Dec 17, 2021
What we’ve learned from launching Shiden
Abstract
Following the Kusama ideology, we deployed Shiden — a wild cousin of Astar, a smart-contract parachain empowered by a multi-virtual machine. Shiden parachain designed for supporting EVM and WASM contracts and dApp staking.
DApp staking is a unique feature introduced by the core Astar team. Due to Polkadot’s shared security feature, it is possible to create uncommon use-cases for native parachain tokens. In addition, DApp staking allows developers to get basic income for deploying dApps on Astar & Shiden. Learn more.
Launching a Substrate parachain on Kusama was an essential experience for Astar developers. So we decided to share our knowledge of launching a smart-contracts-centric Substrate chain for the common good of the Substrate developers community.
What have we learned from launching Shiden?
- Add the EVM module in the runtime before issuing the genesis block.
We had issues with bringing infrastructure builders and early adopters because we did not include Frontier pallets that enable EVM on Substrate parachain.
💫 We will not make the same mistake with Astar.
Astar will support Frontier pallets from the beginning. The only difference with Moonbeam parachain would be in addresses. Instead of hiding the Substrate layer from users, Astar will support both Substrate and Ethereum addresses simultaneously. It will allow developers to use EVM + WASM contracts and the native cross-chain messaging protocol (XCMP).
- It’s necessary to have a database of crowdloan participants to distribute rewards. Without a database, you’ll have to make complex inquiries to Kusama to gather information from different blocks.
- Anticipate high trading volume after enabling transfers.
The team underestimated the trading volume of new blockchains. However, we have learned a lot about carefully planning when rolling out base features such as transfers. - Prepare the technical infrastructure beforehand.
Shiden’s development helped us to prepare Astar for a smooth launch.
🛠 Truffle, Remix, Hardhat — are supported on Astar. We’re updating documentation now!
- 🎯 For providing indexing and oracle products on Astar parachain, the team is working on the Graph, Subquery, and Chainlink integrations.
- ⛓ Batch call — is a general Substrate function that allows bundling multiple calls into one transaction. It’s necessary for dApp builders to interact with parachain and provide dApp staking rewards.
- The Parity team is super helpful and responsive.
💡 If you have any issues with the Substrate framework, you’ll always get help. Before deploying runtime upgrades, conduct dry-runs on Westend — the latest test network for Polkadot.
Key takeouts
- If you’re planning to support Frontier EVM pallets, add them before issuing the genesis block.
- Without a database of crowdloan contributors, you’ll have to make complex inquiries to Kusama, which makes the process of identifying contributors more difficult.
- Prepare the development infrastructure beforehand.
- Before deploying on the main network, make sure to do a dry run on Westend.
About Astar Network/Shiden Network
Astar Network (previously known as Plasm) is a dApp hub on Polkadot that supports Ethereum, WebAssembly, and layer 2 solutions like ZK Rollups. Astar aims to be a multi-chain smart contract platform that will support multiple blockchains and virtual machines. Shiden Network is a sister network of Astar Network and a dApp hub on Kusama.
