Hi Astar Collective
As one of the drivers of the Astar Collective, the Astar Foundation would like to open up further discussions related to dApp Staking. This thread is opened after comprehensive discussions within our community where certain changes have been raised to improve our current dApp Staking v3.
Related threads:
Before delving deeper, I would like to emphasize that this thread is to foster further discussions related to dApp Staking following our Rules of Engagement. We are looking to enhance our core feature for the long-term future and not discuss past issues because those have been highlighted more than enough in other threads.
When sharing ideas:
- Always back your points with proof and present them clearly.
- Keep the discussions productive.
- Avoid emotive, inflammatory, or unsubstantiated claims. Such behavior disrupts the communityās goodwill and may lead to content removal or suspension.
What Already Started
-
dApp Staking Code of Conduct:
It has been several years since the dApp Staking system has been operational within the community. During this time, while many projects have utilized the system, several issues have been raised and discussed within the community. Among these, voices are calling for changes to the dApp Staking system. In light of this situation, the Community Council has recognized the need for a solid and logical framework that leads to the growth of the Astar ecosystem by first correctly understanding and organizing the basics. The code of conduct will fit the Astar Collective vision.Read the full proposal here: Proposal for dApp Staking Code of Conduct
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Move Functionality:
One thing that the community has brought up is the issue of moving their stake from one dApp to another without losing the bonus reward. Right now, thereās no incentive to do that because the staker has nothing to gain, only lose! The issue has been discussed on GitHub (ref) and is further being built as a draft PR.The implementation timeline, including runtime upgrade, will be followed during the next āVotingā period. Learn more
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Next dApp Cycle Marketing Push
We need to drive positive sentiment about dApp Staking for outside audiences using the good points that we currently have and, at the same time, highlighting upcoming upgrades. Contents about Astar tokenomics should be aimed to be distributed to external audiences. However, tokenomics itself is not āsexy newsā.The media will not pick up tokenomics itself. Some of the directions we are thinking about:
- Prepare better tokenomics material for easier onboarding of new holders/communities. This could be both 1P material and 3P material. 1P material - explainer of tokenomics in more straightforward language with the right visibility (blog post). 3P material - research papers.
- When we have good news to distribute for Astar, we push it via PR/media/KOL channels and leverage existing materials to showcase strength, including tokenomics primer, research paper, etc, for a more substantial impact. One example of a research paper can be found here.
We are already actively doing this but will put more resources and budget into these areas. Additionally, we aim to increase the number of stakers in dApp Staking and lock more ASTR from the market. This is not intended to create further inflationary pressure but rather to foster a larger base of long-term, ecosystem-aligned ASTR holders, ultimately enhancing the value of the ecosystem.
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Anything Else?
We will continue pushing more CEX to integrate dApp Staking in their staking dashboards. Binance has been a great leader, but itās very challenging to expand this business further to other CEXs. These efforts will continue.
Background Information
Now, the most challenging part. What can we change in the short-term versus long-term? We have to be realistic about whatās possible to change to have a good impact. While thinking further about redesigning dApp Staking, I would like to share the process that had to be done to build out dApp Staking v1 and v3.
Example for v3 (using v3 as example because the initial v1 was done during the design of Astar Network started in 2019, v3 has been openly discussed within the community):
- [2022-11] - Start of the concept building of v3
- [2023-01] - Share design sketch with Astar community: dApps Staking v3 - proposal
- [2023-04] - Implement v3 in a complete revamp of our tokenomics: Reconsidering Astar's Token Economics
- [2023-04] - Added tokenomics specialists to our project, including budget allocation. We partnered with MVP Workshop.
- [2023-08] - Showcase the complete research & design that has been done around Astar new tokenomics 2.0: Astar Tokenomics 2.0: A Dynamically Adjusted Inflation including a complete benchmark report (here)
- [2023-09] - Technical Implementation started
- [2023-12] - Deployment on testnet, including audit start
- [2024-01] - Audit completed by SRLabs (report)
- [2024-02] - Set parameters and deploy on Astra & Shiden
- Documentation
By sharing all the steps mentioned above, I would like to make clear that making a big revamp takes research, architectural design, benchmarking, coding, testing, auditing, and fine-tuning. So, I would like to emphasize to everyone that the whole process took us more than one year, so please understand that our engineering and Astar Foundation arenāt that reluctant to change big things. We spent sweat, blood, and tears on this design and allocated a lot of funds to work this out, where we included our community from the first day of its design till the day it went live.
Because Astar Foundation was involved from day 1, and we have a full understanding of our intentions and design, we still feel we have created something unique with a strong foundation.
Because of this Astar Foundation, as part of the Astar Collective, we would like to propose opening up this discussion related to adjusting parameters instead of the foundation on which itās built.
Astar Foundation Proposal
- Introduce a new call to our runtime
set_static_tier_params
, root-only permission. This means that all parameters can be changed through a governance referendum. - When this new call is introduce we can do the following changes:
- Source of all values that can be changed are explained here: dApp Staking Parameters | Welcome to Astar
What we are thinking about changing that needs further discussion:
Reward Distribution
- The percentage of the total reward amount going to which tier (e.g., 25% of the total dApp reward pool goes to tier 1 pool).
- The sum of percentages can be less than 100% (basically burning part of the rewards if 100% is not met).
- Keep in mind there are tier rank rewards, which means that as dApp earns more support within the tier, it can earn up to double the tier rewards.
SlotPortions
- The percentage of slots assigned to each tier (e.g. 5% of total slot number goes towards tier 1 dApps)
- The sum of percentages can be less than 100% (basically eliminating capacity and reduce slots)
Tier Thresholds
- The percentage of the total issuance that defines the tier entry threshold (e.g. for tier 1, dApp might need to have staked between 3.57% and 2.38% of the total issuance).
- More detailed formulas can be found here: dApp Staking v3 Technical Overview | Welcome to Astar
An additional option will be added to also change the formula for calculating the base number of slots. For Astar itās defined as 100 slots at price 0.05$.
number_of_slotsAstarā=floor(1000āASTR_USDā+50)
This formula is a very simple linear equation (y = a*x + b
). Therefore, itās very simple to also allow the setting of a
and b
via the aforementioned call. We are still in discussion to see if this should be implemented.
The objective coming from recent discussions inside the community is to create a more ecosystem growth-aligned inflation and, if possible, decrease inflationary pressure.
Whatās Next?
- Use this thread to understand if the community agrees on the Astar Foundation approach or wait for more proposals coming from the Astar Collective. As Astar Foundation, I believe we should seek broader input on the direction of Astar beyond just aligning with our direction. If the community thinks another direction is better than the existing one, the Astar Foundation should support those proposals in the best interest of Astar Network and its token.
- If the community agrees on the Astar Foundationās proposal with the focus on adjusting the parameters above as a short-term solution. We have created a spreadsheet with the current parameters of our tokenomics. This spreadsheet will be the working document to find a more balanced system in the current framework. You can already check the spreadsheet here. Please note that certain parameters can not be modified but this will be explained when moving the direction is approved.
- Gather suggestions from the community based on this spreadsheet backed by their research and reasoning.
- Apply new parameters through onchain governance referendum.
I hope by creating this thread, the Astar Foundation shows its everlasting commitment to Astar Network and its Collective.
Disclaimer: This discussion is solely focused on adjusting the parameters of dApp Staking V3 and does not involve proposals for V4, reverting to V2, or modifying the core architecture of dApp Staking. Please keep feedback and suggestions relevant to the optimization of V3 parameters. Broader discussions about the overall structure or validity of V3 fall outside the scope of this thread and can be discussed in separate topics.
Kind regards
Maarten Henskens
Head of Astar Foundation