Until recently, Near could rightfully be called one of the fastest-growing projects in the entire market, coinbase trading bot had about the same success when it first appeared in the world of trading. So how did the Near project have such success? A whole flurry of initiatives from the team and partners contributed to this. Let’s take a detailed look at the ecosystem and speculate about the future of the project in the current situation.
About NEAR
NEAR Protocol is a decentralized platform designed to create Internet applications. The network operates on a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism called Nightshade, which aims to ensure the scalability and stabilization of the commission. NEAR was launched back in October 2020 and over these two years has gained fame as a well-scalable blockchain with an open user interface for a beginner. Also, the blockchain implements a letter, not a numerical designation of addresses.
Instead of creating multiple para-chains controlled by a single chain, as in other blockchains, NEAR chains are modeled as a single blockchain. Each block created on NEAR contains snapshots of transactions occurring on each segment of the “shard” of the other chain.
Each segment is supported by its own dedicated network of validators, and all these segments work in parallel. Due to this, NEAR can process thousands of transactions per second. According to the developers, the application on Near can be launched in just 5 minutes. The native token $NEAR is a management token.
The founders of the project were Alex Skidanov and Ilya Polosukhin. Prior to that, they worked in Silicon Valley at Google and Microsoft, where they were engaged in deep machine learning. But when Alex and Ilya started building their business, they realized that they had to pay people for work — in China, Cuba, and Russia. And it was hard to send money to different countries. Then Ilya thought that it was necessary to make a decision on the blockchain that would be able to quickly allocate financial resources. But the technology that existed in 2018 did not meet the expectations of the team. So a new proprietary solution appeared — NEAR Protocol.
NEAR today
Today, Near is an entire ecosystem in a decentralized space with a multi-million international community. The team managed to build a perfectly working product, attract huge investments from many tier-1 investors and create a fund to finance new developments in the protocol.
Anyone can apply for a grant to implement their project in the ecosystem. The Near ecosystem is experiencing an unprecedented influx of new users – more than 500 thousand new accounts were created in NEAR on May 4 alone.
Recently, the team announced the release of its own $USN stablecoin, which will be provided with a reserve fund containing $NEAR and $USDT. It is already possible to farm a pair of $USN/$USDT at 4.6% per annum. The developers promise that the yield should soon grow to 20%. We hope that $USN will not repeat the path of $UST.
The Near ecosystem is developing very much – the amount of blocked money in the protocol has exceeded $500 million.
The most well-known projects in the ecosystem are:
Aurora is a Layer 2 solution for Ethereum, built on the basis of the Near protocol. Aurora includes the Rainbow Bridge, which does not require trust, and allows two-way transmission of any information from Ethereum to Near, including ERC-20 tokens. Due to the low transaction cost, speed and scalability, Aurora expands the capabilities of Ethereum and increases the Near ecosystem through all EVM-based applications.
Ref Finance is an AMM trading platform that allows users to trade tokens and farm LP pairs.
Burrow is an interest rate platform that allows users to provide assets for interest and borrow against them to lock in liquidity.
Skyward is an open-source launchpad in which projects can launch their tokens without the need to create liquidity.
Paras is an NFT marketplace specializing in digital collectibles.
Octopus is a set of smart contracts that implements the security leasing market for its app chain. Holders of the native $OCT token decide which app chain they want to bet on at the moment, creating a free market where app chains can lease the security they need at any time at a market price.
Meta Pool is a liquidity protocol in which you can profitably stake $NEAR, and $AURORA tokens at 11% per annum.
The future
At the last meeting of the NEAR Town Hall, which is a virtual platform for the growing global community of the project, quarterly results were summed up. In the last quarter alone, almost $26 million was allocated for the implementation of 360 new projects in the Near ecosystem. One of such projects was the eFuse platform, which will be a venue for gaming esports events using blockchain technologies.
Near takes HR policy very seriously and for this reason, the Near Education training program was launched. At the moment, Near Education has already helped more than 5 thousand students in the study of blockchain technologies. NEAR’s commitment to climate protection is an important part of its long-term future. The power consumption of NEAR is several times less than that of other networks, such as Bitcoin. For 10 years, the Near network consumes as much energy as Bitcoin consumes every 10 minutes.
The project is also developing a strategy for creating regional hubs Near, which will be engaged in the implementation of Web 3 to the masses. In addition to the five regional hubs currently operating Near, the possibility of opening 14 promising centers around the world is being considered. The next LATAM center will include Latin American countries — Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Argentina.
Conclusion
Near Protocol is a great project because:
It is already working on the Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm and has its own scalability technology – dynamic sharding, which allows for lightning-fast and very cheap transactions on the network.
- Similar technologies from Ethereum will be implemented only at the end of this year;
- The project has one of the most talented teams in the entire industry;
- A lot of money was invested in the project by large-scale investment funds;
- Near organically develops all segments: DeFi, NFT, dApps, Stablecoin, Parachains, etc;
- The team, sparing no money, actively attracts new developers to the ecosystem, who create effective and understandable projects for the general user, thereby contributing to the influx of the masses into the industry;
