Astar ASTR / Astar

What Is Astar (ASTR)?

Astar is a web3 collective building products that bring users onchain. It operates as a multichain ecosystem that coordinates products and contributors through a shared economic and governance framework.

Astar Network, Astar's own blockchain, anchors the Collective's governance and runs dApp Staking, while its products launch wherever their users already are. Product development is guided by the Astar Stack, the suite of products Astar is building to bring real financial activity onchain.

The first product in the Astar Stack is Astar Fi, an onchain personal finance manager incubated by Astar Collective. It brings a user's onchain net worth into one clear view, then lets them earn and invest from the same place. Astar Fi is multichain, starting with Ethereum and Base, and never takes custody of user funds.

ASTR is the economic and governance token of the Astar ecosystem, used on Astar Network for staking and onchain governance.

Who Are the Founders of Astar?

Astar was founded by Sota Watanabe, who started Stake Technologies in Japan in 2019 and built Plasm Network, the predecessor of Astar Network. Plasm Network rebranded to Astar in 2021, and Astar Network launched on Polkadot in January 2022.

Today Astar is run as the Astar Collective, a governed ecosystem of contributors and products. The Astar Foundation stewards the network and proposes direction, while decisions are made with the community through four councils (Main, Technical, Community and Finance) and onchain referenda.

What Makes Astar (ASTR) Unique?

Astar is a collective, not a single blockchain. Astar Network, its own Layer 1 in the Polkadot ecosystem, anchors governance and runs dApp Staking, which lets ASTR holders back the projects they want to support while the protocol rewards both stakers and the builders of those projects.

Products built by the Collective launch wherever their users already are, not only on Astar Network. Astar Fi, an onchain personal finance manager, runs on Ethereum and Base and does not require ASTR. The Yoki games run on Soneium. The Astar Stack groups these products around one goal: bringing real financial and consumer activity onchain.

ASTR itself is available beyond Astar Network: it moves between Astar Network, Ethereum and Soneium through Chainlink CCIP.

Related Pages:

Read about Polkadot (DOT) and Kusama (KSM).

What are decentralized applications (dApps)? Learn more with the CMC glossary.

Read our step-by-step guide on how to add Astar Network to MetaMask.