Go vote for the Astro-UI BitShares Worker Proposal!
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1. Executive Summary
Astro-UI is a modern cross-platform user interface (UI) for the BitShares decentralized exchange (DEX), designed to replace the aging reference UI. The existing UI is outdated, difficult to maintain, and lacks modern development practices. Astro-UI introduces a fresh, efficient, and user-friendly alternative built with cutting-edge technologies to enhance usability, security, and scalability.
With over a year of part-time development, approximately 600,000 lines of code committed, and the majority of BitShares operations fully supported, Astro-UI is already a significant advancement.
This proposal seeks funding from the BitShares community to continue developing Astro-UI, ensuring BitShares remains competitive in the evolving blockchain landscape and increasing its revenue potential through higher user engagement.
2. Current Progress & Achievements
The Bitshares Astro-UI is built using Astro, React, and Electron and integrates with both the Beet and BeetEOS multiwallets for seamless interaction with the BitShares and BitShares Testnet blockchains. The development has already delivered:
- Astro-UI has repeatedly been the first to implement the latest core changes before the reference wallet, such as Order-Sends-Order (OSO) limit orders and smartcoin upgrades.
- Fully translated into 10 languages (with plans to translate to all languages).
- Implementation of Electron context isolation & GitHub action build release package scanning for hardened security.
- Support for the majority of BitShares operations, including creating/editing NFTs (both user-issued assets and smartcoins), creating Same-T Funds, creating vesting balances, liquidity pool staking/swapping, creating/accepting credit deals, and more.
- User-configurable blockchain node & faucet connections.
- A fully functional cross-platform experience for Windows, Linux, and macOS using the latest Electron version (v34.1.1 compared to v16.2.6).
- Separated the front-end client from key auth management fully, ensuring the user interface remains fully sandboxed from high-value credentials/keys entirely.
3. The Need for Continued Development
While Astro-UI is already a massive improvement over the existing UI, further development is essential to:
- Fully support all BitShares operations, ensuring a feature-complete replacement of the reference UI.
- Enhance user experience with additional optimizations, real-time data improvements, and performance enhancements.
- Future-proof BitShares by adopting the latest technology trends, including planned migration to React 19 for performance improvements.
- Improve onboarding and user adoption by refining UX/UI elements.
- Implement key pending features such as HTLC operations, direct debits, bartering interfaces, vote ticket creation, and advanced market analytics.
The current reference UI is burdened by outdated dependencies, including React 16, and uses packages that have not been maintained in years. A full React upgrade would require thousands of hours of work, which no one has been willing to undertake—making a fresh, modern alternative like Astro-UI the best path forward. The reference UI is plagued with legacy technical debt, and Astro-UI eliminates that issue by leveraging the latest technologies and best practices.
4. Development Roadmap
Implement full support for all non-virtual BitShares operations.
Further improve governance functionalities.
Improve trading experience with advanced charting and analytics.
Enhance portfolio management and visualization features.
Optimize Electron performance for a smoother experience.
Improve documentation and onboarding materials for developers and users.
Engage the BitShares community for feedback and feature requests.
5. Funding Requirements
The requested funding is 100,000 BTS per day (approximately $100 per day at the time of writing). This supports my full-time development, averaging 1000+ lines of code per day, Monday through Friday. The funding will be used for:
- Continued development and expansion of Astro-UI’s features.
- Development related expenditures
- Constant UI/UX improvements to increase adoption and usability.
- Ongoing support and maintenance to future-proof BitShares.
A significant amount of work has already taken place—more than the funded Vue-based UI project—despite Astro-UI receiving no funding. Funding would allow for a sustainable and efficient development process.
6. Return on Investment for BitShares
A modern, intuitive, and accessible UI directly translates into more users actively engaging with BitShares. This means increased trading volume, higher transaction throughput, and more fees collected for the BitShares reserve pool. Every new user who finds BitShares easy to use generates revenue for the network, recouping the investment cost over time.
Additionally, with Astro-UI ensuring full compatibility with the latest blockchain features, BitShares will stay competitive in a rapidly evolving DeFi landscape, attracting both retail and institutional users.
By keeping Astro-UI fully up to date, BitShares avoids the costly overhead of maintaining a dated codebase. The reference UI, with its many pending large-scale package updates and compatibility issues, would require an immense development effort to uplift.
In contrast, Astro-UI already operates on the latest framework versions with near-zero outstanding package update debt, making it the more efficient and cost-effective option moving forward.
7. The Cost of Inaction
Choosing not to fund Astro-UI and instead relying on the aging reference UI comes at a significant hidden cost. While avoiding immediate expenses, the long-term negative ROI are substantial:
- Users encountering issues with the outdated UI may choose to leave BitShares for more modern, accessible platforms, reducing network activity and fee revenue.
- Development on the old codebase will take far longer and cost significantly more than continuing work on Astro-UI.
- The reference UI will struggle to support future blockchain updates, leading to increased technical debt and eventual obsolescence.
By investing in Astro-UI now, BitShares can ensure a steady influx of users and ongoing revenue, while avoiding costly and inefficient maintenance of an outdated interface.
8. How Astro-UI Aligns with the Future of BitShares
- Eliminates Legacy Technical Debt: By providing an alternative reference user interface to the aging and difficult-to-maintain reference UI, Astro-UI ensures BitShares users rid themselves of a decade of technical debt.
- Enhances User Experience: A modern, intuitive UI attracts new users and improves retention.
- Ensures Longevity: A maintainable and scalable UI future-proofs BitShares against technological obsolescence.
- Increases Competitiveness: A superior UI helps BitShares stay competitive in the evolving DeFi landscape.
- Strengthens Decentralization: By providing an alternative UI, Astro-UI ensures BitShares is not dependent on a single desktop interface.
- Supports Advanced Features: With continued development, Astro-UI will enable greater control over asset management, governance participation, and trading strategies.
- Maintains Integrity and Transparency: Aligning with the core principles of BitShares, Astro-UI prioritizes trust, community involvement, and open-source collaboration.
- Fully opensource: The repository has been forked for archive within the official Bitshares GitHub organization, it's already viewed as an approved Bitshares user interface by the Bitshares organization.
9. Conclusion
Astro-UI is no longer just a proposal—it is a reality in active development. With over a year of work, a robust codebase, and substantial progress made, this UI is already revolutionizing how users interact with BitShares.
The reference UI has critical maintenance issues, including outdated Node versions and abandoned dependencies, making an alternative imperative. Continued funding will enable refinement, expansion, and optimization of the Astro-UI to ensure BitShares remains at the forefront of decentralized finance.
This is an opportunity for the BitShares community to invest in a sustainable, user-friendly, and cutting-edge interface that will drive adoption, revenue, and long-term success.
https://github.com/bitshares/bitshares-ui/issues/3583
https://github.com/BTS-CM/astro-ui
https://github.com/bitshares/astro-ui