▶️Architecture

It allows developers to create a blockchain platform from scratch with interoperability with other blockchain platforms.

Figure 7. Astra Chain - Core Architecture

There are several main components that we want to highlight in this architecture:

ASTRAD

The short form of “Astra Daemon" refers to the compiled platform binary that runs on all Validator nodes. ASTRAD contains standard Cosmos modules like Auth, Bank, Slash, Stake, etc. that are required to run the blockchain platform

Validator

Validators are blockchain nodes that participate in the consensus process to confirm transactions and produce blocks. The consensus engine is Tendermint, a Byzantine Fault Tolerance state machine replication engine while the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) logic layer is provided by the Cosmos SDK.

IBC

Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) allows Astra to communicate with other Cosmos SDK-based blockchains that have IBC enabled. It is a cross-chain communication protocol that has many possibilities including asset transfer and cross-chain execution. Astra enables IBC by default so that moving ASA token to Atom, Osmosis or other IBC-enabled blockchains can be performed easily.

Bridge

Bridge is also an important part of Astra. As Astra focuses on bridging assets to other blockchains even outside of the Cosmos SDK. ASA support bridged between Astra Chain and BNB Chain. Ethereum bridging is coming soon.

EVM

Astra is powered by Ethermint, which allows rapid porting of smart contracts from Ethereum and EVM compatible chains. Solidity developers who have prior experiences in building on Ethereum or other EVM chains can build decentralised applications on Astra using Solidity.

Payment Channel

The innovative Payment Channel makes transactions seamless and efficient. Using a secure, two-way payment channel, parties can transact off-chain while having opening and final settlement transactions recorded immutably on the blockchain for peace of mind.