> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://astral-protocol.gitbook.io/astral/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://astral-protocol.gitbook.io/astral/readme.md).

# Welcome

**Welcome to Astral!**

Our vision is to build a protocol and community dedicated to creating an ecosystem of location-based Web3 applications and spatial contracts. We believe that the Web3 vision is incomplete without location services, and are working to develop technologies that will make it easy for devs to build user-controlled dApps leveraging location data.

We're taking a modular approach, architecting our tools so each component useful on its own, but all designed to work together.

{% hint style="info" %}
We've been exploring the intersection of spatial data and consensus technologies for the past few years. We're dedicated to building in the open and sharing our findings — so we are leaving everything we've worked on available to read.

**We are embarking on the next phase of development of Astral, which is independent from past work. The docs here are NOT accurate to what we're building now. Instead, they show the meandering path we've taken to this point.**
{% endhint %}

**For an up-to-date summary of what we are working on now, read our litepaper:**

{% content-ref url="/pages/7lHSm6N67AesgpNVyFBZ" %}
[Astral Litepaper](/astral/astral-litepaper.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}


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