, Maarten.

In this regard, how much of ASTR is allocated to CEX that is not currently in staking? Of course, a percentage is necessary for liquidity/market making, but is it possible to know how many of these tokens are not being used in CEX?

In the case of a proxy contract where CEX will delegate this ASTR, it can be decided by the Astar governance to rotate this ASTR for different dApps, or have a fixed amount coming to the community treasury, with another amount divided by voting.

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Can you clarify more about what you mean or rephrase? Not sure if I get your question.

This is a good topic that we will discuss with the first exchange we are talking with for this integration. Should be announced next week based on theirs experience and ours, we can dive deeper in to this topic.

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Thanks for the response, Maarten.

I was referring to how much of ASTR’s supply is allocated on this CEX, excluding the amount being used for market making and liquidity.

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Thanks for your clear explanation.

As you say, I think it’s easier for CEXs to stake in a single dApp.
I think the amount of tokens staked from CEXs is likely to be large, so it will have a significant impact on the whole system.

In that case, which dApp to stake in becomes a matter of high interest for the community, so I think this area needs discussion. If there’s any progress on this matter, please let me participate in the discussion.

Once again, thank you for sharing the information in advance!

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It would be great to be able to participate in dapp staking from CEX. I support it. If this proposal passes, how long will it take to develop?

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It’s difficult to say how much this CEX now holds in ASTR. They are using hot and cold wallets, not very easy to track :-). I would say it’s about +100M ASTR.

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This is one of the reasons why we choose to first move to the Community Treasury. When talking with Tier1 CEX and by them joining our dApp Staking on the Community Treasury they are indirectly supporting the projects that build on Astar Network through the UCG program.

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Some exchanges are already implementing :slight_smile:

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Thank you.
If Dapps staking from CEX becomes available, will the APR be the same? If there is no voting period for Dapps staking from CEX, I think the APR should be set lower than for regular Dapps staking.

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If Dapps staking from CEX becomes available, will the APR be the same? If there is no voting period for Dapps staking from CEX, I think the APR should be set lower than for regular Dapps staking.

I guess the CEX will vote on an existing dApp.
Probably, CEX will charge fees. So APR offered by CEX should be lower than native APR in dAppStaking (except if CEX incentive the staking). It’s the case for all other assets staking.

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Personally I am on favor of this proposal. More ASTR locked in the dApp Staking can be only beneficial for the ASTR token.

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