Mobile App for simplified staking on Astar & Soneium

Astar Astar Initiatives
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Mobile App for simplified staking on Astar & Soneium

Hello everyone, I’m Juminstock! DevRel, Technical Writer and Astar y Soneium Agent :saluting_face:.

I bring a proposal of an idea that I have been working on in the last weeks and it is about: The creation of a Mobile App that serves for staking in the Astar dApp Staking using ASTR, ETH, USDC, USDC.e or USDT through Astar L1 or Soneium and integrates AI Agents for automation and efficiency.

Introduction

My goal with this proposal is to develop a revolutionary Mobile App that transforms how users stake on Astar & Soneium. With this application, I plan to enable users to stake ASTR, ETH, USDC, USDC.e, or USDT in Astar dApp Staking quickly and efficiently, minimizing the current friction and drastically improving the user experience through automation with AI Agents.

Background

What is Astar dApp Staking?

Astar dApp Staking is an innovative mechanism that rewards developers for building applications on the Astar network and stakers for delegating ASTR to these applications. This model has significantly contributed to the network’s growth over the past three years and continues to evolve.

Current Problem

Currently, staking on Astar involves multiple manual steps and processes that can be confusing for users. The need to manually swap tokens on external DeFi platforms adds complexity and may discourage participation in staking.

Aspect Current State With the Mobile App
Accessibility Complex process with multiple steps Intuitive interface with only 3-4 steps
Accepted Tokens Only ASTR ASTR, ETH, USDC, USDC.e, USDT
Token Swaps Manual swaps on external DEXs AI Agent optimizes and executes swaps automatically
Staking Monitoring Need to go to Astar Portal Real-time dashboard displaying staking status on mobile
Supported Networks Only Astar Astar & Soneium with interoperability

Motivation

I plan to develop this Mobile App because the current staking system on Astar urgently needs improvements. The friction in the process discourages many users and limits the ecosystem’s growth. With this application, I will provide a solution that optimizes the staking flow and maximizes the adoption of ASTR as the network’s primary token.

Key benefits of this Mobile App include:

  • Increased staking adoption on Astar and Soneium.
  • Optimization of ASTR usage as the primary staking token.
  • Smart automation with AI Agents to ensure efficiency and security.
  • Reduction of time and effort required for staking.

Proposal

How Will It Work?

  1. Users will open the Mobile App and select the amount and token they wish to stake.
  2. An AI Agent will analyze the best available DeFi options for swaps if necessary.
  3. The application will automatically execute the swap and convert the balance to ASTR.
  4. Staking will be initiated on Astar without requiring additional steps from the user.
  5. Users will be able to monitor their staking in real-time and manage their tokens intuitively.

Project Objectives

  1. Eliminate the barriers that currently make staking on Astar and Soneium difficult.
  2. Promote the use of ASTR as the primary staking asset.
  3. Expand the number of applications and use cases within the Astar Network.

Roadmap

Phase Description
Phase 1 Development of the Mobile App MVP with EVM/Substrate wallet connection and basic staking functionality on Astar.
Phase 2 Implementation of staking from the Soneium network using ASTR.
Phase 3 Support for staking with multiple tokens (ETH, USDC, USDC.e, USDT).
Phase 4 Development of internal swap modules to facilitate token exchange without leaving the app.
Phase 5 Expansion and optimization of the Mobile App on iOS and Android to ensure maximum adoption.

Conclusion

I am convinced that this Mobile App represents a fundamental shift in the staking experience within Astar Network and Soneium. With the implementation of AI Agents, automated swaps, and a modern, accessible interface, I will revolutionize how users interact with the Astar ecosystem.

This proposal is a Proof of Concept (PoC), and I would like to receive feedback from the Astar community to improve it. I am open to suggestions and comments to make this Mobile App as useful as possible for users and the ecosystem as a whole.

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Hi @Juminstock ! This is a fantastic idea, I really like it! As a strong supporter of Astar & Soneium, I see a huge opportunity in simplifying the staking process, and your Mobile App concept could be a game-changer in driving adoption! We have more and more mobile users, and if we can have a mobile app, I could check everything on my phone any time, this would be great!
Do you have an idea about who could implement this mobile app? I am also curious about the wallet integration, maybe with metamask? but how about the native astar, we should also work with wallet that supports native astar, like subwallet, nova, talisman, js. And we may also need to work with the native DEX and DEX on soneium, maybe get some feedback from arthswap, sonex, etc. ?

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Thanks for adding your comments, buddy!

I totally agree with you, the number of people who have a mobile device connected to the internet is increasing, so it is an important market.

This is an end-user project, so it will be the people who do staking who will be part of the project’s target.

Here I plan to do two things:

  1. generate new wallets with Social Login or passwordless through Thirdweb or WalletConnect (own) services.

  2. Allow users to connect their wallet of choice.

This is great advice, buddy! Thanks for sharing it, more in the future I might have a conversation with these teams and look for a direct integration that will allow users to make swaps. I will raise it when the time comes → Roadmap.

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Thank you! That’s a fantastic idea!
Abstracting dApp Staking will be incredibly useful for users.

There are a few points we might need to discuss regarding the specifications:

  1. If we accept tokens other than ASTR, how should withdrawals be handled? Currently, tokens are swapped to ASTR before participating in dApp Staking, but it might be useful if users could choose their preferred token when withdrawing.
  2. Controlling staking from Soneium might be quite challenging. What kind of flow do you have in mind?
  3. If omitting the selection of staking destinations is acceptable, we could consider using LST. In this case, when users want to unstake, they could withdraw instantly via a swap mechanism on the backend.
  4. How do you plan to cover operational costs? Since this could be considered a public goods project for the Astar Ecosystem, one option is to receive funding from the treasury and not charge any fees.

There are many possibilities for this application (e.g., enabling governance participation or allowing LST to be used in DeFi), but for now, we are focusing on dApp Staking.

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Wow! This is something that will add a lot of value… In fact, the staking process can remain in the background for users, and the UX/UI can be greatly simplified. I have a few questions:

  • Will staking be conducted only on the native side, or will there be support for other options?

  • If a user holds native Astar, how can they stake using Astar EVM?

  • Which liquidity routes will be used to facilitate transactions between Astar and Soneium?

  • How will the integration between Soneium and Astar work in the background?

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Thanks for joining the conversation, @you425! Your comments are always great and fuel the discussion. Here are my responses:

That’s a terrific idea! The way I had it planned was:

If the user staks in USDC, the tokens he will receive when withdrawing should be USDC, automatically the AI Agent of the app would take care of unstake, swap from ASTR to USDC and then withdraw, all this signing the AI Agent for the user which would reduce the steps and be more comfortable for the user.

This is a total challenge :joy:, you said it yourself. What I had in mind was to generate liquidity pools from Soneium and send them to Astar through Layer Zero as it has modules that allow this fund management. At this point I would love to talk to Astar’s technical team and ask for their opinion.

This can definitely be a solution, but it would not be a complete solution as my main goal is to increase the usage of ASTR itself. It should be noted that I am not a DeFi expert, I will also need support in this part :face_holding_back_tears:.

I want the app to be gasless, passwordless and signless using Account Abstraction! So yes, I had already considered asking for additional funds to cover at least SOME transaction costs.

But, I had planned to replicate Safe’s model: only cover a maximum of 5 free transactions per day. This in order to protect the community funds that are allocated (if approved) and to allow more users to enjoy free transactions as well.

Of course it is! All this we can include in later versions of the app, as you mention, the focus in V1 and V2 will be: Astar dApp Staking.

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Totally! In short, it is something that can generate a lot of value to the ecosystem. I imagine being able to present this app at every Astar & Soneium event, it would be great!

I will answer these two questions here:

It won’t matter if the user will have ASTR native or ASTR in EVM, the AI Agent will take care of detecting this, take it to ASTR native (if needed), send it to Astar L1 via Layer Zero and its modules or CCIP, do staking for the user. The idea is to abstract this layer of complexity and let the AI Agent take care of doing the best action (in terms of efficiency).

This planning the use of Liquidity pools and send this liquidity to Astar L1 through Layer Zero or CCIP (at this point I prefer to use Layer Zero). Although I stress that I am not a DeFi expert, I will need support from experts in this area later on.

The integration between Astar and Soneium will be through ASTR, simple! If users have ASTR in Soneium, in Astar EVM or Astar L1 it won’t matter because everything will be transformed to ASTR in L1 (the AI Agent will take care of it).

Thanks for joining the conversation, buddy!

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I think it’s a great idea, honestly, if it’s done I think it would favor interaction by being more accessible to any normal user, a very good idea @Juminstock :v:

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Thanks for your reply!

I see, that is the assumption. I don’t see a problem with that per se, but the ups and downs in ASTR prices may reduce the number of tokens that come back. I feel like you are assuming that the users of this app are not knowledgeable people, which could possibly cause some nasty problems.
So, it seems like reverting back to the original token should be an option, or at least a warning.

Yes, I think this is the way to go.

The flow I was envisioning would not be “swap to LST” but rather “deposit ASTR to LSD protocol and receive LST”, so the ASTR demand itself would not change either way. This would reduce the cost of implementation, especially since there are technical hurdles to staking from Soneum.
However, counterparty risk also increases, so sticking with native is not a bad idea. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, so I think it is important to decide what is important.

That’s a good idea!

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Thanks for your message, @Peri83! This is definitely something we’ll be working hard on to make it happen. You’ll surely be one of the first testers!

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This is an issue I’ve encountered and struggled to find a viable solution for because, as you mentioned, the goal of the application is to abstract ALMOST EVERYTHING. If a user deposits 100 USDC and receives only 58 USDC back after 60 days of staking (for example), that would be a terrible user experience.

IMPORTANT: One thing I do want to mention is that the V1 of the app will only accept ASTR for staking, whether the user deposits from Astar L1 or Soneium. Keeping this in mind, once more tokens are accepted for staking, the user must be informed that their tokens will ALWAYS be swapped for $ASTR and that it is a fluctuating token.

Now I see what you mean—great idea!

It’s possibly less complicated than what we have in mind, my friend. I’m developing a module with LayerZero that could potentially serve as a “first solution” :grin:.

This is definitely something where I’ll need technical and tokenomics advice :joy:.

Thank you for all your comments, questions, and suggestions, @you425. This feedback is really helpful for me to understand what to improve, how to improve it, and where I might find good solutions.

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Hey buddy - @you425 new integration on Soneium that can help us :sunglasses:

Link → Across is Live on Soneium—A Layer 2 Blockchain by Sony Block Solutions Labs | Across Protocol

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Awesome! I am super excited to check the MVP, bro. Please keep going
I support your idea.

Is there any security metric to prevent AI hallucination issue?

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Thanks a lot, my friend!

For now I will continue to polish the idea, create some views and document the project better. Next time I will have a clearer structure of the project.

Regarding this, I have to inform myself very well with experts in this area to determine an action that can avoid this as much as possible… great that you raise it, it is a possible problem to take into account.

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Across does not support Astar, so I believe that currently only Chainlink’s CCIP can be used.
However, it might be useful if you mean to participate in dApp Staking from a chain other than Soneium.

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I like the idea Bro! I understand that most people spend considerable time on their mobile phones. If we go in this direction, it would increase opportunities for people to directly access ASTR.

  1. Regarding the wallet that will connect with the app, what plans does the team have, including security matters?

  2. What are the details of the team’s costs in terms of the App and AI?

  3. What are the projected revenue sources for the team, and how will they be generated?

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That is very true but, since it is enabled in Soneium you can work on a possible integration for Astar :wink:.

Could you break this down further, what do you propose?

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Thanks for your questions, friend! They help to better understand the path to take on development issues.

Here are the answers:

  1. I plan to use walletConnect (Now Own) or failing that Privy in order to give the user the opportunity to create their wallets through social login and using passwordless service. In terms of security, these two applications are tremendously secure, plus I will also give the option to connect your preferred EVM and non-EVM wallet (Nova or Subwallet for example).
  1. I haven’t worked on this yet, I’m still in the planning and ideation phase :sweat_smile:.
  1. At the moment, I only plan to ask for a fair amount from the treasury to work out the V1 beta, then I plan to include the app in the dApp Staking. This is all an idea, as I mentioned, I’m still developing the idea.
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I think this is a great idea, I think it’s been a possibility from the beginning as many people do still use LST products like Algem directly from a mobile phone version with their Web3 wallet linked.

My question would be, how will you determine the costs to get this to the final stage?

Either way, lots of potential as long as it remains simple to keep the outcome objective and If it can all fit into practicality, which it sounds like it could do, then I would certainly look forward to hearing more about this!

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Totally true! Even LST products are a gateway to many users who barely know ASTR.

This is a topic I haven’t really dug into yet. I plan to do some testing, deploy certain services, implement modules and try to do some transactions to measure service costs but I won’t go in depth with this yet.

Very well said, I really appreciate you mentioning it like that, it will all depend on the technical complexities. Personally I also see a lot of potential here but determining whether to carry out the project or not will depend on its costs relative to its complexity.

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