Astera

Real World Assets on Stellar. Invoice financing for emerging markets.

Astera lets SMEs tokenize unpaid invoices as Soroban-based RWA tokens. Community investors fund a USDC liquidity pool. Smart contracts handle escrow, repayment, and yield distribution. Every paid invoice builds an on-chain credit history.

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Architecture

contracts/
  invoice/   — RWA invoice token contract (Soroban/Rust)
  pool/      — Liquidity pool + yield distribution (Soroban/Rust)
frontend/    — Next.js 14 app (Freighter wallet, Stellar SDK)

Contracts

Invoice Contract

• create_invoice — SME mints an invoice token with amount, debtor, due date
• mark_funded — Called by pool when invoice is funded
• mark_paid — SME or pool marks invoice as repaid
• mark_defaulted — Pool flags missed repayment

Pool Contract

• initialize — Sets admin, first accepted stablecoin (initial_token), and invoice contract
• add_token / remove_token — Admin maintains a whitelist of accepted stablecoin SAC addresses
• deposit — Investor deposits a whitelisted stablecoin into the pool (positions are per token)
• init_co_funding — Admin opens an invoice for co-funding in a specific stablecoin
• commit_to_invoice — Investors commit available balance in that invoice’s token until the principal target is met
• repay_invoice — SME repays principal + simple interest (8% APY default) in the same token the invoice was funded with
• withdraw — Investor withdraws available (undeployed) balance in the chosen token

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Setup

Rapid Local Development (Docker Compose)

We provide a one-command setup using Docker Compose that spins up the Stellar local network, the Next.js frontend, a contracts development environment, and mock services.

docker-compose up -d

After running this command:

• Frontend is available at http://localhost:3000
• Stellar RPC is available at http://localhost:8000
• Mock Services are available at http://localhost:4000

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Manual Setup

Prerequisites

If you are on Windows, we strongly recommend using WSL2. See our Windows/WSL2 Setup Guide for details.

• Rust + Cargo
• Stellar CLI
• Node.js 20+
• Freighter wallet browser extension

1. Build contracts

cd astera
cargo build --target wasm32-unknown-unknown --release

2. Deploy to Testnet

# Fund a testnet account
stellar keys generate --global deployer --network testnet
stellar keys fund deployer --network testnet

# Deploy invoice contract
stellar contract deploy \
  --wasm target/wasm32-unknown-unknown/release/invoice.wasm \
  --source deployer \
  --network testnet

# Deploy pool contract
stellar contract deploy \
  --wasm target/wasm32-unknown-unknown/release/pool.wasm \
  --source deployer \
  --network testnet

3. Initialize contracts

# Initialize invoice contract
stellar contract invoke \
  --id <INVOICE_CONTRACT_ID> \
  --source deployer \
  --network testnet \
  -- initialize \
  --admin <YOUR_ADDRESS> \
  --pool <POOL_CONTRACT_ID>

# Initialize pool contract
stellar contract invoke \
  --id <POOL_CONTRACT_ID> \
  --source deployer \
  --network testnet \
  -- initialize \
  --admin <YOUR_ADDRESS> \
  --usdc_token <USDC_TOKEN_ID> \
  --invoice_contract <INVOICE_CONTRACT_ID>

4. Run frontend

cd frontend
cp .env.example .env.local
# Fill in contract IDs in .env.local

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

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User Flows

SME Flow

1. Connect Freighter wallet
2. Go to New Invoice — fill debtor, amount, due date
3. Sign transaction — invoice minted on Stellar
4. Monitor status on Dashboard — see funding, credit score
5. When customer pays, call repay_invoice to settle

Investor Flow

1. Connect Freighter wallet
2. Go to Invest — choose a whitelisted stablecoin and deposit into the pool
3. Pool admin deploys liquidity to approved invoices
4. When invoices are repaid, yield accumulates in the pool
5. Withdraw available balance anytime

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Testnet USDC

Use the Stellar testnet USDC asset or deploy a mock token:

stellar contract invoke \
  --id <TOKEN_ID> \
  --source deployer \
  --network testnet \
  -- mint \
  --to <YOUR_ADDRESS> \
  --amount 1000000000000

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Deployment

Frontend Deployment

Deploy your own instance of the Astera frontend with one click:

For detailed instructions on various hosting options, see the Frontend Deployment Guide.

Testnet Deployment

For development and testing, see the Testnet Deployment Guide for step-by-step instructions.

Mainnet Deployment

For production deployment, see the comprehensive Mainnet Deployment Guide which includes:

• Pre-deployment security checklist
• Contract verification procedures
• Monitoring and alerting setup
• Rollback and emergency procedures
• Post-deployment verification steps

For upgrade runbooks and migration safety checks, see the Contract Upgrade Guide.

⚠️ Important: Mainnet deployment involves real assets. Complete all security audits and testing before deploying to production.

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Network Information

Testnet

• RPC: https://soroban-testnet.stellar.org
• Horizon: https://horizon-testnet.stellar.org
• Explorer: https://stellar.expert/explorer/testnet

Mainnet

• RPC: https://soroban-mainnet.stellar.org
• Horizon: https://horizon.stellar.org
• Explorer: https://stellar.expert/explorer/public

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Continuous Integration

The contracts.yml workflow runs on every push to main and on every pull request targeting main. It:

• Installs Rust stable with the wasm32-unknown-unknown target
• Caches ~/.cargo/registry and target/ via Swatinem/rust-cache
• Builds the workspace with cargo build --target wasm32-unknown-unknown --release
• Runs cargo test for each contract (invoice, pool, credit_score)

Branch protection

Branch protection for main should be configured so that:

• Pull requests cannot be merged unless the Build & test Soroban contracts check passes.
• Direct pushes to main are disabled (PRs only).

To apply, in GitHub: Settings → Branches → Branch protection rules → Add rule for main, enable Require status checks to pass before merging, and select Build & test Soroban contracts from the list of checks.

💰 Bounty Contribution

• Task: Add SME onboarding verification — prevent duplicate SME accounts
• Reward: $10
• Source: GitHub-Paid
• Date: 2026-04-27