Star Atlas

About Star Atlas (ATLAS)

What Is Star Atlas?

Star Atlas is a space exploration and strategy MMO set in a fictional universe called Galia, and ATLAS is the in-game payment token that its economy runs on. Players own ships, crew, land and equipment as NFTs on Solana, mine resources, craft items and trade them for ATLAS. It matters as one of the longest-running attempts to build a large, persistent game economy where the currency and the items live on a public blockchain rather than on a publisher's private server.

The project has two fungible tokens. ATLAS is the medium of exchange used inside the game. POLIS is a separate governance token that gives holders a say over the treasury and the rules of the universe. This page covers ATLAS; POLIS has its own page.

Who Founded Star Atlas? (History)

The Star Atlas press kit lists 2020 as the founding date. The official team page names three co-founders: Michael Wagner (Chief Executive Officer), Danny Floyd (Chief Product Officer) and Jacob Floyd (Chief Technology Officer). The team page also lists in-house art and engineering staff plus outsourced studios for cinematics, art and development.

The project published a White Paper and a separate Economics Paper describing the ATLAS and POLIS token model. The press kit lists the full game's release date as "awaiting announcement", while several playable modules are already live.

How Star Atlas Works

Star Atlas is being built as several connected products rather than one finished client:

1. SAGE Labs A browser-based, fully on-chain economic game. Players connect a Solana wallet, assign ships to fleets, mine resources on asteroids and planets, craft components, scan for Survey Data Units (SDUs) and sell the output on the Galactic Marketplace for ATLAS.

2. Galactic Marketplace The on-chain trading venue for ships, resources and other in-game assets, priced in ATLAS.

3. The 3D game client A third-person experience built with Unreal Engine 5, with ship-to-ship and FPS combat, exploration, crafting and quests. It is distributed through the Epic Games Store.

4. Holosim and Fleet Command Holosim is a free-to-play browser simulation of fleet management that does not require ships or a crypto wallet. Fleet Command, a top-down strategy view for managing large fleets and territory, is described by the team as coming soon.

Players align with one of three factions (MUD, a human territory; ONI, a consortium of alien species; and Ustur, a collective of sentient androids) that compete for territory in Galia.

Key Ecosystem Components

• Solana programs that record player profiles, fleets, crafting and marketplace activity.
• NFTs for ships, crew, components, buildings, blueprints and land. The Economics Paper states that every Star Atlas item is an NFT, so its origin can be traced back to its creation event.
• Fungible resource tokens produced by mining and consumed by crafting.
• The POLIS governance token and faction DAOs.
• A developer and creator hub at build.staratlas.com with APIs, mainnet program IDs and Unreal Engine tooling.

ATLAS Token Utility

According to the Economics Paper, ATLAS is the payment token of the game and is designed to be inflationary, expanding with the in-game economy. It is used to:

• Buy ships and other assets on the Galactic Marketplace.
• Pay in-game costs such as fuel and other operating expenses.
• Receive rewards for mining, missions, combat and other activities.

In-game fees partly refill a rewards fund (the ATLAS Recirculation Fund) and partly flow to the DAO treasury. The paper describes the DAO being able to adjust emissions and burn part of the fund. ATLAS is an SPL token on Solana with mint address ATLASXmbPQxBUYbxPsV97usA3fPQYEqzQBUHgiFCUsXx (view on Solscan).

The Economics Paper sets the initial ATLAS supply at 36,000,000,000 tokens: 65% for rewards and emissions (released over 416 weeks), 22.5% private sales, 5% team, 4% listings and liquidity pools, and 3.5% across public sales. Because ATLAS is designed to be inflationary, this is a starting allocation, not a hard cap.

What Makes Star Atlas Unique?

Most blockchain games attach tokens to a small casual game. Star Atlas aims for a large-scope MMO with a separate on-chain economic layer (SAGE) that already runs while the full 3D client is in development. The dual-token design also separates the spendable currency (ATLAS) from long-term governance (POLIS), so emission changes to the game currency do not dilute voting power.

How Star Atlas Differs from Similar Chains

Star Atlas is a game, not a chain. It builds on Solana, which offers low fees and fast confirmation suited to frequent in-game transactions. Many blockchain games keep gameplay on private servers and use the chain only for collectibles and payments. Star Atlas instead puts much of its core economic loop (mining, crafting, trading) directly on-chain through SAGE, which makes activity publicly verifiable but also ties the game to on-chain transaction costs and network performance.

Use Cases of Star Atlas

• Playing the economic game in SAGE Labs and earning ATLAS for production.
• Trading ships, resources and components on the Galactic Marketplace.
• Joining a faction and a player guild (called a DAC) for cooperative play.
• Building community tools and content with the official developer resources.

How Star Atlas Is Secured

ATLAS and the game assets are secured by the Solana network's validators. Game logic runs in Solana programs whose IDs are published on the build portal. Players keep custody of their tokens and NFTs in their own Solana wallets. No consolidated public list of third-party security audits for the game programs was found on the official pages reviewed, so readers should check the build portal for current details.

Risks and Considerations

• The full game has no announced release date, and development of large MMOs can take many years.
• ATLAS is inflationary by design, and its value depends on real player demand for in-game goods.
• The economic model is set and adjusted by the team and DAO governance, so parameters can change.
• The game depends on Solana's uptime and on the continued operation of the development company.

Why Star Atlas Matters

Star Atlas is a large-scale test of whether a player-driven economy with on-chain ownership can sustain itself over the long run. Its separation of a game currency and a governance token, and its choice to launch the economic layer before the full game, make it a useful reference for anyone evaluating blockchain gaming.

Where Can You Buy Star Atlas?

ATLAS trades on centralized exchanges and on decentralized exchanges in the Solana ecosystem. Inside the game, ATLAS is the currency of the Galactic Marketplace. Always confirm the mint address above before buying on a DEX.

Storage Options After Purchase

Store ATLAS in any Solana-compatible wallet that supports SPL tokens, such as a browser or mobile Solana wallet, or a hardware wallet connected through one. A wallet holding ATLAS and ship NFTs is also what connects you to SAGE Labs.

Related Coins

• Star Atlas DAO (POLIS)
• Illuvium (ILV)
• Big Time (BIGTIME)
• Axie Infinity (AXS)
• Solana (SOL)