ASTR was built using a nominated Proof-of-Stake (NPoS) consensus mechanism, and operates as a Polkadot Parachain. It therefore benefits from Polkadot’s scalability and security through Polkadot's segmented design and shared security umbrella.

The network's native token, ASTR, operates as a utility token, a governance token and a staking token. Users can use ASTR to pay transaction fees, participate in the governance of the platform (via voting on or proposing referenda), and stake tokens for consensus and receive rewards. It has a total supply of 7,000,000,000 $ASTR with a circulating supply of 4,487,130,325 $ASTR, as of April 2023. The distribution of tokens is as follows: 30% to users and early supporters; 5% to the team; 10% to foundation; 5% for marketing purposes; 10% to protocol developments and grant programs; 5% to the on-chain treasury (DAO); 10% to early financial backers; 20% to parachain auction; 5% to auctions reserve.

The goal of the Astar project is to become a full-scale multi-chain [smart contract](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/smart-contract) platform that supports various [layer 2](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/layer-2) solutions, blockchains and virtual machines. The network is built on Parity [Substrate](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/substrate) - a [web 3.0](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/web-3-0) blockchain-building platform. Networks like Astar that build on Substrate benefit from features like upgradable blockchains, modular architecture, customizable block execution logic, and hot-swappable consensus. In other words, it's a framework built specifically for quick and easy blockchain development. In addition to the Substrate modules, Astar offers features such as: Operator trading: a mechanism for buying and selling [dApps](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-applications-dapps) that allows you to tokenize smart contracts, transfer ownership to other users, or assign other users as operators. Multi-Lockdrop: a modified Lockdrop which lets you distribute tokens across a network. Participants lock tokens from other blockchains for a pre-set time period, and native tokens are distributed between token holders over time. This method encourages users to participate in the life of the network. DApps staking & dApp rewards: Astar’s monetization model centers on a reward system for dApp developers who contribute to the growth of the ecosystem and add value to Astar Network. There’s a division of the reward per block, where 50% of the reward is distributed among developers of [dApps](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-applications-dapps) (10% to nominators and 40% to operators aka smart contract administrators), and the other 50% is distributed among validators. This instrument encourages nominators to stake on smart contracts, which in turn increases the value of the ASTR token.

The Astar Network was founded in 2019 by [Sota Watanabe](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sota-watanabe-b962b3110/), a blockchain pioneer who featured in Forbes30 Under 30 Asia in 2022. He has a degree in economics from Keio University in Japan. Throughout his career Watanabe has worked as a marketing specialist at Chronicled, at an IT-company in San Francisco, and has founded several companies in addition to those listed above, including Next Web Capital, an investment firm that supports entrepreneurs and their crypto startups. The Astar Network was known as Plasm Network until 2021, at which point it rebranded to Astar and then launched as a multi-chain smart contract platform on Polkadot in January 2022. Astar was developed by Stake Technologies, which is headquartered in Singapore and operates from Japan. Soto Watanabe, Astar’s founder, is also CEO of Stake Technologies.

Astar Network helps developers build decentralized applications ([dApps](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-applications-dapps)) and [layer 2](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/layer-2) solutions by providing interoperable [web 3.0](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/web-3-0) infrastructure, financial incentives, incubation programmes and technical support. It seeks to provide the best solution for all developers by supporting EVM and making a parachain where EVM and WASM smart contracts can co-exist and communicate with each other. Astar connects the [Polkadot](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/polkadot-new/) ecosystem with [layer 1 blockchains](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/layer-1-blockchain) like [Ethereum](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/) and [Cosmos](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/cosmos/). It's a Polkadot Parachain, and was designed as a multi-chain Polkadot dApp hub with support for [DeFi](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/defi), [NFTs](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/non-fungible-token), [DAOs](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-autonomous-organizations-dao), where developers can move beyond infrastructure and focus more on application development. The project, which is backed by Binance Labs and Coinbase Ventures, operates on two layers: the first layer is built on the [Substrate](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/substrate) framework, and the second is built using OVM or Optimistic Virtual Machine, for scalability.