dApp Staking on Astar allows individuals to nominate and support projects on the network with their ASTR. Every day, a portion of the inflation is allocated to both developers and stakers. Here, we will share the story of DeStore, an ecosystem project that has joined our dApp staking program.
Meet Dustin Lee, DeStore's CMO and Cofounder. He is a long-time community member of the Astar and has experience bringing DeStore’s assets to real world channel, like Discovery Channel.
The following is our chat with Dustin, who shares what DeStore has accomplished and where they are headed next.
Can you tell us a little about yourself and the DeStore project?
Hello, I'm Dustin Lee. I've been in the space for about seven years. Five of those years have been in the Polkadot ecosystem. I've learned a array of information in this space, mostly focusing on the business development and marketing side. I previously worked with Darwinia and Astar Network, so, I'm very aware of Astar. Currently, I'm the co founder and CMO of DeStore Network. To expand on our project, we've been building DeStore Network for the last four years where we are taking globally licensed merchandise and creating products with blockchain based Digital Twins. This means that Real World Assets (RWAs) become increasingly popular in web3, which we then accompany with digital assets or NFTs that represent proven ownership of the real world assets, tying both physical and digital worlds together.
DeStore joined the dApp Staking program recently and has had some time to get settled in. What do you think is the most attractive feature of the dApp Staking program, and do you have any advice for other projects interested in joining?
The biggest challenge that can be overcome with dapp staking and a great benefit is finding that right demographic. A lot of projects in the ecosystem just copy pasta... not coming up with anything that's unique or innovative. But that doesn't discourage anyone to build here, especially utilizing dApp Staking and the Build & Earn program. I definitely encourage anyone that is interested in building that there's an ecosystem here at Astar that's already robust and community is already bootstrapped, so it allows anyone to take part without having to bring their own which allows them to receive dApp Staking rewards, in order to build your project.
Where do you see the future of tokenized Real-World Assets going forward?
What I see about the future of tokenized assets, based on the exponential growth we've seen in the last year? The narrative and trends are going to continue growing because of enterprise and institutional adoption, which brings credibility to the space. DeStore personally benefits from the growth of these entities and individuals that are wanting to utilize the features like provenance and authenticity verification. We make tools for developers who can utilize our minting standards and build in our ecosystem without having vast knowledge in the blockchain space to prove ownership and the authenticity of both physical and digital assets.
We heard DeStore made an appearance on the Discovery Channel recently! Are you able to tell us more about that?
It's pretty rewarding to see your functional web3 marketplace on television in way that's suitable for a broader audience outside of blockchain to take in and understand. By tying those worlds together, which was very interesting to see, perhaps in the coming years we'll see more clarity in terms of what value digital twins will bring, and what value the act of selling the first Phygital NFT on television will provide, but in any case, it's kind of a big deal for DeStore!
Can you tell us about some of your recent milestones and where DeStore is headed in the immediate short term?
So to touch on some of the milestones that we have accomplished, first, we just released our DEAR wallet, which stands for Decentralized Augmented Reality Wallet. This allows for an easy, frictionless onboarding experience for those used to web3 wallets, and much less friction for brand new users compared to the traditional experience of using web3 wallets, and it's a new experience that participants in the Decentralized Lugano event will be onboarded with.
It's also worth mentioning that our corporate website was recently released, and we have a landing page for anyone that's interested in building with us. Anyone releasing real world assets are able to utilize our minting standards.
We are releasing Casascius coins, a byproduct of the OG Bitcoin days, released initially around 2011-2013. They were basically a way of onboarding new users to Bitcoin, and for us, we're mostly releasing the physical coins as a commemorative or collectible attached to a digital asset in the form of an NFT. So we are one of 16 entities in the United States that is able to release these physical customizable collectible coins in four different metals, including bronze, silver, gold, and platinum, but we mostly focus on the silver coins. We have silver coins emblazed with the Doge and are in talks with various projects in the layer 2 space.
Also we are looking for investors at this time, so if you're interested in helping bootstrap DeStore, as we are at a very interesting point in our project, please reach out to us at info@destore.network. Thank you.
About DeStore
DeStore aims to redefine eCommerce with hybrid Real World & web3-based Phygitial assets, bridging the real and digital worlds.
