Granting StakeCraft 280250 ASTR for Snapshot Services Provided in Q3 and Q4 2026

Governance
1

Discussion:

https://astar.subsquare.io/treasury/proposals/36

TLDR:

StakeCraft has been officially providing snapshots for Astar & Shiden since Q4 2022 (snapshots for Shiden were terminated since June 2025 due to a request from the Astar Team) and continues to do so to this day, assisting collators in bringing their nodes online as quickly as possible to minimise downtime.

Proponent Address: Wj14Wp8CD8D8K58hpxbuFSTmXyFeBvjfAoJqbHjrHRsm1pN

Requested Amount: $ 241.50/month (±280250 tokens at the average price of Astar, ±$0,005152/Astr, according to Coingecko on the date the vote was created, to cover server costs and support).

Date: 14.07.2026

Short Description:

The snapshot service is intended for collator nodes, namely, it helps to bring the node back online in a very short time, because pruning 1000 is set.

At @bLd759 request, starting from June 1, 2023, the snapshots were switched to archive.

There is also a link to our GitHub where you can find all the information related to the Astar Snapshot service, and on our Website.

Moreover, we’re excited to share our innovative service, All4Nodes.io, where you can also find these snapshots. Serving as the ultimate hub for node operators and blockchain enthusiasts, All4Nodes.io offers a comprehensive suite of resources to streamline your blockchain journey. From snapshots and endpoints to explorers and comprehensive guides, All4Nodes.io equips you with everything you need to navigate the blockchain landscape easily. Unlock the full potential of blockchain technology with the All4Nodes Aggregator Service developed by StakeCraft.

Background:

Hi everyone,
STAKECRAFT supported Astar since it was called Plasm Network and was chosen as one of Astar’s first collators at the beginning of 2022. We are confident in the future of Astar.

Proposal:

We want to request $2070 for Q3 & Q4 2025 ($241,5/month) in ASTR from the Astar treasury as a reward for providing our Snapshot service. We ask this amount to cover expenses on the server and its support.

Statistics of usage:

Our snapshot downloading statistics for Astar showed that the snapshots were used for the period from January 1st to June 30th:

approx. 39 times per month for Astar;

Responsibilities:

  1. We are committed to keeping the service running and updating it regularly.

  2. The address of the fund recipient: Wj14Wp8CD8D8K58hpxbuFSTmXyFeBvjfAoJqbHjrHRsm1pN

  3. There is no cancellation period from our side for running the snapshot service

  4. Snapshots are updated daily

The options to contact the manager of the funds are:

Email: support@stakecraft.com

Telegram: @urb4n_thr34t

You can also track discussions of all previous proposals granted to StakeCraft:

Q4 2022: Proposal #1

Q1 & Q2 2023: Proposal #2

Q3 & Q4 2023: Proposal #3

Q1 & Q2 2024: Proposal #4

Q3 & Q4 2024: Proposal #5

Q1 & Q2 2025: Proposal #6

Q3 & Q4 2025: Proposal #7

Q1 & Q2 2026: Proposal #8

1 Like
2

It’s quite surprising to see snapshot proposals coming back when Polkadot stopped paying for these services long ago and sync=warp has already been active for a while.

Are we solving a real problem here, or are we just keeping old habits alive?

3

@astarian If you’re not familiar with what we’re doing, it’s probably best to read the thread from the beginning before posting such comments.

Thanks.

4

With Warp Sync, snapshots are redundant and Polkadot stopped funding them in April 2023.!!!

5

Thank you, @StakeCraft , for the continued transparency and for the service you have run for Astar since Q4 2022. The Main Council has reviewed this request and I want to share our position.

Council decision

Unlike the previous renewals, the Council has decided not to approve this grant through a Council treasury motion. This is not a rejection of StakeCraft. We believe a recurring treasury spend of this kind should be decided directly by ASTR holders through a public referendum, not settled by Council on their behalf. As Astar decentralizes, this class of decision belongs with the token-holder base.

Our reasoning

Our review raised questions about the core justification, which is framed around helping collators come online quickly and minimise downtime:

  • Database snapshots are a discouraged fallback in our own node documentation, not the recommended recovery path.
  • Collators run pruned nodes, and these archive-only snapshots do not work on pruned nodes.
  • The recommended way for a collator to minimise downtime is a redundant failover node kept in sync, not a snapshot restore. For the relay chain, warp sync brings a node up in under 15 minutes, so relay snapshots are explicitly discouraged.
  • The one genuinely defensible use is archive / RPC-node bootstrap, where rebuilding a full archive database from scratch is slow. That is a real but narrow need, and it is not what this proposal is currently scoped around.
  • Reported usage is modest, around 39 downloads per month.

None of this means the service has no value. It means the decision is a judgment call that token holders should make with the full picture in front of them.

Recommended next step

Your treasury proposal is already onchain as proposal #36, so there is no need to resubmit anything. To let ASTR holders decide, the proposal can be taken to a public referendum. The steps, following the token-holder governance guide, are:

  1. Create a preimage under Advanced/Preimages on https://astar.subsquare.io/ with the call treasury.approveProposal(proposalId: 36). This is the exact action that, if the referendum passes, releases the treasury spend for proposal #36.
  2. Submit that preimage hash as a public proposal under Democracy/Public Proposals.
  3. Other token holders can then second the proposal, at which point it is tabled to a referendum and all ASTR holders vote.

Reference: Astar Onchain Governance | Welcome to Astar

It would strengthen the referendum discussion to address who actually depends on the snapshots, in particular archive and RPC node operators, with usage evidence. That gives voters a clear picture of the real demand.

If there is genuine demand across the community, a referendum is the cleanest way to demonstrate it. Either way, the decision sits with the people who hold the token.

Thank you again for your work and for engaging with this process.

Gaius_sama :astr:

On behalf of the Astar Main Council

6

Hi @Gaius_sama
Done!

7

Hi @StakeCraft, a quick but important follow-up on the on-chain setup, please read before the referendum progresses.

There is a technical error in both on-chain proposals that would cause you to receive far less than intended.

1. Treasury proposal #36 requests the wrong amount. While the description reads 280,250 ASTR, the actual onchain spend value of the proposal is only 1,000 ASTR. Onchain execution pays out the value field, not the text in the description, so as it stands this proposal would release only 1,000 ASTR to the beneficiary.

2. Public proposal #28 inherits that error. That referendum calls treasury.approveProposal on proposal #36. If it passes, it approves #36 exactly as created, which means only 1,000 ASTR would be paid out. Passing the vote would not fix the amount.

Treasury and democracy proposals cannot be edited onchain after submission, so both need to be recreated correctly. The fix:

  1. Create a new treasury spend proposal with the correct value of 280,250 ASTR to your beneficiary address Wj14Wp8CD8D8K58hpxbuFSTmXyFeBvjfAoJqbHjrHRsm1pN. Double-check the amount field before submitting, and note the new proposal ID it receives.
  2. Create a new public proposal whose preimage calls treasury.approveProposal(proposalId: <new ID from step 1>), submit it under Democracy/Public Proposals, and let token holders second and vote on it.
  3. Mark the incorrect proposals so no one acts on them. Please update the title of both #36 and #28 to flag them clearly, for example “Wrong Proposal - Please vote NAY”, as has been done before for mistaken proposals. This prevents anyone from seconding or approving the versions with the wrong amount.

Reference for the full flow: Astar Onchain Governance | Welcome to Astar

I would recommend correcting this before the community starts seconding #28, so nobody votes on a proposal that cannot deliver the intended amount. Happy to help confirm the new setup looks right once you have recreated it.

Gaius_sama :astr:

On behalf of the Astar Main Council

1 Like
8

Hi @Gaius_sama
Noted, my apologies.
Step no.1 completed - Untitled - treasury proposal #37
Step no.2 NO - when I try to submit a new preimage, I receive an error.

image
image786×228 13.7 KB

Do you have any suggestions?

Regards,

StakeCraft

9

Hi @StakeCraft,

The error is due to the preimage having already been created by you.

image
image1048×436 44.8 KB

Hash: 0xd76ccfad43609f7180b680084e793c09a5a6b7e0d6f04fb0c1c1ed00bbad7d1a

You can proceed to step 2 and submit this preimage under Democracy/Public Proposals.

Please ensure the incorrect proposal title and description (via editing) are updated before it moves to voting.

Gaius_sama :astr:

On behalf of the Astar Main Council

1 Like