NEAR Protocol is a first-layer blockchain based on sharding and PoS (Proof of Stake), designed to incentivize computer networks to run a platform for developers to create and launch decentralized applications (DApps). Unlike other blockchains, the NEAR Protocol network was built from the ground up to provide developers and their end users with an easy-to-adopt network while still providing the scalability needed to serve those users.
Specifically, NEAR is designed to make it easier to achieve the following goals:
Build decentralized applications: Whether you are an experienced blockchain developer or are only used to building using “traditional” network or application concepts, NEAR makes it easy to build the next generation of decentralized applications.
Provide users with a smooth experience: even if they have never used cryptocurrencies, tokens, keys, wallets or other blockchain artifacts.
Seamlessly scale your applications: The underlying platform automatically scales capacity through sharding without any additional cost or effort on your part.
NEAR Protocol currently has three main narratives, namely Chain Abstraction (CA), Data Availability (DA), and AI.
Chain Abstraction (CA)
There are two main lines of development in the evolution of the public chain track: modularization and chain abstraction. NEAR Protocol has made achievements in two aspects. First, chain abstraction has been the main development direction of NEAR Protocol in the past three years, and has now become one of the head protocols in the field of chain abstraction.
Most DApps today are not actually true DApps (decentralized applications). If the user needs to leave the app to start using it, it's not really an app, it's just a front-end. If users have to manually register and manage multiple accounts, gas fees, and bridging through an exchange, it’s not a decentralized application. The core goal of chain abstraction is to solve the problem of increasing fragmentation of Web3.
NEAR Protocol achieves chain abstraction through three parts:
Underlying data availability and decentralized sorter.
Account aggregation with unified identity and security: users can have an address on all possible chains and freely move assets between them. From the user's perspective, this should be a single account where they can interact with applications on different chains and assets are automatically bridged or exchanged.
Unified experience layer: Provides a way to interact with applications on different chains without requiring users to switch or leave a single interface.
On the front-end interface, NEAR Protocol has launched a new blockchain operating system BOS, aiming to become an open source alternative to Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft. It is a secure, transparent and accessible carbon-neutral platform that eliminates the need for Web3 spatial complexity. Currently, when you open the website to log in to NEAR, you can see an interface similar to a Web2 portal, and you can launch multiple types of DApps with one account.
Data Availability (DA)
NEAR Protocol's DA will expand the modular ecosystem and defragment all Web3, and is also the bottom layer of the development direction of CA and AI. According to official data, NEAR currently has the cheapest transaction fees among all Web3 networks. NEAR DA is 85,000 times cheaper than issuing blob submissions on Ethereum and 30 times cheaper than on Celestia.
Data availability and NEAR DA play an important role in chain abstraction. Since zero-knowledge technology can unify cross-chain security through state proof, settlement data will be easier to obtain from different networks. Thanks to account aggregation and decentralized front-ends, DApps become true multi-chain applications, making it easier to query data from multiple chains when the data is all published in one place. Doing this on NEAR Protocol would be much cheaper for rollups. NEAR DA provides developers with an out-of-the-box solution that makes it easy for rollup builders to fully leverage NEAR’s infrastructure—with over three years of reliability behind it. In November 2023, NEAR releases a data availability layer for ETH rollups and Ethereum developers that can be integrated into any OP Stack, Polygon CDK, or Arbitrum Nitro rollup.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
In terms of doing AI, NEAR Protocol has a unique advantage, that is, NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin was an artificial intelligence researcher before founding NEAR, worked at Google AI, contributed to TensorFlow, and eventually worked with several Colleagues published a paper called “Attention Is All You Need.” The paper introduces the Transformers architecture that powers ChatGPT, Bard, and most of the well-known LLMs behind last year’s explosive growth in AI.
Secondly, with the popularity of Web AI, NEAR will return more focus to AI based on the good development of CA and DA. In November 2023, NEAR released NEAR Tasks, which can train and improve artificial intelligence models. Simply put, the model training requester (Vendor) can issue task requests on the platform and upload basic data materials. Users (Taskers) can participate in task answering and perform manual operations such as text annotation and image recognition for the data. After the task is completed, the platform will reward the user with NEAR tokens, and these manually labeled data will be used to train the corresponding AI model.
In January 2024, Illia Polosukhin released a speech on "NEAR's vision to build digital self-sovereignty". In the future, NEAR Protocol will be developed into a completely independent operating system equipped with a personal AI assistant that can be optimized for user needs without Will disclose private information about user data or assets. It should also be able to interact and transact peer-to-peer with other people’s AI and the community’s AI. I call this “user-owned AI,” which is developing AI agents based on NEAR’s existing foundation.
At the GTC24 conference on March 20, Illia Polosukhin will share insights on AI models and technologies as one of the eight authors of "Attention is All You Need."
Team and investment
team member
Illia Polosukhin: Co-founder of NEAR Protocol and CEO of the foundation. Previously, he worked on the MemSQL, Google AI, and Tensorflow teams. While at Google, he served as a major contributor to TensorFlow and led the team to provide question and answer solutions for core Google search. He is passionate about machine intelligence and natural language processing and was a former ICPC finalist.
Alexander Skidanov: Co-founder of NEAR Protocol. Alexander Skidanov, who previously led the development team at MemSQL, started his career at Microsoft in 2009 and then joined MemSQL in 2011, where he worked for a total of 5 years as an architect and development director. He has won ICPC medals twice, bronze in 2005 and gold in 2008.
Kendall Cole: Current Product Director at NEAR Protocol. Previously, he was specifically responsible for the construction of the Kauri.io project at ConsenSys, and also participated in the creation of OilFront, EntryWire and other projects.
Investment agency
NEAR Protocol has received support from a16z, Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Tiger Global and many other well-known investment institutions.
Summary: As a first-layer blockchain based on sharding and PoS, NEAR Protocol provides developers and users with an efficient, scalable and easy-to-use solution through multiple development directions of chain abstraction, data availability and artificial intelligence. Centralized application platform. As the vision of NEAR Tasks and digital self-sovereignty is realized, NEAR Protocol will continue to lead the innovation and development of blockchain technology in the future.