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At Yahoo Finance, you get free stock quotes, the latest news, portfolio management resources, international market data, social interaction and mortgage rates to help you manage your financial life.

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Near

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Note: a SWOT analysis is an evaluation of the fundamental, operational, technical, social, economic, and even to some degree administrative elements of a project. This is not a model to be used for trading purposes. (NFA, DYOR) Composed of four elements, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, a SWOT analysis framework provides excellent insight for establishing a high-level understanding of the state of a project's well-being through the lens of a birds-eye view. It can help formulate decisions around which areas require more attention, set performance goals, and organize a foundational understanding of where a project is headed. Rarely (if ever) used in crypto, it is time to apply this timeless method of evaluation to the digital asset space. Today, ( ), a contender on the L1 smart contract platform scene and the self-proclaimed "blockchain operating system," will get a SWOT. NEAR Protocol NEAR 💪 Strengths (Internal) (Helpful) 1. Product Positioning with AI NEAR has a very close association with ; so close in fact that, when NEAR was first conceived as a business/project, it was called , and it was entirely focused on AI. Even though the project fully pivoted into the crypto/blockchain/web3 space, its roots run so deep with the founders themselves. Illia Polosukhin came from Google's AI research arm, and his partner Alex is actively working on a project called Yasna. Polusukhin has already mentioned that there are already explorations of embedding AI into NEAR. Artificial Intelligence Near.AI 2. Elegant Stack of Technological Innovation Through an elegant compilation of multiple incremental technologies, NEAR has rolled out a solution that took the best that the industry had to offer and adapted them to create a product with distinguishing characteristics. Packed with the B.O.S. (blockchain operating system), nightshade sharding, threshold Proof-Of-Stake, human-readable account-based system, three-tier validator structure, and much more. Even though it is a bit dense and requires some technical knowledge, both versions { / } of their documentation is worth a thorough read; NEAR is the perfect embodiment of “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”. v1 v2 3. Philosophical Alignment with Developers Developers are the most valuable commodity to a blockchain network, and NEAR is acutely aware of their value and importance. NEAR's efforts to cater to devs is clear from the the amount of quality resources in the blogs, documentation, and in many other places focused on building products. Hosting conferences, creating a dedicated hub (with a purpose-built dev-focused governance system), developing tooling to empower devs to program in nearly any language, and creating an inviting atmosphere all conspire together to make NEAR a desirable space to work in. The proof is in the pudding. There are currently over 100 full-time developers and over 440 active contributors after the calamities of the last cycle. 4. Superstar Performance As a competitor in the Layer 1 sector, NEAR has devised a blockchain system that provides extremely desirable performance metrics. With average transaction costs floating around $0.001, a throughput capacity of 100,000 transactions per second, and one-second finality. Outside of the technical, the business development has been hard at work. Multitudes of partnerships across many different sectors (sports, music, IT, and even alcohol). 5. Transaction Burn Fee Model Many prominent layer 1's have followed in the footsteps of Ethereum and implemented a burn module into the structure of their transaction fees. NEAR's version of this burns 70% of fees (effectively creating a vehicle for combating inflation) and sends 30% back to the contract that originated the transaction (developers/organization). This creates a virtuous cycle where more projects are further incentivized to produce high-quality products and market them. 6. Transaction Stability Mechanism As a part of its architectural specifications, NEAR is capable of handling network load variance exceptionally well. Even though the address count spiked by 350% and transaction activity spiked by ~>120%, network fees were able to remain stable around $0.001 (or 0.0001 NEAR). Made possible through its sharding and staking modules, this performance indicates a future with much more certainty around gas fees (an economic property necessary to build a greater diversity of sophisticated financial/gaming/social instrumentation). 7. Intelligent DAO Decentralization Model Decentralized Autonomous Organizations have become the de-facto entities for social coordination in Web3. Near has outlined an approach to the decentralization of the network through the establishment of purpose-specific DAOs and handing over control to them as they mature. With four DAOs already actively growing (Marketing DAO, DEV DAO, Creatives DAO, and NDC), it is clear as day that NEAR has put serious, sophisticated thought into the action plan. By approaching decentralization through the lens of empowering the communities overseeing the ecosystem (rather than just the end users that don't engage or have any sophistication/diligence processes), higher quality results can be anticipated whenever power is diffused. 😞 Weaknesses (Internal, Harmful) 1. DEFI TVL not showing Recovery During the ravages of crypto bear 2022, every network experienced shrinkage in the total value locked across their DEFI platforms. NEAR experienced a compression of roughly ~90%, falling from ~450 million USD to now just above ~50 million USD. While some of the industry (primarily leading L1's and L2's) have begun to show QoQ reversals, NEAR continues to trend down. Considering the recent marketwide positive price action, a stagnation in TVL shows a lack of desire from participants to commit their capital; a phenomenon that has a negative recursive feedback. 2. Perpetual NEAR Inflation While the economic logic presented by NEAR that inflation is a method of compensation for node operators is a valid one, the fact that there will be persistent 5% inflation ultimately causes drag on the per-unit value of the NEAR token. Moreover, the inflationary rewards are distributed in a 90/10 manner, with 90% going to node operators and 10% going to the Near treasury. The long-term accrual of tokens in the hands of a treasury creates another trust-dependence vector, which, regardless of promises, can always backfire. 3. Stablecoin Contraction As is the case with DEFI TVL across the entire marketplace, stablecoins have been the killer financial application that has plummeted in terms of its on-chain footprint across different networks. Sporting some odd ~370 million USD at one point, the total stablecoin liquidity on NEAR has been incessantly becoming smaller. When taking into the context of recent issuances of fresh stablecoins by Tether and the arrival of native USDC; today's ~82 million USD is minuscule relative to the market capitalization of the project. 🧐 Opportunities (External) (Helpful) 1. Continued Growth of AI Trend Trends come and go, but some things tend to stay. AI is a "trend" that has been around since the 1950's. Since its inception, it has experienced many floods of spiking interest but has never been able to deliver any sticky products due to a lack of infrastructure to host it. Well, now the world has matured, computation has become orders of magnitude more capable, and energy has become more abundant; it seems as though AI has finally teetered over its own inflection point and, moving forward, will be a permanent element in the fabric of society. NEAR's natural leaning towards AI will likely result in a monsoon of interest spilling over to it from AI. 2. Relentless Community Orientation It should be no secret that the most important element in the success of a crypto project is the community it breeds. NEAR has delivered a miracle in this sense. Constantly hosting some of the most talked about events, NEAR has built a community of developers, investors, and just grassroots supporters that has a lot of overlap outside of the original crypto ecosystem. There are developers that have entered crypto, and only ever developed in Web3 via NEAR. There are NEAR token holders that have never even owned Bitcoin or Ethereum. By inviting new market participants, NEAR is growing the industry as a whole and showing some of the strongest social signals that express longevity and economic resilience. 😳 Threats (External) (Harmful) 1. Developer Abandonment Every project has a threshold inflection point or critical mass where the flywheel effect takes over its growth and escape velocity is achieved (the project becomes "self-sufficient" or less dependent on any individual entity). Granted, this is a very general argument that can be made for any project; however, it is important to note that NEAR posted a loss of developers to the tune of ~60% last year, ranking it at the lower end of all projects. It is not out of the picture that, for some odd reason, it turns out the market does not endorse NEAR, and that talent disperses to other projects. 2. Layer Competition Even though NEAR is called a layer 1, its technology extends into a more "base layer" category that lands NEAR somewhat closer to Layer 0. This means that NEAR is indirectly competing against Polkadot, Comos, and Avalanche, as well as Solana, Aptos, Cardano, and so on. As the industry continues to mature, there are good chances that consolidations will happen where chains will merge, users will migrate, and networks will halt. Considering the grade-A, high-caliber projects against which NEAR is competing, the evolution will be quite the spectacle. Takeaway: NEAR is a tier-one project. There are a slew of technological design choices that inspire and entice. Excellent branding in appearance and in culture. Attractive potential future that is articulated well and executed with great energy. NEAR puts a lot of emphasis on the intersections between technology and society, deliberately mixing two of the most fundamental drivers/elements of economic prosperity. Conclusion: Articulate in its technology and very inviting with its brand culture, NEAR has many characteristics similar to what Ethereum and Solana exhibited in the earlier stages of the projects. Something that sticks out very much is how eloquently NEAR has been able to synthesize technologies while not becoming a focal point of trash-talking toxicity as can be seen with other tribal networks. What has not been discussed is the subtle angle that NEAR has been taking into account in the mental framework during development; discovery. Not a subject commonly discussed outside of industry expert circles, discovery is a primitive that drives attention and amplifies utility; after all how can you know what there is to do if you never even look? Interestingly enough, it seems that the conversations within NEAR do not talk much about RWA; instead, they seem to be more retail-facing. Eerily reminiscent of Web3's equivalent of a "Shopify" -  not by purpose, but by its relative role within the industry. Thank you so much for reading, I hope this serves you well on your journey. Live long and prosper 🥂

SWOT Analysis: NEAR Protocol (NEAR)

NEAR its transformation into the Blockchain Operating System (BOS), a decentralized UI and frontend for crypto applications. It will give users a seamless experience exploring all the capabilities of web3 while giving developers an easy way to create new through Lego-like interfaces. announced dApps Instead of competing with other blockchains, Protocol is building a decentralized internet by leveraging the strengths of its native blockchain. These include low transaction fees, sharding, high throughput, and robust security. NEAR The BOS will support any blockchain network and Web2 backend, allowing users to switch between blockchains and applications in a breeze via a single-step onboarding process. This will improve user efficiency and convenience while eliminating pain points such as the need to create separate accounts for each activity. For instance, users will be able to make payments with the same wallet over different blockchains, use decentralized applications, and access any public or private network without leaving the platform. It’s like being able to use a universal remote to control all your media devices – instead of having to switch between a bunch of different remotes, you now have a single, simple-to-use remote that can control them all. The BOS will allow developers to use smart contracts and blockchain as a decentralized backend and frontend. It will also make their apps highly accessible and secure with high reliability due to its trustless nature. This is similar to the way that the industrial revolution unlocked the potential for productivity and growth. Through mass production and automation, it provided an efficient and quick way to make products. By dispensing with centralized infrastructure, the BOS is revolutionizing crypto application development, maintenance, and scaling. Here's how technology evolved to reach this point The Blockchain Operating System is based on the technology of rendering a frontend directly from smart contracts. Combining smart contract code with the frontend and blending the frontend and backend logic into one application was how the guys took this technology to the next level. Up to this point, NEAR Social, a social data protocol built on top of NEAR Protocol, has been the most prominent application of the technology. One of the biggest breakthroughs is that it’s now possible to run Ethereum Smart Contracts on the Blockchain Operating System. For example, you can take the source code of Lido and launch it with frontend and backend on Near Protocol. It's as simple as taking the source code, creating a component, forking it, and you're done. On top of the system, developers can build decentralized and composable frontends. In this way, they can add built-in features to different components and pieces with no separate hosting needed. As an example, they can develop components for , or for SocialFi, or they can combine both. DeFi In other words, developers have the ability to create custom dApps with a wide range of functionalities and complex chain interactions between dApps or smart contracts, all while streamlining the development process. The next step will be the development of plug-ins for existing browsers and perhaps even standalone browsers, à la Brave. Decentralized domain services like the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and will be used instead of traditional domain name system (DNS) providers. The result will be a permissionless, decentralized internet. Unstoppable Domains The first entry point to blockchain-based decentralized internet The BOS is similar to Android and iOS in the sense that when they first came out, there were few apps available, but they had SDKs, app-writing guides, and a lot of room for new apps, so mobile development flourished, opening up an enormous market for mobile apps and games. Over time, this created a vast library of available apps, with unique features and capabilities, revolutionizing the ways we use our devices today. They were initially limited in functionality, but no one doubted they would become the future. In a similar vein, the BOS is on a trajectory to become a major platform for developers, creating a burgeoning marketplace and unlocking even more growth potential. The success of this system depends on how it is embraced by developers and the community that will sustain and grow it. What's more important is how users will adopt it. There is perhaps no greater concern as to why users might want to switch from web2 to web3. Utility-wise, web3 doesn't differ much from web2. There are basically the same products, but only the form is different. At the time when Android and iOS were nascent, they provided an entirely unique experience in terms of mobile access and internet use. For users, the Blockchain Operating System may not be as exciting as it is for developers. In other words, it is about end users embracing the crypto's ethos – whether the ability to own and control their data in the decentralized internet is worthwhile enough for them to give up some comfort until web3 matures. This is similar to switching from a horse and buggy to a car – the newfound sense of speed and possibilities is exciting, but it also requires a learning curve to utilize its full potential.

NEAR's Blockchain Operating System: A Beacon of Hope for a Democratic Digital Future?

Over the past couple of years, several smart-contract capable platforms have emerged in the crypto space. Known for its swiftness and affordability, the NEAR protocol competes with similar projects as it aims to address the limitations of older, rival systems. is a layer-1 blockchain solution designed specifically for creators. The platform presents itself as a base layer or foundation for developers to build and launch innovative decentralized applications. Indeed, NEAR employs the more efficient proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and prioritizes ease-of-use, interoperability, and scalability in addition to being a community-driven platform. NEAR Since its emergence NEAR has grown into a thriving blockchain ecosystem. At writing, the platform hosts over 500 DeFi projects that offer novel, real-world applications. Here’s a list of 15 successful DApp projects available on the NEAR ecosystem. Ref Finance Currently the foremost DeFi project on the NEAR protocol, is a multipurpose platform with services revolving around the network’s native NEAR token. It is notably an automated market maker DEX. This means the platform facilitates the permissionless exchange of assets via liquidity pools. Ref Finance Likewise, Ref Finance provides users with access to a robust suite of DeFi offerings. These include a lending protocol, yield farm, stableswap platform, synthetic asset issuer, and more. With staking and farming features, users get to earn the platform’s native currency Ref, which they can use to earn more funds or participate in the governance of the community-led platform. Amongst other perks, Ref Finance is also known for its high rewards, low fees, high-speed operations, and security, which are all benefits of the underlying NEAR protocol. It also leverages NEAR to provide multiple pools-in-one contracts, atomic transactions, and customizable pool fees. The platform was founded in 2021 by NEAR co-founder, Ilia Polosukhin. Aurora Launched in May 2021, is a thriving Ethereum Virtual Machine built on the NEAR protocol. The layer-2 scaling solution exists to provide Ethereum compatibility to DApps on NEAR. Aurora is unarguably one of the most important projects the NEAR network hosts. It offers developers the Ethereum 1.0 experience, allowing them to write smart contracts in Solidity while still enjoying the benefits of the NEAR network. Aurora Like many other NEAR DApps, Aurora takes advantage of the protocol’s high throughput, speed scalability, and low transaction costs to create a great user experience. With the Aurora Bridge (working in tandem with the NEAR Rainbow Bridge) users can carry out the trustless transfer of ETH and ERC20 tokens between Ethereum and Aurora. The network is governed by a decentralized autonomous organization called the AuroraDAO. MyNearWallet One of the most popular NEAR wallets, is a non-custodial wallet for the NEAR blockchain. Users can securely store NEAR tokens and other assets that are compatible with the layer-1 network. MyNearWallet is available on the web and on mobile devices soon, and it can be connected to a hardware wallet for added security. Since the wallet is non-custodial, the user has full control over its private keys, and therefore the funds. MyNearWallet wNEAR, NFTs and various assets across the NEAR ecosystem. MyNearWallet supports Rainbow Bridge A crucial part of the NEAR ecosystem, as the name denotes is a bridge that facilitates the seamless transfer of assets between the NEAR and Ethereum networks. With the Rainbow Bridge, developers can transfer several well-known ERC-20 tokens between Ethereum and NEAR wallets or projects. Users migrating assets to NEAR gain access to the network’s developer-optimized environment with its one-to-second transaction times, affordable fees, and relatively low bridge-transfer costs. the Rainbow Bridge The Rainbow Bridge is the only fully decentralized, permissionless, and trustless bridge linking blockchains. Users do not have to rely on the protocol itself, rather they only need to trust the security of the networks it connects. CoinPipe is a payment solution that runs on the NEAR blockchain. The platform provides tools for crypto operations, including crypto POS terminals, for e-commerce and offline retailers alike. Business owners are able to manage their treasury and invoices easily through a user-friendly dashboard. CoinPipe employs the NEAR blockchain for its speed, security, and low-cost transactions. CoinPipe NearPay One of the most important products on the list, is a payments platform on the NEAR network that works to bridge the gap between crypto and fiat spaces. Some of NearPay’s products include the NearPay Wallet and the NearPay Card, the NEAR ecosystem’s first-ever debit card. NearPay The NearPay Wallet already supports a notable range of digital currencies and is available for web, IOS, and Android users. Meanwhile, NearPay is available as a virtual debit card (and soon as a physical card). Users can track their spending, manage their pins, and freeze/unfreeze their cards among a slew of other features still in the works. As part of its offerings, NearPay's crypto on-ramp widget enables businesses to accept fiat payments from customers instantly converted into a variety of supported crypto assets. Roketo is a NEAR-based platform that uses persistent, time-distributed transfers to boost token utility, and includes Roketo Business, an app designed to streamline financial and operational aspects of Web3 businesses (such as salaries, grant allocation, etc). It also offers a payment widget, airdrop solutions, and subscription tools for Web3 services, including NFT subscriptions. It can be used for token vesting, play-to-earn activities, and token streaming, among other things. Existing on the NEAR blockchain allows Roketo to charge low commissions and offer lightning-fast transactions. Roketo Burrow is a decentralized, non-custodial interest rate market protocol that runs on the NEAR blockchain. The platform retains NEAR’s user-friendly nature and allows users to supply and borrow assets to earn interest and unlock liquidity. The basis of Burrow’s services are interest-bearing assets such as staked Near (stNEAR) or other staked derivatives such as wBTC, or stETH. Burrow specifically uses interest-bearing assets of base layers to unlock yields from the base layer as these provide the most secure rates as well as the highest returns. Users can deposit these assets on the platform to earn an attractive yield and also take out self-paying loans, which entails borrowing against future interest. Burrow Decentral Bank is a DAO that focuses on the development, support, and issuance of NEAR-native stablecoins. The goal is to create an easy-to-use, “truly stable” stablecoin that can weather unfavorable market conditions. Notably, Decentral bank has successfully released the first of these assets, a stablecoin built on the NEAR protocol dubbed $USN. Decentral Bank manages the smart contracts of $USN and its Reserve Fund. The DAO also votes on key decisions surrounding the stablecoin. Decentral Bank Octopus Network is a NEAR-based cross-chain network that allows developers to launch and run application-specific blockchains known as appchains. With Octopus, creators can get flexible and cost-effective security for their app chains in addition to multichain functionality, and on-chain governance. The team behind the project took inspiration for the network from the Octopus. Each Substrate-based, EVM-compatible appchain is self-sustaining and can adapt to evolving environments. However, when joined as a whole, the Octopus network is beneficial to all members of what the team describes as an “internet of blockchains.” Octopus Network Band Protocol is a decentralized, cross-chain data oracle platform that aggregates real-world data and APIsonto smart contracts. The protocol serves as an intermediary between blockchain-based DApps and legacy internet data sources. Band integrated with the NEAR network over a year ago to bring its services to creators within the ecosystem. Developers can easily receive off-chain data for their applications or projects. In turn, Band Protocol leverages NEAR’s features to increase throughput and scalability. Band Protocol Paras is the most popular NFT marketplace within the NEAR ecosystem. Paras initially began with digital art cards inspired by real-world trading cards but later diversified its offerings. Interestingly, the platform approaches the non-fungible token industry with a curatorial mindset. In addition to encouraging a variety of styles among its creators, Paras emphasizes quality over quantity and only publishes themed collections. As it is built on the NEAR blockchain, the platform charges extremely low fees even as it grants users a unique NFT experience. Paras Alchemy Pay is a hybrid payments solutions provider that pushes blockchain adoption for merchant networks, developers, and financial institutions. The platform opens the door for fiat users to easily access crypto assets and services easily accessible to fiat businesses and institutions. Alchemy Pay Berry Cards is an innovative DeFi app on the NEAR protocol where users can jointly create pixel art NFTs. The community-driven platform mostly exists for users to enjoy participating in the Berry Club. Members come together in individual chat rooms where they can discuss their vision for their collaborative pieces. Users can add pixels to projects on the Berry Club using avocado tokens, which they can also stake on artworks to earn daily returns. Berry Club pieces are available on the Berry Card marketplace, buyers make purchases using NEAR and can resell the cards in the marketplace. Berry Cards NearZombies is an educational project that offers a unique, interactive learning process. Users get to learn about the NEAR protocol by creating an NFT avatar and working their way through chapters that feature coding tasks for users to complete as they go. It also offers a learn and earn feature where users can play a zombie game and earn Near Zombie tokens. NearZombies

The Top 15 Most Exciting Projects in the NEAR Ecosystem

This is the official HackerNoon wiki for NEAR Protocol. As part of our , this living wiki displays on . If you’d like to suggest edits to our official Near Protocol, please submit them in the comment field below, a real human editor will read and review your suggestions for accuracy and publication. coin price pages Near Protocol crypto price page Near protocol is a that uses its to leverage competition. Nightshade works by having each node on the blockchain hold only a small subset of the platform's data. This solution enhances efficiency, increases transactions conducted per second, and allows saving on gas fees. proof-of-stake blockchain nightshade sharding History of NEAR NEAR initially started off as a machine learning project before it evolved into a blockchain development platform. The two founders, Illia Polosukhin, a lead developer for Google’s TensorFlow, and Alexander Skidanov, the directing engineer at the database company MemSQL - started NEAR.ai in early 2017 to explore program synthesis: the field of automated programs from a human specification. It’s while developing this AI that they discovered the blockchains and that they thought were intriguing. They began looking into the available blockchains at the time to find one that matched their needs and could not find one. They were convinced that no existing blockchain was at their par. smart contracts Illia and Alex went ahead to put together a team of engineers and developers who began the development of the NEAR Protocol in August 2018. The goal of NEAR was to enable developers to build and launch with huge usage and system requirements. They thus choose the proof of stake model as opposed to the proof of stake work. dApps NEAR was able to raise more than $20m in venture capital funding even before the work on the blockchain kicked off. Applications on NEAR must pay storage fees to the NEAR Protocol for any data that they store on the network and for performing computations. This is what gives NEAR value. Biggest Claim to fame The promise and general idea of the project is the primary driver of NEAR’s fame. This is evident from how the project was able to secure funding even before production and how they have continually been able to secure funding. They recently announced raising over $150m from different investors including Dragonfly Capital, a16z, Alameda, and Circle Ventures. The funding announcement lead to the price of NEAR to climb more than 50% to establish a new record high at $20.36 on Jan. 14. The funds raised will go into product development and improvement, extensive marketing of the protocol and its potential, and boosting the adoption of Web3 technologies. They also seek to expand into Latin America in addition to Africa, Asia, and Europe. The launch of Aurora also accelerated the popularity of NEAR. Aurora is a platform that was developed on NEAR and allows seamless transactions between Ethereum and NEAR. the platform quickly rose to be among the busiest cross-chain platforms. Aurora allows developers to run their high capacity & activity, Ethereum compatible, and scalable apps at relatively low gas fees. The expansion of the project has been key to its growth as the adoption grows every day. By the end of 2021, NEAR had reported an almost 300% growth on the community. The developer community on the platforms continues to grow every day as new projects are launched on it and others are bridged on it. Biggest Criticism Most of the crypto projects and platforms are based on decentralization and community involvement in decision-making. However, the NEAR protocol has come under attack for seemingly being centralized. This is because decisions are made by a few individuals who control the entire ecosystem.  This happened after the majority of the initial tokens were allocated to the core team giving them almost all the power to govern everything. This also brings about an issue with token distribution, with only 73 valid validators on the network. This means that there are only 73 votes cast on governance matters which makes it rather centralized. This has been seen as an issue with the project but it hasn’t greatly affected its image among developers who continue to throng the platform. The Near Protocol Team The two founders Illia Polosukhin and Alexander Skidanov are the leaders of the team forming a two-man board. Alexander is the Co-CEO while Illian is a co-founder as well as the chief technology officer. Marieke Flament is the Chief Executive officer, Erik Trautman the second Co-CEO with Haseeb Qureshi an advisory member of the board. These are the main directors of the project leading the development and other teams within the organization. This is the official HackerNoon wiki for NEAR Protocol. As part of our , this living wiki displays on . If you’d like to suggest edits to our official Near Protocol, please submit them in the comment field below, a real human editor will read and review your suggestions for accuracy and publication. coin price pages Near Protocol crypto price page

NEAR Protocol $NEAR Wiki: Coin History, Techstack, and Crypto News

became some of the biggest events in the crypto industry, bringing together the community and its co-thinkers and partners. The scale of this event is impressive indeed: 2,000+ participants, over 700 NEAR-based projects, and more than 200 expert speakers. These four days were just a mad run of networking, rooting for innovative ideas and just having fun. Here I’d like to express my overall impressions and recap the results. NEARCON 2022 NEAR Networking Has Never Been So Much Fun Imagine a place packed with crypto enthusiasts all chatting, enjoying themselves at food trucks with local food, and gazing at numerous entertainments. This is what the NEARCON venue looked like. But all this fun was just a background to intense collaboration of the brightest crypto minds who brainstormed the ideas for the creation of a better, safer, and more comfortable Web3 environment. It was a place where all crypto fans could meet big names of the industry and get inspired for more exciting discoveries. This conference was a great experience for me, as in this short period of time, I’ve made ties with dozens of interesting people and learned about the amazing prospects for the crypto industry. And these were not some boring tie and suit meetings – I’ve met these people while having fun at numerous parties. One of them was a business breakfast organized by , a crypto streaming solution. I had a great time during engaging conversations. Co-Founder of Taras Dovgal shared with me his impressions of the conference: Roketo Kikimora Labs “NEARCON is a great opportunity to meet similar-minded people and share thoughts about the future of Web3. I’m really impressed by the scale of the event, and I’m glad to see the NEAR community growing at such a rapid pace, and we are expanding alongside.” Also I had a word with Eugene Rid, the second Co-Founder of Kikimora Labs: “This place is buzzing with enthusiasm. The atmosphere is just fantastic. I’m so grateful to the NEAR team for bringing us all together and giving us a chance for networking and broadening the horizons of the crypto realm.” Another party that grabbed my attention was the one held by NearPay and . There, I’ve discussed the prospects for the NEAR community with George Goshanov, СЕО of : CryptoMondays MyNearWallet “With the ever-growing number of the NEAR family members, we are going to develop a sustainable one-stop environment where everyone will find any crypto solution they may need. It’s also great that the number of NEAR token use cases increases exponentially, making it a sought-after asset.” Bright Prospects for the NEAR Ecosystem Being a host of the event, NEAR, the leading smart contract blockchain platform, has built plenty of useful partnerships and kicked off a number of fantastic projects. Here are some of the most important ones in a nutshell: The NEAR Digital Collective (NDC) framework has been created as a move to enhance decentralization by arranging a governance group within the system. Its purpose is to enable the blockchain itself to make decisions which will add transparency to the way the community works. , the biggest stablecoin in terms of market cap, has been added to the NEAR ecosystem. Commenting on the partnership, CTO at Tether Operations Limited Paolo Ardoino said: USDT “We’re excited to launch USDT on NEAR, offering its community access to the first, most stable, and trusted stablecoin in the digital token space.” NFTs are to be developed more actively within the ecosystem thanks to the partnership with , an NFT marketplace built on NEAR Protocol. Robbie Lim, GM, Partners & International at NEAR said: Few and Far “We are thrilled to support Few and Far’s mission to provide seamless NFT minting solutions and an easy-to-use marketplace for the NEAR ecosystem and beyond. The NEAR Foundation embraces the digital asset revolution and the importance of laying the foundations for web3 gaming, the metaverse economy, and much more.” has launched an NFT marketplace based on the NEAR blockchain to help charities and non-profit organizations make a social impact while giving artists an opportunity to torrent their creativity into meaningful humanitarian issues. Fayyr has announced its soon-to-be released Visa debit card that will bridge fiat and  crypto payments. The card will be connected to the NearPay Wallet which makes paying with crypto for everyday goods and services fast and easy. Ivan Ilin, COO of NearPay, said: NearPay “It’s great that we are focused on the technology here, not the NEAR token, because price speculations should not be of higher priority. Overall, this conference helped me to see the perspective, the aspects to develop. At this stage, the projects within the ecosystem have already attracted some high-flying investors, and I think the next step should be a shift of attention towards our users. This conference has totally changed my perception of NEAR.” Pagoda, the Web3 startup platform working on the NEAR protocol, has unveiled its — an all-in-one tool for developers intended for smooth creation of dApps. flagship console has launched a $100 million venture capital fund in collaboration with Caerus Ventures, aiming to help creative people promote their art through next-generation platforms, marketplaces, and apps. NEAR Foundation In partnership with Coinbase, NEAR has launched a enabling its users to learn how the NEAR ecosystem works and get reward for that in its native tokens. learn & earn program These are just a fraction of all the big promising plans of the NEAR community that were announced at the conference, and some of them have already been implemented. NEAR Expands its Geography In addition to the current located in Kenya, Lisbon, and the Balkan countries, two more hubs will join the ecosystem which was announced at NEARCON. The one located in India will be focused on the promotion of blockchain talents and innovation. The region is seen as a promising site for development supported by a group of crypto enthusiasts. NEAR hubs The second new hub will be located in Vietnam, one of the countries that experiences a boom of the digital economy, with people massively adopting the use of crypto assets. In this country, the mission of NEAR will be to further develop blockchain innovation, education, and digital transformation. Speaking of regional hubs, I’d like to separately mention , a hub that was located in Kiev, but when the Ukraine war started, the guys behind the project had to move to Lisbon. This hub makes immense contributions in all senses, not only developing the crypto sphere but also helping Ukranians stay within the community and find job opportunities in these toughest times. Founder of NEAR UA Anton Vaisburd shared his impressions of the conference: NEAR UA “Great community of builders, a lot of meaningful conversations, and already a few partnerships so far. A lot of interest in the NEAR UA booth where people donate for merch, application of NEAR technology even for this. We have a lot of after-work to do, but already can feel the impact of the connections that were possible to make only thanks to NEARCON.” Looking Forward to NEARCON 2023 It would not be an exaggeration to say that NEARCON 2022 was one of the biggest and brightest crypto events there ever have been. A wide range of exciting projects were presented at the conference, attracting an impressive number of attendees. As NEAR Foundation officials Jack Collier and David Morrison noted, this year’s event was five times larger than last year’s. As I look ahead to next year's conference, I can only expect it to be even more buzzworthy, given the boundless energy and enthusiasm of the NEAR team and its partners.

NEARCON 2022: Overall Impressions and Promising Results

Launching a new crypto project is a fascinating yet incredibly demanding time for founders - you need not only to come up with an innovative idea but to generate attention from investors, supporters, and community members to assure your idea’s survival and success. Every emerging project needs a comprehensive and strategic approach in times like these. growth marketing Luckily, at 42DM we have accumulated our 5-year-long expertise in launching and scaling crypto projects into one framework, which we have just used to help our partner to become a top-5 project on the . Let’s look at how we did it and which insights you can adopt from our road to success with PembRock. PembRock Finance NEAR ecosystem The setup and challenges of launching a blockchain product on NEAR Our partner PembRock is the first leveraged yield farming application built on NEAR Protocol. It allows users to borrow funds and farm with up to 3x leverage, lend to other participants for returns, and stake tokens to get protocol profit. They came to us with this incredible idea and a goal to become a top-5 project on NEAR in just 5 months. The challenge was in the fact that our partner had just an idea, and needed our support to bring this idea to life, which included generating enough community and investor interest to raise funds for the project’s developments before we can think about further scaling. To achieve this ambitious goal we decided to develop and implement a marketing ecosystem that would give PembRock a quick start and help to distribute knowledge about the project's idea within the community, as well as acquire relevant customers and retain them both within and beyond the NEAR community after the product is successfully launched. We divided our activities into 3 stages - prelaunch, launch, and next steps, where we currently are. Let’s examine all of them in detail. Growth marketing approach for a quick launch and IDO For our pre-launch activities, the goal was to generate as much interest as possible in the idea of future product development to prepare for a successful IDO. Step 1: Generating initial awareness The goal for the initial awareness stage was to build an initial community of early supporters through omnichannel and consistent brand and product-related communication on NEAR and as well to build lasting relations with NEAR ecosystem leaders. PembRock’s mission is “We are here for good & for long.” Their initial brand identity was not designed to speak this, so we decided to update the brand strategy and align it with product mission, NEAR vision, and DeFi audience taste. With a highly appealing brand, we started to build consistent omnichannel communication and share the project’s goals and the community role by using: PR Partnerships AMAs SMM As a result, in the first two months, we got 10 media article publications, a first thousand Twitter followers, and 35 posts on NEAR community social media channels. Such a boost in awareness allowed PembRock to attract people who are already interested in the idea and excited to see it brought to life. Step 2: IDO (initial DEX offering) The initial buzz around the product allowed us to focus on successfully closing 2 IDO campaigns. In times of total uncertainty for the DeFi market caused by Luna's collapse, we needed to convey to the NEAR community that we are the right project to believe in and contribute to. In times of uncertainty, people rely on trustworthiness. It is all about the team, achievements, and transparent communication on what is happening right now. We’ve built communication streams in all the relevant channels to showcase who we are and why people should trust us even in challenging markets. We shared this message on: IDO launchpads: MetaYield, Skyward AMAs NEAR-related channels & groups Social media Listings & PR In addition to successfully completing 2 IDO sales, we also received additional 600+ Twitter followers and 20 posts in NEAR community socials with “0” for promotion. Launching product on NEAR ecosystem During the product launch, we focused on building awareness about the product in the crypto market within and outside the NEAR community, attracting landers and farmers, and reaching a TVL of 2 mln in 3 months. Step 3: The Launch If you want to be a leader you need to think and act as you already are. We’ve decided to launch massively but to avoid overspends, we’ve divided the launch campaign into stages: soft launch within the NEAR community - to test the product, soft launch beyond the NEAR community - to try different channels for customers acquisition Extensive push in and out - to drive users acquisition As a result, within four weeks, we got 4000+ total traffic, 2000+ initial wallet connections, and 179% above the TVL goal. To acquire customers beyond NEAR on the scale, grow LTV for farmers, and save farmers from massive burnout (liquidation) in unpredictable times, we also focused on creating hyper-relevant educational content for our community. Step 4: School PembRock’s mission is to be in DeFi for good and for long. To make this mission possible, we needed happy customers - both farmers and lenders. Farmers were suffering from massive liquidations on highly volatile markets. To help them be a better farmer, we decided to launch an educational platform - the school of PembRock. The goal of the school of PembRock was to help ease the adoption of our technology and allow newcomers a more accessible intro to the market. We used a content-based approach focusing on education in the most complex topics in the DeFi market and promoted this content. With these efforts, we reached 77k Twitter users in the 1st weeks of our campaign. Scaling project on NEAR ecosystem Having successfully launched the project on NEAR protocol, we are not ready to stop. We plan to grow the number of new users and retain the current ones; grow and stabilize the community both inside and beyond NEAR and continue building community trust & loyalty through education for successful product usage. Focus on user & community growth and adoption of your new solution is valuable for any new project, seeking to find its unique audience. If you are curious about our other successful crypto & blockchain case studies, . check them out here

From Idea to Top-5 Project: How to Launch on the Near Ecosystem

De la idea al proyecto Top-5: cómo lanzarse en el ecosistema cercano

The number of blockchains that developers can build on is growing every single day, each with their own distinct features and capabilities. So why do we think farming on NEAR is the best choice? Well, no matter what perspective you use the blockchain comes out on top — in this article, we’ll explore the concrete reasons why. NEAR Blockchain Summary NEAR is a public Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain designed to host decentralized applications (Dapps) through the deployment of smart contracts. While sometimes described as a competitor to Ethereum, this is not strictly true. Despite Ethereum’s well-publicized scalability issues leading to high transaction fees, it nevertheless remains the largest ecosystem for decentralized applications and will continue to be so once the much-anticipated Eth 2.0 upgrade is rolled out. This is why, rather than simply acting as an Ethereum competitor, NEAR also provides cross-chain capabilities; that is, as well as its own features, Ethereum-compatible Dapps can be launched on NEAR with minimal changes. Here are some of NEAR’s main features: Carbon neutral We mentioned above that NEAR uses the PoS consensus mechanism, which is favored by newer blockchain technologies as a much greener and more efficient alternative to Proof of Work, which has come under fire over the last year due to high carbon emissions. NEAR has gone one step further, by , an organization that works with businesses to implement ecological solutions. Their audit found that NEAR was 200,000x more energy efficient than Bitcoin. being awarded the Climate Neutral product label South Pole Sharding If the blockchain sector wishes to grow, it needs to become more scalable, accommodating the influx of transactions that come with new users. Layer 2 solutions, built on top of existing blockchains, ease the pressure on base (layer 1) networks such as Ethereum but are band-aid solutions with their own limitations and usability issues. NEAR has had mass uptake in mind from the get-go, with its , as the main feature. Sharding involves splitting the network into smaller chunks so that each transaction doesn’t need to be sent around to all validators. This eases congestion at peak times. Implemented in four different phases, will eventually include dynamic sharding, whereby shards are automatically created or pruned based on network pressure. sharding architecture, Nightshade Nightshade Low fees and fast transactions Related to both its PoS consensus mechanism and sharding capabilities, NEAR boasts transactions that are extremely fast and affordable, often much less than $1, and with near-instant finality. Multichain capabilities As hinted at above, outright competition between blockchains has now given way to cooperation. While further blockchain connections are planned, the biggest fish is undoubtedly Ethereum, which is why NEAR has given ways for both developers and users to connect to the blockchain: - An EVM created by NEAR Protocol, allowing developers to launch Ethereum-compatible applications on the NEAR network. Smart contracts don’t have to be rewritten and the base currency is ETH, meaning that developers and users can take advantage of Ethereum applications while also benefiting from the low fees, fast transactions, and security of NEAR. Aurora - A way for users to quickly and easily transfer Ethereum and other ERC-20 assets to the NEAR network. As stated on the : Rainbow Bridge Rainbow Bridge website The Rainbow Bridge allows any information that is cryptographically provable on NEAR to be usable in Ethereum contracts and vice versa. This means that once on the NEAR network, ETH and other tokens can be used without incurring any congestion or high fees, especially at peak times. User and developer friendliness One of NEAR Protocol’s key priorities is ensuring ease of use on both the side of the developer and the user. features include: For users, Human readable account names, in contrast to the usual cryptographic wallet addresses. The ability to explore NEAR Dapps without having to connect a wallet. to help new users navigate the world of DeFi and Web3. Educational blogs, guides and tutorials features include: For developers, — specialists teams of experienced developers from around the world who provide support to those creating a Dapp on the NEAR blockchain. Guilds Fair payment from fees that their smart contracts generate. Grants from the NEAR Foundation. CLI, SDKs, APIs, and other tools to assist efficient and cost-effective development using different languages, even . JavaScript Native stablecoin In April 2022, the NEAR-native stablecoin, $USN, was launched through the . Over-collateralized by USDT in the short term, phase two will see it be backed by a range of different assets, including NEAR and ETH. This marks a big development, allowing users to take advantage of: Decentral Bank DAO A stable medium of exchange between NEAR-based DeFi protocols. Arbitrage opportunities should the price temporarily diverge from its $1 peg. Greater usage and stability of the $NEAR token. NEAR is Growing - Key Info Due to the many features mentioned above, the NEAR ecosystem — which only launched on the mainnet in 2020 — is growing at a huge rate. Here are some figures to give you an idea of the blockchain’s expansion. - NEAR boasts around at the time of writing, up from just 3 million, six months ago. Number of accounts 17 million accounts - Over are now built or being built on the NEAR, Aurora, and networks. Number of projects 700 projects Octopus - Transactions are , averaging around 350,000 per day over the last month. Number of transactions steadily increasing - From 2020 - 2021, the number of , one of the largest increases. This is extremely promising, after all, not only is this a vote of confidence, but more projects equals more users. Number of active developers active developers grew by 4x on the NEAR network NEAR as Your Choice for Yield Farming So we’ve had an overview of NEAR’s features and seen how the blockchain is sustainably growing in terms of users and developers. For this reason, we believe it represents the best and most dynamic environment for yield farming. Let’s take a look at three trending projects on NEAR: Burrow A lending platform similar to Aave and Compound, Burrow calls itself an interest rate market protocol, unlocking yields from base layers through tokens such as stNEAR and stETH, as well as unlocking yields on tokens based on other blockchains, thanks to NEAR’s Rainbow Bridge. One of Burrow’s most interesting features is its This works by users putting up collateral for loans that earns interest, in effect, paying off the amount that has been borrowed over time. self-paying loans. Ref Finance Operating through AMM smart contracts, Ref Finance is NEAR’s leading DEX, allowing users to swap, stake, provide liquidity, and farm, all while taking advantage of NEAR’s fast transactions and ultra-low fees. Users of Ref Finance can benefit from multiple pools in one contract, atomic transactions, a customizable pool fee, and optimal returns for pools comprised of stable assets. This is thanks to Ref’s multi-chain aggregator, which aggregates data from decentralized exchanges across NEAR and Aurora to leverage liquidity for better prices and lower trading slippage. PembRock Finance PembRock is NEAR’s first leveraged yield farming protocol, allowing farmers to leverage their assets by up to 3x for greater rewards. PembRock’s user-friendly interface makes leveraged farming as seamless as possible, with customizable positions, integration with Ref Finance, farming automation, and auto compounding returns, all while taking advantage of NEAR’s great features. The fact that users can leverage funds and access a range of currencies means that a range of can be taken advantage of to profit no matter the prevailing market conditions. There are also bonuses for early adopters, where they can get a share of the native $PEM token, which in the near future will be able to be staked for protocol profit and decision-making rights as part of the PembRock DAO. different strategies What have we learned? NEAR has positioned itself as a blockchain that puts users first, while providing continuous support to developers through an expert team, NEAR Foundation grants, and NEAR Guilds. This has spurred the development of Dapps from a diverse range of areas, such as the metaverse, the environment, gaming, music, and of course, DeFi. These strides place NEAR Protocol at the center of Web3 development. Find out more While we hope you’ve got something out of this article, you can always go deeper to explore everything that NEAR offers. Here are some links for further information: AwesomeNEAR Welcome to NEAR | NEAR Documentation NEAR's Native Stablecoin USN launches 2.0 | NEAR Protocol (medium.com) Burrow – Medium Ref Finance – Guide PembRock Finance – School of PembRock

Top Reasons to Farm on NEAR Protocol

Razones principales para cultivar en el protocolo NEAR

Create NFTs on NEAR Protocol using rust Blockchain technology is perpetually becoming a game-changer for most enthusiasts. It came to the limelight with the advent of cryptocurrency— one of blockchain's financial use cases. It doesn't stop at that; blockchains were later developed to offer more than cryptocurrencies, leading to another development of Blockchain 2.0, which supports smart contracts. Smart contracts paved the way for more use cases and utilities of blockchain technology like developing several tokens on a single blockchain, market makers in DeFi, development of non-fungible tokens—NFTs—fractionalization of NFTs, and many more. All these were possible due to the emergence of smart contracts. What is a Smart Contract? Smart contracts are digital agreements encoded in a string of codes that self-execute once the pre-defined conditions have been met. They offer a more efficient, affordable, and secure approach to managing and automatically executing agreements in the blockchain ecosystem. Its remarkable features are the enabling factors that entrench its use cases like minting NFTs and more. What is an NFT? An NFT is a unique and unrepeatable digital asset that is second to none. It is usually marked by its rarity, which depicts its unequaled properties. It is unrepeatable because the unique property of an individual NFT is not repeated in other NFTs in cases of NFT collections. All NFTs can have some general features or properties, but each NFT has its unique property or characteristic, making it stand out and non-fungible to others. An NFT can be artwork, paintings, journals, documents, music, etc. They are usually bought and sold on NFT marketplaces, but before they can be listed, they must be minted. Minting of NFTs is converting the digital file of the supposed NFT to create a blockchain-based NFT. It has to go through this blockchain process so that it is registered on the blockchain as a unique asset. Furthermore, prices and other terms of conditions of sales are inputted in the smart contract phase before it is finally minted. NFTs can only be minted on blockchains that supports smart contract; examples of such blockchains are the Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Tezos, Polkadot, BSC, NEAR protocol, and others. The purview of this discourse will be based on the NEAR protocol. What is NEAR Protocol? According to the , "NEAR is a decentralized application platform with the potential to change how systems are designed, applications are built, and the web itself works. It is a complex technology with a simple goal — allow developers and entrepreneurs to easily and sustainably build applications which secure high-value assets like money and identity while making them performant and usable enough for consumers to access". NEAR whitepaper Summarily, the NEAR protocol is a proof-of-stake blockchain that supports smart contracts. Its native token is NEAR, which can also be staked in its consensus mechanism aside from settling transaction fees on the network. Since it supports smart contracts, the NEAR protocol is suitable for minting NFTs and executing other utilities that smart contract does. How to Write a Smart Contract on NEAR Protocol Using Rust Programing Language Rust is a multi-paradigm, statically typed programming language emphasizing security and efficiency. It was created with the objectives of efficiency, speed, and safety. For most developers, Rust features resolve most of the drawbacks of traditional low-level languages, including memory issues and the creation of concurrent programs. Due to its capacity to manage numerous requests within a network with little or no computational work, Rust is used to power a series of blockchain applications. To write a smart contract on the NEAR protocol, we need NEAR CLI and NEAR wallet alongside Rust. The (command-line interface) is used to access and interact with the NEAR blockchain. NEAR CLI The is needed to pay the gas fee and accept payment for the NFT you're selling. NEAR wallet The following are the procedures involved: To start with, you'll need to create a cargo project cargo new nft –lib Navigate to project folder NFT, and you’ll see : This is where we’ll write our smart contract src/lib.rs : This is the configuration file for our project. Cargo.toml Navigate to the and add the following cargo.toml [lib]
crate-type = ["cdylib", "rlib"]
[dependencies]
near-sdk = "*"
near-contract-standards = "*" Then we can start with the smart contract scaffolding which is a framework of how Dapps work use near_sdk::{
    near_bindgen,
    borsh::{self, BorshDeserialize, BorshSerialize}
};
near_sdk::setup_alloc!();
#[near_bindgen]
#[derive(BorshDeserialize, BorshDeserialize)]
pub struct Contract {}
#[near_bindgen]
impl Contract {} Since NEAR adopts a stateful methodology, our contract state will be held in the "struct Contract," and we will code our state-changing functions in the "implementation Contract." Note that we are implementing some macros and deriving traits. The macro translates the state to a valid form to be live on the NEAR protocol. #[near_bindgen] and are the traits from the crate for the serialization and deserialization of state. BorshDeserialize BorshDeserialize Borsh Let's now designate the state for our NFT. Recall that NFTs are special tokens with metadata attached to them. This makes our state appear like this: use near_contract_standards::non_fungible_token::{
    metadata::NFTContractMetadata, NonFungibleToken,
};
pub struct Contract {
    token: NonFungibleToken,
    metadata: LazyOption<NFTContractMetadata>,
} The default value for this state must always be set; hence an initializer function is required to do so. #[derive(BorshSerialize, BorshStorageKey)]
pub enum StorageKey {
    NonFungibleToken,
    Metadata,
    TokenMetadata,
    Enumeration,
    Approval
}
#[near_bindgen]
impl Contract {
    #[init]
    pub fn new(owner_id: ValidAccountId) -> Self {
        Self {
            token: NonFungibleToken::new(
                StorageKey::NonFungibleToken,
                owner_id,
                Some(StorageKey::TokenMetadata),
                Some(StorageKey::Enumeration),
                Some(StorageKey::Approval)
             ),
             metadata: LazyOption::new(
                StorageKey::Metadata,
                Some(&NFTContractMetadata {
                    spec: NFT_METADATA_SPEC.to_string(),
                    name: "Example Name".to_string(),
                    symbol: "Example".to_string(),
                    icon: Some("ANY_SVG".to_string()),
                    base_uri: None,
                    reference: None,
                    reference_hash: None,
                 })
             ),
        }
    }
} The #[init] macro function sets the default state and will consistently execute first. Now that all is set for our initializer and state, let's write the NFT minting function. impl Contract {
    
    ......
    
    #[payable]    
    pub fn nft_mint(
        &mut self,
        token_id: TokenId,
        receiver_id: ValidAccountId,
        token_metadata: TokenMetadata,
    ) -> Token {
        self.token.mint(token_id, receiver_id, Some(token_metadata))
    }
} Now deploy the above to the chain. Run the below command to make a build: cargo build --target wasm32-unknown-unknown --release Run the below command to deploy: near deploy --wasmFile target/wasm32-unknown-unknown/release/nft.wasm --accountId "your near account username" This will give you a program ID that you can use to call the smart contract's RPCs—Remote Procedure calls. Aside from the NEAR CLI, you can also use a javascript client to interact with the contract.

How to Create A Smart Contract to Mint NFTs on NEAR Protocol

Introduction Web3, NFTs, and smart contracts are . In fact, has shown that over 18,000 developers are regularly contributing to open source crypto and Web3 projects on a monthly basis. Some of the keys to this growth are blockchains like NEAR and developer platforms like Infura. growing in popularity a recent analysis of public code repositories In this article, we’ll look at the NEAR blockchain, its benefits, and how to build on NEAR using Infura. Then we’ll use the NEAR Rust SDK to mint an NFT in three steps and then interact with that NFT from Infura. You’ll need , , and some to get up and running quickly. a NEAR account an Infura account Rust skills and tools What is NEAR? NEAR is a blockchain with an active developer community of thousands of builders, backed by a foundation that provides stability for DeFi, NFT, and DAO-related projects. NEAR focuses on providing low transaction fees and fast transaction throughput, as well as the most cutting edge sharding mechanisms in Web3 known as . Nightshade NEAR has , including human-readable account names, a focus on , and the use of general-purpose languages for writing contracts. Compared to Ethereum, NEAR is significantly faster and has a more progressive user experience. They aren’t seeking to replace the Web3 giant, however. With their Aurora layer and easy bridging between multiple blockchains, NEAR aims to improve interoperability in the ecosystem. many other benefits carbon-neutrality What is Infura? allows developers to build smart contracts using an intuitive JSON-RPC API for interacting with multiple blockchains. While Infura was the first-ever API solution built for  Ethereum, the platform also provides support for the decentralized storage network, IPFS, layer two chains Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism, and now NEAR as part of their plans to expand across multi-chains and protocols to advance Web3. Infura makes it easier for beginners and veterans alike to get started with blockchain development. Infura Since Infura serves as the connection point to the blockchain, there’s no need to spin up and run your own node to access the above blockchains. This significantly reduces startup time since you don’t need to spend hours syncing your nodes with multi-networks. Infura is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), so they provide everything a developer needs to build on blockchains and scale. Step 1: Minting an NFT At this point, it might sound intimidating to dive right into this technology. To make your job easy, we’ll follow NEAR’s , plugging in Infura to make this process even smoother. guide to minting an NFT 1a: Create a NEAR account The first thing you will need to do is create your NEAR account. Since we’re doing this for learning purposes, you can create your wallet on NEAR’s , providing your account with some NEAR tokens to build with for free. Once you’re ready to take your solution into production, you’ll need real NEAR tokens on the NEAR , but for now, we’ll use test tokens. Creating an account is pretty straightforward, and will walk you through creating a account. testnet mainnet this documentation testnet Notice the human-readable account address you generated? This address is much easier to keep track of and share compared to other blockchains. Additionally, if you set up your account using email, you will receive an account recovery link, something most other chains don’t even offer. Once you have your account and have logged in, go to the Collectibles tab, which lists all of your NFTs. testnet Since I’m working from a new account, I don’t have any listed right now. So let’s see how easy it is to get our very first NFT minted with NEAR, the (IPFS), and Infura. InterPlanetary File System 1b: Create an Infura account and upload to IPFS Our next step is to (give your email address and a password) and in that account. Be sure to select IPFS as the product when creating the project instead of Ethereum. Infura will require credit card information to get this going, but as long as you don’t use over 5GB of space or bandwidth on IPFS, you won’t be charged. create an Infura account create an IPFS project Once you have an Infura account, find something to turn into an NFT. Make sure you pick something you’re okay with being public. I chose that is licensed CC-3.0 Attribution-Share Alike, but you can use whatever you want. a simple smiley face I grabbed from Wikipedia Infura offers a useful tool for uploading files onto IPFS. If you have a Golang build chain on your computer, you can build it locally or install a pre-built binary from . Whichever way you install the , you’re one command away from putting your file for NFT greatness on the IPFS. the Github repo ipfs-upload-client ipfs-upload-client --id <project_id> --secret <project_secret> </path/to/data> Obviously, you need to use your actual project id and secret, as well as the location of your file on your machine. However, as long as you run this command somewhere that has the in the path, you should be able to see your file’s content identifier (CID) pinned in your Infura Dashboard Explorer. ipfs-upload-client Alternatively, you can upload your image to IPFS using a cURL command: curl -X POST -F file=@myfile -u "PROJECT_ID:PROJECT_SECRET" "https://ipfs.infura.io:5001/api/v0/add" You can view your file on dweb.link by taking the CID and putting it at the end of the URL . You’ll need to do that for the next step so you have the case-insensitive CID anyway, so go ahead and verify. Once you have your CID, let’s move to the next step. https://dweb.link/ipfs 1c: Build an example NFT contract NEAR provides for getting started with NFTs that follows the . Clone that repo and poke around in it. The real meat of this example is in the file, but feel free to look around more. If you have the repository cloned with the proper Rust toolchain installed, as described in the README, then simply run the file in the root of the repository to get going. an excellent example repository NEAR Enhancement Proposal standard nft/src/lib.rs build.sh Once you’ve built your smart contract locally, you can . If you’ve never installed the NEAR CLI before, do so with and then run these steps from the directory where you built your contract: deploy it to NEAR and mint your first token using the near-cli npm $ near login

$ export ID=YOUR_NEAR_TESTNET_ID # replace this with your actual ID

$ near deploy --wasmFile res/non_fungible_token.wasm --accountId $ID

$ near call $ID new_default_meta '{"owner_id": "'$ID'"}' --accountId $ID

$ near call $ID nft_mint '{"token_id": "0", "receiver_id": "'$ID'", "token_metadata": { "title": "Example NEAR non-fungible token", "description": "Smile", "media": "https://bafybeifehwew2sq7m7ofwuzg65mft3hgy7y7ml53r2q46cbcfhl4yqpsiy.ipfs.dweb.link/", "copies": 1}}' --accountId $ID --deposit 0.1 # make sure to use your CID If everything went well, you should have your NFT showing in the collectibles area of your NEAR wallet. While this is admittedly more than trivial, it’s pretty amazing how much quicker and cheaper you can mint an NFT, compared to most blockchains. Minting an NFT is just the start, however. Let’s see how we can use Infura to interact with it. Step 2: Inspecting blockchain details from Infura Infura has robust support for multiple different blockchains and IPFS projects to provide a smooth JSON-RPC API you can build against and observe the transaction activity of your application. For now, we’ll focus on checking the gas price to transfer your NFT to another address. It’s just a single API call away. curl -X POST \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "gas_price", "params": [null]}' \
"https://near-testnet.infura.io/v3/<YOUR-PROJECT-ID>" You should get a response that looks something like this: {"jsonrpc":"2.0","result":{"gas_price":"100000000"},"id":1} As long as you , you will be able to interact with the API using any of the other . Additionally, Infura will allow you to monitor interactions through your project dashboard. You’ll also be able to configure than is possible with just raw JSON-RPC calls to the NEAR API. add NEAR to your Infura RPC endpoint URL JSON-RPC methods supported by Infura a greater degree of security Step 3: Keep minting! In this article, you learned about NEAR, a faster, cheaper, and eco-friendly layer one blockchain. You also learned how Infura, as a node providing service, allows you to interact with NEAR using their RPC endpoint URL. Hopefully, the tutorial has shown you some of what’s possible, and you’re more confident in your ability to use Web3 tools to build your innovations. for your next Web3 project. They can really help make your work a lot smoother. Give NEAR and Infura a try Also Published Here

Getting Started Building on the NEAR Network with Infura

Ready to become a Web3 rockstar? The Balkans region has long been rife with immense technical and entrepreneurial talent that has largely been unexplored due to a lack of educational programs that aim to foster their prowess in the Web3 realm. With that in mind, the NEAR team is dedicated to expanding its network and developing the blockchain community in the Balkans using numerous regional educational & grant programs through the newly launched NEAR Balkans Regional Hub. NEAR Balkans is a regional hub established to provide the local community with the needed tools to successfully build on the NEAR protocol, educate themselves about the technology, expand the NEAR ecosystem, and become eligible for grants to develop their ideas. In addition, the Hub also supports newcomers to enter the Web3 space, and with the latest program - to develop the needed skills to enter the Web3 job market! Presenting The NEAR Summership Program Aware of the immense potential and talent of the young community of the Balkans, NEAR Balkans Hub has established a paid summer internship program with the aim of creating Web3 skills that will enable the participants to actively participate in the creation of projects on the NEAR protocol. What is NEAR Balkans Summership? is created to provide blockchain enthusiasts from the Balkans Region with the opportunity to gain Web3 knowledge and experience that will guide their Web3 career while also providing the opportunity to grow with like-minded individuals from the region. The Program This year's Summership will be focused on Web3 ambassadors' development and will take place from June 1st to September 18th, 2022. The NEAR Balkans Summership 2022 will accept 7 Web3 Local Ambassador Interns who will receive a stipend. During 15 weeks of practice, students will have access to an arsenal of Web3 and NEAR protocol education programs, workshops, certifications, and mentorship spaces for specific fields of your interest, helping you hone your skills and gain relevant Web3 experience. Following this trial experience, fast learners ready to create value within the blockchain arena will receive job opportunities. Apply now: https://nearbalkans.org/summership-application/ Applications are now open and close on Monday, May 23rd. For FAQ or community discussion, join our Discord  or visit the official NEAR Balkans website for more info: https://nearbalkans.org

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