Exploring Stars Arena: A Guide to the Avalanche Social App

What Is Stars Arena and How to Use It

Stars Arena is a social finance platform on the Avalanche blockchain. It is similar to friend.tech as they both let users buy shares of Twitter (X) personalities, but Stars Arena has additional features like tipping and public discussion threads. To use Stars Arena, users can sign up with their Twitter (X) account and start interacting with personalities on the platform. 

On October 6, there was a major security breach. Do your own research to ensure the platform is safe before depositing any tokens into the protocol. 

Key Takeaways

• Stars Arena is a social finance (SoFi) platform on the Avalanche blockchain that was launched on September 27, 2023, by a developer named ‘theBuilder’ on Twitter (X).

• Stars Arena is a fork of friend.tech and features similar monetization strategies of enabling users to sell and trade shares, turning users’ influence into financial assets and using market dynamics to determine the value of these assets.

• Stars Arena does not require any deposits or referral codes for users to access the platform, and tips and Tickets are transacted in AVAX, although depositing funds is currently disabled due to an exploit that resulted in a loss of around $3 million in funds.

Thanks to the Social Finance (SoFi) trend which has continued to develop since the launch of friend.tech, the crypto space is witnessing the emergence of decentralized applications that are focused on engineering new web3 alternatives to social media. 

DefiLlama reports an excess of $47 million worth of crypto assets locked across the 10 tracked SoFi platforms. Base chain’s Friend.tech dominates with over 97% control of the recorded SoFi TVL. In second place was Avalanche network’s fast-growing Stars Arena with a high of $2.78 million before a security breach and exploit occurred.

Stars Arena has climbed to this height within 2 weeks of its launch. Data from DappRadar shows that their are over 18,000 unique active wallets at the time of writing. According to data from Dune analytics, about 10,000 of these wallets were created between October 3-4. Stars Arena has gotten busy with a high of 250K transactions executed daily on the platform and cumulative volume of almost $5 million. 

Stars Arena has seen some rapid growth, attracting some relatively popular influencers from social media platform X. But what is Stars Arena?

Introduction to Stars Arena

Stars Arena is a decentralized social media platform on the Avalanche network. It is focused on offering creators a platform to connect with their audience, while also offering monetization facilities through tokenization and asset trading. It was created by a developer who goes by theBuilder on Twitter (X) and released on September 27 2023.

Built an arena.. suddenly people talk to me on twitter.. AMA

— theBuilder (@hannesxda) September 27, 2023

Stars Arena shares a resemblance with social media platform X. Users on the platform are able to make posts (Threads) and interact with other users by commenting on posts. However, Stars Arena gamifies aspects of this interaction in a manner similar to friend.tech.

Stars Arena converts users’ influence to shares. Shares on the platform are known as Tickets. Tickets are a representation of a user’s relevance. StarShares is valued at around 0.0066 for new users, and the share prices grow according to prevailing demand; this is in turn influenced by the user’s popularity. The share owners receive a portion of the trading fees generated from their shares.

Purchasing a user’s Ticket gives the holder the right to connect with the user in a more personal manner. Shareholders can connect to their favorite users through direct messages and any other ways such as restricted posts that are only visible to Ticket holders. Users can also attempt to boost their share prices through personal marketing means, like offering alphas with restricted access.

Features of Stars Arena

Stars Arena is deploying an array of features and strategies to improve user experience and push its solutions to a wider user base. Here are some of these features:

Airdrop

Stars Arena incentivizes users through the Airdrop program, similar to friend.tech. However, where friend.tech points are mainly earned through trading Keys, Stars Arena points include other ways to earn points such as creating posts (Threads), viewing Threads, tipping, and other interactions.

Other ways to earn airdrop points include referrals, trading volume, Ticket price, and tipping volume. 

Airdrop earnings are distributed on a weekly basis. According to information on the platform, the airdrop program started on September 26, 2023, and there is no information on when the airdrop program is scheduled to end.

The potential future airdrop earned by each user is likely to be determined by the airdrop points the users accumulated during the distribution period relative to the total airdrop points accumulated by every other user on the platform.

Referral

Every new user on Stars Arena receives a referral link to enable them to refer their peers to the platform. Users who refer others benefit from the actions of those they refer. Stars Arena claims that 1% of every trade made by new users goes to those who refer them to the platform – that’s why Twitter (X) is full of Stars Arena referral links! Users can share their referral links to any other media outlet. Referrals also contribute to the airdrop points earned by users.

Tickets

Tickets are user shares and the holders’ stake over the concerned account. User shares can go as low as 0.0066 AVAX for new users. Others can trade these shares like any other financial asset while the shareowners earn passively from the trading fees they generate. 

Share prices fluctuate according to demand. Shareholders can send direct messages to users whose shares they own and also gain access to exclusive content like restricted Threads, group chats, and other special privileges, some of which are offered by the shareowners as a way of promoting their shares. Put simply, shares are Tickets to a user’s account on Stars Arena.

Portfolio

The wallet on Stars Arena is the user’s portfolio on the platform. On the portfolio, users can see their AVAX and manage their earnings on the platform. Users can also export their wallets to other personal wallets like MetaMask by obtaining their wallet private keys from the platform.

Tipping

Users can directly reward other users for their content using the tipping feature. Tips are sent from users’ wallets. For example, if you see a post that you think deserves recognition, you can send the writer a tip.

With Stars Arena as an up and coming protocol in the SoFi space, let’s see how it compares against friend.tech, the current leader in the space. 

Stars Arena vs  Friend.tech

One thing common between both platforms is the intention to create a sovereign social media application. Both platforms gamify user influence through shares. The basic design of friend.tech is very similar to that of Stars Arena. Both applications tokenize users’ presence and their prices respond to demand and supply. 

Both applications are available on mobile through the PWA (Progressive Web Application) version of the applications. Users can add the web version of the application to their devices and enjoy a hybrid of web and native application functionality. Stars Arena’s airdrop strategy is also similar to that developed by friend.tech, with a focus on earning points. 

Network

Friend.tech runs on the Base network, a Layer 2 network on Ethereum while Stars Arena is deployed on the Avalanche network. Both applications operating on different platforms expose them to different user bases for their first set of users. In Stars Arena’s case, the protocol has received support and coverage from the Avalanche project on Twitter (X), with the blockchain launching its own account on Stars Arena.

Access 

Access to Stars Arena is much easier, relative to friend.tech. In an attempt to curb foul play in user registration, Friend.tech launched as a referral-based application and has continued this way.  New users can only start using the application if they are able to obtain referral codes from existing users. At the time of writing, new users still need to obtain referral codes to use the platform. Friend.tech further limits access through compulsory deposits, requiring a minimum deposit of 0.01 ETH to use the platform. 

In comparison, Stars Arena removes these access barriers to offer easier access for new users. You can simply create an account on Stars Arena by connecting your Twitter (X) account to the platform. There are also no compulsory deposits to get started. New users’ shares are set at 0.0066 AVAX each and start to grow from this price point.

Shares System

As stated earlier the starting price for new user shares on Stars Arena is 0.0066 AVAX; on friend.tech the starting price of new user shares is determined by the user’s Twitter data. That is, the application obtains information about the user’s followership and activities on Twitter (now X) and uses it to stipulate the starting price of their shares. This is different from the design for Stars Arena.

Want to explore Stars Arena? Here’s how you can start using the application.

How to Start Using Stars Arena

1. To start using the application simply visit the platform.

On mobile, you will get a prompt to install the PWA application. You can ignore this and use the website version if you prefer.

2. Click Login with Twitter.

3. This connects to the Twitter account logged in on your device.

4. Review the authorization request and accept it if you agree with them.

5. Your Stars Arena Account is now created with your Twitter details.

You can now start exploring the platform.

To discover users, you can click on the Search icon to either search for a specific account, or you can browse and discover users of interest by clicking through the different tabs available.

Stars Arena Exploit

On October 6, Stars Arena was drained of almost all locked funds – a total around $3 million worth of AVAX tokens due to a major security breach in its smart contract. The protocol announced on social media of the occurrence of the security breach, and warned users not to deposit funds. In another update on 12 October, the team claims to have recovered around 90% of lost funds after reaching an agreement with the individual responsible for the breach.

There has been a major security breach with the smart contract.

We're actively checking the issue.

DO NOT deposit any funds.

Stay tuned for updates.

— Stars Arena (@starsarenacom) October 7, 2023

The protocol has since moved funds to a new Gnosis Safe multisig wallet with 3 out of 6 signatures required under the control of Stars Arena team members, and is overhauling their security infrastructure. They are also collaborating with Paladin Blockchain Security, a security firm that has conducted audits on six of Trader Joe's products, a move that was met with positive reception from their community.

We’re excited to announce our collaboration with @0xPaladinSec, a leading authority in blockchain security solutions.

This initiative reinforces our steadfast commitment to elevating the security infrastructure of our platform as recommended by key community leaders.

We’re… pic.twitter.com/sNS59YF5IZ

— Stars Arena (@starsarenacom) October 8, 2023

At time of writing, while partial access to Stars Arena is restored, users still cannot deposit (and are advised against depositing) funds. 

Final Thoughts

Social finance applications are suggesting a different way to use social media. We have seen this in similar applications in this sector. Creators are offered a platform to not only maintain full control of their interaction with their audience but also enjoy monetization opportunities based on their clout. As these applications continue to evolve and get adopted, we learn how feasible these strategies are especially where it concerns effective communication and of course, monetization. Stars Arena has already gained traction and adoption from Twitter (X), as seen from its growth. 

Having said this, it is important to note that there is no clear information on how these applications manage user data, or how cryptocurrencies deposited on the platform are stored and managed. It is therefore important that users invest time to understand the applications more before using them. Risk-management strategies are also advised at this stage. Also, note that this is for educational purposes and not financial advice, and featuring specific applications or users is not a form of recommendation or approval. 

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Joel Agbo

Joel is deeply interested in the technologies behind cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks. In his over 7 years of involvement in the space, he helps startups build a stronger internet presence through written content. Follow the author on Twitter @agboifesinachi