Polkadot Parachain Astar Turns to Alchemy’s Crypto API in New Tie-Up

Astar Network, a crypto bridge connecting layer-1 blockchains which Ethereum and Cosmos with Polka dot ecosystem, today announced a partnership with blockchain development platform Alchemy.

The pairing will allow developers to use Alchemy’s so-called Supernode – a crypto API for Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum and the recently added Solana, which makes it easier to create decentralized applications (dApps). As Alchemy Supernode allows nodes to load large amounts of information, it enables better data analysis and – consequently – better scaling of the networks.

Developers can also leverage features previously unavailable on Polkadot, the Astar team said in an announcement shared with Decrypt.

“Supporting the developer ecosystem is one of Astar’s core values, and our collaboration with Alchemy will help bring even more incentives and innovation to the community,” said Sota Watanabe founder and CEO of Astar Network in a statement. “Our collaboration will provide the resources needed to expand the Web3 build environment at Astar, Polkadot and beyond.”

The Alchemy partnership will also include “Build2Earn”, a newly launched dApp staking initiative for Astar and its sister network called Shiden, which allows users to nominate their tokens for dApps they wish to support.

The Build2Earn model means that a portion of the rewards from each block is shared between developers and stakers who throw their money behind a dApp, creating a strong incentive for developers to get paid for their work.

“The idea is to distribute basic income for developers based on their performance from the block rewards,” said Astar’s CMO Valeria Kholostenko Decrypt. “That’s one of the unique features that Astar offers. It’s already available on the mainnet and dApp developers in our ecosystem can earn tokens while entering into smart contracts.”

What is Astar Network?

Based in Japan and formerly known as Plasm Network, Astar Network was launched in 2021 as a smart contract protocol compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and WebAssembly (WASM).

Now operating as a Polkadot parachain, Astar helps developers quickly migrate smart contracts and dApps from external networks so they can coexist and communicate with each other.

Polkadot is designed to be a data sharing network that can connect multiple blockchains and enable them to communicate with each other. Parachains are independent blockchains that run on top of Polkadot – interoperable both with the Polkadot network itself and other parachains.

In January this year, Astar raised $22 million in a strategic funding round backed by Polychain, Alameda Research and Polkadot creator Dr. Gavin Wood, among others.

“Becoming a Polkadot parachain was a big milestone for the team, but this is the first step,” the Astar team said at the time, adding that they plan to connect all major tier-1 chains by Q4 of this year.

Currently, Astar’s DeFi ecosystem has just over $55 million in total value locked up – a significant drop from the $387 million peak seen in April not long before the devastating crypto crash in the following months that wiped hundreds of billions off the market.

Perhaps with the help of Alchemy and the incentives it provides, Astar can return to its glory days sooner rather than later.