Proposal for Additional Support from Astar Network

Astar
1

Aradia is an emerging launchpad dedicated to enabling the creation and launch of NFTs and tokens within the Astar Network ecosystem. Our goal is to provide creators, developers, and communities with the tools, infrastructure, and visibility they need to bring meaningful projects to life on Astar. By focusing on accessibility, scalability, and cross-ecosystem collaboration, Aradia aims to become a cornerstone for project incubation and innovation on the network.

We are honored to have been accepted into the Astar UGC Program, which has played a crucial role in accelerating Aradia’s development. The support provided has allowed us to strengthen our technical foundations, improve our platform architecture, and refine our product roadmap. Despite this significant progress, the current resources are not sufficient to cover several essential operational costs required to maintain and scale our development efforts. To sustain our momentum and ensure long-term stability, we are submitting this proposal for additional funding.

Funding Request and Allocation
We are requesting $8,000 in ASTR, intended to support a 3 month development period. These funds will be allocated primarily to:

  • Core development efforts
  • API services and external integrations
  • Server infrastructure and maintenance
  • Essential tooling and operational costs
    Securing these resources will allow us to continue building a reliable, scalable, and secure platform aligned with the strategic needs of the Astar ecosystem.

In addition to technical development, we are actively executing and planning marketing campaigns in collaboration with large-scale projects and recognized artists. These initiatives are designed to attract new users, support creator onboarding, and expand the visibility of Astar across different communities. We are also working on bringing new integrations to the network, strengthening its overall utility and positioning.

To ensure accountability and trust, we commit to publishing monthly transparency reports detailing how funds are allocated, milestones achieved, and overall project progress. This will provide the community and Astar contributors with a clear understanding of the impact generated through this support.

This additional funding will significantly increase Aradia’s capacity to deliver on its roadmap, enhance platform reliability, and expand its contributions to the Astar ecosystem. With continued support, we are confident that Aradia will evolve into a leading launchpad that empowers high-quality projects and drives meaningful growth within the Astar Network. We deeply appreciate your consideration and look forward to continuing our work together to strengthen and expand the ecosystem.

We’ve already published our second month report!!

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Hi @Aradia! I’ve analyzed your proposal in detail, and I’m not in favor of it, at least not until your project moves beyond its current stage. Let me share a more precise breakdown of my position:

1. Roadmap execution (Phase 2 – Month 2: Mainnet Launch on Astar)

First, I reviewed your roadmap, and it’s unclear to me whether you actually met what you outlined for Phase 2 (Month 2): Mainnet Launch (Astar). According to your proposal, you committed to the following:

  • Features: NFT Drops, advanced token parameters.
  • Target Metrics: 2,000 mainnet NFTs minted, 300 tokens created, 5,000+ transactions.

What exactly are advanced token parameters? These appear to have already been implemented according to your Month 1 report.

NFT Drops were also created and published during Month 1 (justification applies here as well).

In your second report, you stated:

“This month definitely tested us. We faced a series of attacks on our infrastructure that slowed down our roadmap, but we used that as fuel to harden our foundation. We’ve successfully migrated to a much more robust and secure server environment.”

However, this is something that you, as a team and as a developing project, should have already considered from the beginning as part of preventive security planning.

  • The second issue here is: where can I see the 5,000+ transactions promised for this second month? I don’t see a detailed report or progress update regarding this metric in your second UGC report.

2. Phase 3 (Month 3): Gamification & Partnerships

The second point relates to what you are supposed to deliver in Phase 3 (Month 3): Gamification & Partnerships. You mentioned:

  • Features: Expanded leaderboard rewards, partnerships with artists & gaming projects.
  • Target Metrics: 3,000 NFTs minted (cumulative), 50 active token contracts, 10,000 transactions.

What is the progress on this?
What partnerships have you secured?
How do you plan to expand a leaderboard that has not yet been launched?

Phase 3 is already underway for your project, so there should already be meaningful progress in this area.

3. Go-to-market strategy

The third point is more related to your go-to-market strategy. I won’t go into too much detail here, but the key issue is that I’m not seeing real execution or fulfillment of what you outlined. You mentioned the following:

Go-To-Market Strategy

Hype & Awareness

  • Cross-promotion with Astar & Soneium official channels.
  • Partnerships with NFT guilds, gaming collectives, and artist communities.
  • Educational content (threads, TikTok/Reels/Shorts) to onboard non-Web3 creators.

User Acquisition

  • Quests on Zealy/AirLyft with NFT + whitelist rewards.
  • Regional activations via Web3 hubs in LATAM, SEA, EU.
  • Referral incentives for early community growth.

Flagship Launches

  • Partner with known artists & brands for first NFT drops.
  • Community spotlight series featuring collections built on Aradia.

Retention

  • Seasonal competitions with rewards for top creators & traders.
  • DAO governance rights for active users.
  • Continuous gamification updates to keep engagement high.

So far, the only things I’ve seen are retweets on your X account and a collaboration with Talisman (the latter is great and deserves recognition). Aside from that, I don’t see real reach or execution of what was promised.

Lastly, I’m not pleased with the abandonment of your social media channels, it currently looks like an abandoned account, with 14 days since your last post. This is particularly damaging from a social media algorithm perspective.

There are other reasons why I’m not in favor of the proposal, but they don’t need to be mentioned here. The points above represent the main pillars of my justification.

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I agree with Carlos here. The feedback is fair and well-grounded in execution rather than vision. At this stage, the gaps between the roadmap commitments and what can be independently verified on-chain and publicly (metrics, GTM execution, activity) are still too large.

Additional support should come after clearer delivery on the stated milestones, stronger traction signals, and more consistent communication. Re-applying once those fundamentals are in place would make the proposal much easier to support.

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I agree with @Juminstock that requesting additional treasury support should be evaluated based on proven traction, especially at a time when Astar is focusing on optimizing its resources.

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5

I’ve read your proposal and I wanted to share my personal view as well.

What makes me cautious about an additional funding request at this stage is that some of the elements originally outlined in your roadmap don’t yet seem to be clearly reflected in the current results. In particular, parts related to on-chain activity, usage metrics, and ecosystem traction that were mentioned as targets are not easy to verify from the outside based on the latest reports.

In a context like this, and considering that UCG support has already been provided, I find it reasonable to first expect clearer alignment between what was initially committed and what is demonstrably live and active today before extending further incentives.

For this reason, I personally align with the position expressed by @Juminstock .

2 Likes