In this blog tutorial, we show you how to add Astar to the MetaMask wallet. But first, we talk a bit about what Astar is, what it does, etc. If you do not want to read about that and directly want to see how to add Astar to MetaMask. You can go down this page and start reading “Getting Astar on MetaMask” to learn how to add Astar to MetaMask.
What is Astar Network?
The Astar Network works as the connector of connectors. Its blockchain network has the possibility to connect blockchain connection hubs like Polkadot, Cosmos, and other layer 1 blockchains with one another. On top of its capabilities to add rollups to the blockchain for when the user base becomes too large and scalability will be necessary.
The Astar Network lives as a para chain to the Polkadot ecosystem and is also hooked into the Cosmos hub and runs its own EVM. This all makes it super compatible with almost all other blockchains. And thus has the ability to bridge liquidity between ecosystems and towards its own ecosystem. The Dapp network makes it thus super easy for solidity developers to bridge their applications to the Astar Network and also write new code on top of it. Besides being EVM compatible it also supports WASM (Web Assembly) making it much easier to start building on the blockchain for many developers.
Check out their website for more details and to read their white paper.
Dapp stacking
One thing that makes Astar special is its “Build to Earn” model. This model makes it so that developers building on the network get paid to build. A 50% of the staking reward created on the network goes to these developers.
This should incentivize developers to keep on building on the network and thus create a rich and vibrant ecosystem over time. For Dapps that still need to attract a lot of people or are still working on developing their network, this will be a nice boost to get them to their end product.
What is Shiden network?
If you have heard of Astar you might have also heard of the Shiden network. To put it simply the Shiden network is like the little brother of Astar that instead of utilizing Polkadot uses the Kusama chain. And so brings smart contracts to the Kusama Relaychain.
For more information on Shiden, check out their website.
How to pay fees on Astar
Like with many other blockchains Astar has its own token that you need to hold to pay transaction fees. This token is called $ASTR and functions in the same way as ETH does on Ethereum and AVAX on Avalanche.
Transacting on its blockchain can only be done with the $ASTR token. So if you plan on using its blockchain, you should get some of the tokens. But be aware that these tokens go up and down in price, and we do not give out financial advice.
If you plan on moving liquidity to or from Astar to any other blockchain network, you should keep this in mind. On those other networks, you will need to use other tokens to pay for gas. So if you want to move liquidity through the network instead of keeping it on Astar. You will need other gas tokens too.
Bridging to Astar
Because Astar works as the ultimate bridging blockchain with its connectivity to basically all other major layer 1 networks. It also needs some good bridges that let you move freely between blockchains. As this is the main purpose of the chain.
That is why the network needs as many good bridges connecting to and from it. So it can reach its full potential. Luckily some bridges like the Anyswap bridge and the Celer bridge have already made it possible to move between it and many other blockchains.
Astar Explorer
Astar like many other blockchains records its transactions on the blockchain that stay there forever. This means that you can always look up and see what is going on with your transactions. Or see what transactions you or someone else has made in the past. To do this you will need an Astar explorer. Here you can find all the details and stats about its blockchain and follow transactions. So you can see if a transaction was confirmed or why it wasn’t.
Where to buy $ASTR
As we mentioned before to transact on the Astar blockchain you will need its native token $ASTR. This token can already be widely bought with it being traded on some of the biggest exchanges like Binance, Gate, Kraken, and Kucoin.
This gives $ASTR a lot of exposure to potential investors and users as buyers/sellers, and traders can easily access the token on a crypto exchange that they are already familiar with. But users of the blockchain can easily get the $ASTR token here so they can then withdraw it and use it on their own wallet. And then start using the Games, DEXes, and NFTs on the network.
The $ASTR token started out with a total supply of 7,000,000,000 tokens. But inflates slowly over time as the chain gives out 10% inflation per year. Which will be distributed 50% to its stakers and 50% to its developers that are building applications on its blockchain.
Wallets that support Astar Network
Astar like any other of the other custom EVM networks that we teach you to add to Metamask can also be added to any other EVM wallet. This means that wallets like Metamask, Bitpie, and MetaX can all add the network manually. But there are also wallets that have it pre-added for your comfort. All of these Astar wallets you can find here.
If holding the tokens in your own wallet is not your thing. You can also choose to hold your $ASTR tokens on a crypto exchange. With Binance, Kucoin as the optional exchanges. Here you could also lend out or earn a yield/dividend on your tokens. Making them a bit more useful in the long run.
Wallets that support Astar can also support its token types. Which should be the same as on Ethereum as it uses an EVM. Meaning your ERC-20, ERC-721, and ERC-1155 also have their version of it on Astar. Making it possible to interact with a similar system. But also making it possible to bridge these token types between blockchains.
Now that you are all informed let’s add Astar to your wallet!
Getting Astar on MetaMask
So to add the Astar to MetaMask you have to open the MetaMask wallet (In case you don’t have MetaMask yet, please get it on this page).
Once you have MetaMask installed, open it up on the full screen. So you will have the same screen as in our example here.
Now go to the top right of the screen where it says “Ethereum Mainnet” and click on the little arrow pointing down next to it. This opens the network’s tap where you can select all different types of EVM blockchains (Ethereum virtual machine) networks. Now here you can click on the Custom RPC to add a new custom EVM blockchain network of your choice. In this case, Astar.
Now Metamask will ask you for the data needed to connect the wallet to the Astar. Please fill in the list below.
Network Name - Astar
Astar RPC URL - https://rpc.astar.network:8545
Astar Chain ID - 592
Symbol - ASTR
Block Explorer URL - https://astar.subscan.io
When you have done this, you can just click save. And now you have added Astar to your MetaMask wallet.
If you would like to switch between the EVM blockchains. Simply click on the Network button in the top right of the screen to select another blockchain.
Because adding different types of EVM blockchains works the same, you can add any EVM blockchain in the same way. But instead of the list given in this blog, you replace that with another network’s ChainID, symbol, etc.
We hope this blog post helped you to integrate a new EVM into your MetaMask crypto wallet. So that you can now use Astar as much as you want.
Find your wallet here
In case you want to see all the other wallets supporting Astar. You can simply take a look here to filter between all wallets that do!
So we hope this article taught you more about how to add Astar to MetaMask wallet. But in case you have Questions regarding Crypto or Ethereum? Feel free to ask them on our socials. Because we are happy to help whenever we can!
So now that you know How to add Astar to MetaMask, are you ready to start using your own Blockchain wallet? Take a look at our unique wallet finder functions here! So you can find the perfect wallet for your blockchain.
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