Hello everyone!
I’ve been in crypto for almost 4 years and understand that narratives play a crucial role in attracting liquidity and users, and potentially in retaining them if we find good dApps (product market fit).
Given the current state of Astar, we are competing with Layer 1 (with large treasuries) and Layer 2 solutions (large treasury + low gas fees). Therefore, we need to focus on narratives where Astar has some advantages, such as:
Polygon AggLayer airdrop narrative (similar to Cosmos).
Ecosystem airdrop from YOKI (coordinating content for ambassadors and KOLs).
ETF from ASTR + RWA (very risky, haha).
Memecoins (but we need more bridges and CEXs to bring in liquidity).
Burn + deflationary tokenomics
GameFi or Socialfi with good rewards (similar do Sweet Economy on Near and STEPN Solana)
Gamblefi
AI narrative (infra projects and dapps)
Liquidity incentives coming from Polkadot or Polygon (simiilar to what HydraDx and StellaSwap did)
I would like to have the opinions from the Ambassadors , core team members and community on how to reach the retail base and which KOLs (perhaps a list) to target in order to generate some social volume and awareness.
For about 6 months now, Gustavo and I have been regularly meeting to discuss what can be done for the Astar Network.
Recently, we had a brief conversation with G Sama. The most essential thing for the Astar Network is to transition new users into the ecosystem. Unfortunately, even though we may look at everything with a bullish perspective, as someone who has been in crypto since 2015, I must say that we can move to a stronger community infrastructure.
For this reason, I definitely support Gustavo and want a meeting to be held.
Thank you for the very interesting topic. I entered this market in the latter half of 2021, around the time the term “web3” started to appear, so I may not be as experienced as some of you.
However, I believe that in order for Astar to increase its market recognition and grow in the future, it is necessary to move away from a Crypto Native perspective. Personally, I think the following points are important for mass adoption:
Adoption of Blockchain by Japanese companies and the launch of use cases
Japan is lagging behind the world in the Crypto and web3 market. This is because Japan is very wealthy and has other good solutions without relying on Crypto. Also, the Japanese people are very skeptical and cautious. On the other hand, there is a strong pressure to conform, so once a certain level of trustworthy direction is shown, everyone starts walking in the same direction all at once. Therefore, I think it is important to create a new killer application that is convenient and can be used by anyone on mobile.
Japan is conservative (in a good way, safe and secure), so if a killer application is launched in Japan as a global first, I expect it to be adopted overseas and expand mass adoption outside the country.
Vision of the future next-generation Internet
This may take some time, but I feel that the vision of seamlessly connecting realistically independent blockchains is gradually becoming visible. There will be more geniuses than me in terms of technology, and I expect the same from the young people of the future, and I hope to support such young people.
I am an engineer at a major IT company in Japan, so I may be somewhat biased. Nevertheless, I will continue to support Astar from my position or even more.
I believe the concept of Yoki is great. However, by to have stronger connections with various communities on Twitter (such as Airdrop threads), Telegram groups, and Crypto YouTubers, we can reach an even broader audience. A gamified campaign like YOKI, featuring great visuals and a clear reward system, can generate significant engagement.
Additionally, by concentrating on video content, such as weekly live streams, short clips on Twitter and YouTube, and securing interviews with prominent YouTube channels, we can capture the attention and interest of the crypto community.
In crypto, many things are built on hype. I support you in this matter, but the focus of Startale, which was established for Japanese companies, on creating different blockchains in the developments it makes with companies here, for example, Sony, frightens me. I am concerned about Startale, which was established to focus on these companies in the future, not integrating anymore with Astar Network and the abandonment of Astar Network like Shiden.
If we are to proceed with this matter, we must work very carefully.
I also would like to see this type of open discussion. Others also have had some discussions separately, so perhaps time to get them converged.
Personally, these two narratives out of aforementioned narratives are where we can maximize the community engagement, which could bring new comers onto Astar Network.
For more liquidity, at the same time, if I am allowed to propose another narrative, then we do consider dApp staking v3 as a staking narrative. Already projects like Pyth, Celestia had sort of a staking narrative, and they seemed to bring quite of attention, though this might not be the only reason for such.
Thank you for bringing this topic, from my PoV related to Astar growth right now (aligned with global trend) :
RWA : I agree regarding RWA but we need a catalyst first like NFT was born from collection of images. Something that simple and ppl ez to understand. What Packs did with Pokemon cards actually very good, but Pokemon cards (not as a brand) relatively unknown in other part of the world. Please dont think it need to be “serious” RWA like gov bond, property, etc. Always start with entertainment / lifestyle first, but it need to be global.
AI : as a visual person (still working as a photographer IRL) , I haven’t see why need blockchain usage on blockchain for now ( @Leo pls correct me if I’m wrong) except when it came to crowdsourcing like RNDR or Gaimin did now.
Meme : @moonme was right, Memes are the best way to attract people (thus increasing txs), but please dont let Meme devs to fund their pool using our treasury fund like DED on Polkadot did. Doesn’t make any sense for me.
Staking narrative are also cool, like Celestia / Pyth did (@pithecus ) , basically we had staking narratives like VeryLongSwap, DeStore, Neurolaunche, etc. Stake on them, get more reward on their native token.
In terms of marketing, I think what Astar did still on the right track. Still keeping balance between backers (in this case Japan gov itself via NTT Docomo/Startale) and Foundation / community. However, in order to speed up mass adoption, we need to reach more ppl outside Japan (and Korea). Actually without being targeted specifically, LATAM region particularly Brazil, to my surprise ASTR is very well known.
From above points, strategically I think we need to consider :
Memes as the first getaway for liquidity and bringing more users, consider this as a “cheap” way but very positive in the long term. Lesson from Base, until now they didn’t have token but people loves to play over there. RWAs , more RWAs like Packs did. Very good to bring norms to explore more web3 tech. As the home of animes and mangas (added tokusatsu or super sentai) which IPs already extremely popular in global. I think Japan BD team should bringing this into web3. I myself wouldn’t mind spending 500-1000usd for an NFT added with RWA items if its original from Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball or Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira. I knew it will be difficult but can be achieved. But always remember, Japan’s anime booming was in 1980s-1990s, this will attract old users with big liquidity came to us for nostalgic feeling. Staking, at the moment Dapp Staking v3 is already running good, although we need to expect bad/good effect until the next period happens regarding the restaking mechanism. But so far, a lot of projects currently very competitive and keep building.
Remember we already on Ethereum eco, supposed to be quite easier for now to attract liquidity compared to when we only lived on Polkadot eco. From agent’s side, easier for educating users since we already integrated bridges from other L2s.
I support every point you mention, @souleater! On my part, I add the events, let’s not lose sight of how important it is to hold events, collaborate in others or simply sponsor certain things in more events.
We are already part of the Ethereum ecosystem, we should be more present in global events like ETHGlobal hackathons and community bounties like Gitcoin ones.
Sota already started to participate in ETH talks as it was in ETHDenver, I like that, we are already having presence in these events.
Yes, it is extremely important that we discuss the Astar narrative, but let’s not lose sight of the action, participation and sponsorship of events, it is just as important as all the rest.
I think it is key to bring liquidity incentives and leverage DEX in Astar Network. It is the gateway.
However, I also believe that it is important to publicize everything that has been done in Astar far beyond web3 users. We have to go to web2 users and show them.
Well, firstly, my market base is by far smaller than that of many here, but I share the same thinking as the ambassador, that Focusing on a Narrative is essential, not that others cannot be worked on, but there needs to be a focus directed towards something. I don’t agree with the idea of shooting everywhere, it can work, but it’s more of a physical and mental strain on the entire network. an example and As was put by @defiguy above, it is about Queimas, everyone is looking forward to the follow-up on the portal, I believe the image will be good once this view is available, everyone knows about the work done for the V3 update and without a doubt it was a success, now I believe that focusing on a certain area will be the key.
There are many narratives, and the market is getting bigger, more projects, liquidity is diluted and passed from one network to another, competing is more difficult every day, Astar has everything to grow!
There are many nascent projects with very good technology, but they must adjust their marketing strategy, many others have this covered but not the majority.
Astar should concentrate its efforts in creating their own strong DeFi projects, for example, Fantom held a hackathon with many mentors specialized in DeFi, including its co-founder Cronge, the winning projects will now form a mini ecosystem, to exploit DeFi and enhance it in a coordinated way, you can learn more here: https://x.com/FantomFDN/status/1759602592340975850?s=20
These projects will spearhead the new update of the Fantom network.
KOLs are good but they are shillers that fade away soon, we need to look for committed users not for fanaticism but for liquidity results.
With respect to the events I don’t agree very much! It is necessary to bind the masses who live on-chain.
The only IRL events that have an effect are the ones made by the Core Team!
In conclusion we must polish the bases and sort out the structure, what we want to do or be, and specialize in a specific area that highlights the virtues of the Astar network, we can not go jumping from one place to another this is very difficult.
Agree! Memecoins can onboard users, but most of them die pretty quickly and they need to have instant returns; otherwise, users will not maintain the hype. However, for this, we need more liquidity. Liquidity will come with incentives like airdrops and APY from DeFi.
But we have big competitors for attention and liquidity on L1 and L2. Perhaps trying to engage with the traders’ community and showcasing some opportunities on Astar could work.
IRL events can be effective if you manage to generate a good network and great projects from hackathons. However, developers are always looking for liquidity and grants to create their dApps. The current state of Astar demands reaching more people through content creation (live streams, videos, shorts, spaces) and interviews with key opinion leaders (KOLs) that can generate attention and, eventually, lead to the development of more dApps.
The example of Fantom can be interesting, but their TVL still not high, in the end most of Defi are just incetives coming from L1/L2 treasuries, creating a loop of free money, that can start to generate real yield from fees, for this your treasury needs to be massive
Thank you for your reply. I understand your concerns as someone who is native to web3 abroad. Here is my personal response based on my experience.
The environment in which Japan can actively engage in the Internet, or so-called ICT industry, is a bit different from abroad… That is, the solid system construction of many enterprises for core systems and consumers is done by system integrators. In other words, excellent engineers are gathered there. Therefore, there is a tendency to rely on solid system integrators for the system itself.
As an Astar Network, we cannot favor any company, so we established Startale, gathered web3 engineers there, and supported integration companies with little know-how of web3 system, or developed together, I think that we are trying to boost the current market. In other words, I believe that this activity is essential to promote the use of web3 in Japan.
Regarding the development of blockchain with Sony, this is also my imagination, but Japanese companies (especially large ones) hate the “first penguin” anyway. In other words, they are timid and do not want to fail, and tend to be too cautious. That’s why it’s often said that they are a few years behind the global market. However, when leading companies develop blockchain (for example, L2 independently) and set up use cases that can be used well, and it is understood that it brings profit to their business activities, there is a high possibility of entering the market at once. In that sense, I think it is optimal for Sony, which is challenging various fields, to lead web3 to further boost the market both in Japan and globally.
I believe that it will not lead to the extreme results you are examining in the future.
Your point of view is very valuable, I support much of it. If we take into account the current context of Astar, the creation of content in different formats would be much more attractive, however we should not reduce the weight of face-to-face events. IRL events are for connecting, sharing findings and much more. Meet the team, create more educational spaces, create events for attendees to earn money (challenges, tasks, hackathons, etc).
Here is the most successful case I have seen so far: Vara network. This network in just 1 year of life has already traveled more than 25 countries, sponsoring meetups, workshops and more. The benefits of doing this? Its brand is expanding globally by far, and it doesn’t belong to the Ethereum ecosystem (which is an advantage we have and haven’t squeezed).
I feel like we can do so much more with the treasury, resources and human capital we have, but we are limiting ourselves to just digital (which isn’t bad, but we can do more than that).