Onchain geospatial ✨

At Astral we develop open source tools and infrastructure for decentralized geospatial technologies.

Our vision is enable developers to build 1000s of location-based apps on the decentralized web. We're doing this by researching and developing a set of open source standards and software tools that help Web3 developers work with geospatial data.

Updates / Milestones:

The next phase:

• Progress with research on geospatial data structures + algorithms for the EVM (Spatial.sol) - Q1'25
• Merge Astral with EASIER Data Initiative - Q4’24
• Strengthen partnership with EASIER Data Initiative - Q3'24

Since GG'21

• Deployed Astral's Location Proof Protocol on Arbitrum and Celo - Q3'24
• Deployed Astral's Logbook, a consumer application that is built on the Location Proof Protocol - Q3'24
• Sponsored Funding the Common's X Earth Common's Hackathon - Q3'24
• Developed necessary developer resources and tools to build on Astral's Location Proof Protocol - Q3'24
• Agreed to merge with the EASIER Data Initiative to better align Decentralized GIS research - Q4'24
• Co-chair the Decentralized Geospatial Web Working Group - Q4’24

Since GG20

• Create the docs site: docs.astral.global
• Deploy Location Proof EAS schema on Ethereum Sepolia - Q2’24
• Complete and pitch at Ethereum Attestation Service Demo Day - Q2’24
• Integrate Location Proof Protocol with IPFS - Q3’24
• Develop the Astral Logbook - Q3’24

Since GG19

• Testing Spatial Registry Contract - April’24
• Gained pilot users’ confirmation - Jan-April’24
• Hosted and Presented Decentralized Geospatial Web Working Group meetingshop for Web3 Projects - April’24
• Accepted to Ethereum Attestation Services Fellowship - March’24
• Attended & presented at ETHDenver - Feb’24
• Defined product and growth strategy - Feb’24
• Develop technical architecture- Jan’24

Architecture

Astral Protocol has three components:

• Onchain GIS — smart contract-based registries of spatial features like points, lines, polygons and raster images, along with geocomputational algorithms;
• Location Proof Protocol — a generalized protocol supporting a range of strategies for verifiably proving location;
• Decentralized geospatial data technologies — for storing and efficiently accessing geospatial data on user-controlled, cryptographically verifiable and uncensorable data storage systems like IPFS.

Since the project was founded, we have focused on building open source standards and tools, and have been fully funded through public goods funding and grants.

Our Work

We've developed and led several projects, including:

• Astral’s Location Proof Protocol, an open-source protocol enabling developers to build onchain location-based applications
• Astral’s Logbook, a consumer application allowing users to register geotagged log entries on chain
• Kolektivo GeoNFTs, which serve as an on-chain spatial data registry
• Hyperaware, a spatial governance protocol for connected devices targeted at transport and mobility applications
• Sprout, a proof-of-concept sustainability-linked bond in Solidity that aligns loan terms to environmental metrics — one of the first ReFi smart contracts
• Spatial.sol, a library of geometric and topological functions in Solidity
• Geolocker, a prototype verifiable spatial data registry built on Ethereum and 3Box

Our work is primarily focused on building core infrastructure and open source standards to enable and empower Web3 builders to work with spatial and location data.

Astral tools and standards will be useful in a range of different use cases including:

• Regenerative project development and dMRV
• DAOs / digital governance: geofenced local and regional DAOs, local currencies, spatial demurrage
• Mobility: defining policy areas like congestion zones, capturing the position of connected devices like IoT and smartphones
• Natural capital currencies: defining ecological zones, storing physical measurements of ecosystem conditions
• Metaverse / gaming: virtual land registries like Decentraland and Cryptovoxels, and AR games like Pokemon Go

Funding

Grant contributions will fund the development team building these public goods.

Specifically, funds will support the development of:

• Research and Development for a Solidity library of topological and geometric functions and other Web3 GIS tools, Location Proof Protocol strategies, standards, examples and software tools
• Coordination across decentralized geospatial working groups, co-led with the EASIER Data Initiative

Team

• Ron E: Tech Lead
• Danny G: Organization + Operations Lead
• John X: Architect + Project Lead

Accomplishments (so far)

• Ethereum Attestation Service Fellowship and Demo-day Shortlist
• KERNEL Genesis Block final presentation
• Kolektivo project partner, developing GeoNFTs
• Filecoin Development Grant for storing satellite imagery on IPFS using decentralized identifiers
• Presenting to the Open Geospatial Consortium
• Winner, Arweave Prize, Future of Blockchain 2020
• Speaker, European Space Agency's Living Planet Symposium 2022
• Grant recipient, dClimate
• Coordinated the forming of the GeoSpatial Decentralized Collaboration Group 2023
• Presented Astral’s work at Decentralized Geospatial Web Working Group
• Member, Climate Collective
• Co-lead, Regeneration Guild, KERNEL

Funded Projects:

• zkMaps, finalist at ETHDenver 2022 building zero-knowledge location proofs
• Funding the Common’s x Earth Common’s Hackathon

Challenges

• Scaling of verifiable spatial data registries due to technical limitations
• Sustaining operations on Grant and Public Goods Funding, as Astral is committed to not taking venture capital and not engaging in a liquidity event (e.g., token generation event / launching a token)
• Coordination across various working groups; while we’ve helped organize and herd cats, there is still the challenge in coordinating across stakeholder groups to establish geospatial standards for Web3
• Navigating a bear market with various partners and builders in this space losing funding and interest due to macroeconomic conditions.