# The Stack

In order to realize our vision of an ecosystem of location-based and spatial decentralized applications providing a more just and resilient means for human and machine coordination on Earth, we are designing the [**Astral Protocol**](https://astral-protocol.gitbook.io/astral/archive/astral) \*\*\*\* and building a corresponding stack of software tools. Our aim is to create a simple and delightful experience for the location-based dapp developer, enabling the community to drive innovation and build this ecosystem.

The Astral Protocol provides the bindings between the spatial data domain and the Web3 universe. We intend to make no assumptions about the needs or use cases of developers building on Astral; instead, our effort is directed at creating a simple, versatile way of connecting both raster data and vector geometries, and relevant metadata, to smart contract and dApp front end interfaces. We believe that these spatial data primitives, along with the means to integrate them into smart contracts, will provide the soil from which the Web3 spatial ecosystem will sprout.

At a high level, there are three layers to the Astral stack, stitched together to enable this new spatial dApp ecosystem:

* **Data**
  * **Capture** - from a range of edge devices like satellites, IoT devices and mobile phones.
  * **Storage** - ideally on distributed and verifiable systems like IPFS / Filecoin. Geographic decentralized identifiers wrap spatial data assets in DIDs so they can be controlled by the user in a standardized way
* **Oracle** - to reliably bring the spatial data into smart contracts
  * **Analysis** may occur in the oracle, or upstream - but often spatial data needs to be processed before it can be used in expensive smart contracts.
* **Spatial contracts** - smart contracts developed to use location and spatial data in contract logic.

![Astral Protocol: Web3 spatial data standard](https://327435336-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MOlX2pSUdTM59utmjsi%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-bfd1ce1900c8ba0f50f9a90759f349999350e393%2Fimage.png?alt=media)

Astral is working on connecting these components using open, versatile tools. We are actively working on each of the layers of the stack, so if you're interested in contributing, get in touch - we're on Twitter [@AstralProtocol](https://twitter.com/AstralProtocol) or available via email at <contact@astral.global>.
