NEAR Protocol
NEAR ProtocolNEAR4.80$ +0.88%

A scalable, developer-friendly blockchain

30 Rank
5.34B$ Market Cap
144.52M$ 24H Volume

NEAR price live chart

4.80$0.88%
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NEAR Protocol Price statistic
NEAR Protocol price today
NEAR Protocol price
4.80 $
Price change (24h)
0.88% 0.042 $
Trading volume (24h)
144.52M $
Market Dominance
0.216%
Market rank
#30
NEAR Protocol price history
All Time High
Jan 16 2022 (2 years ago)
76.29% 20.30 $
NEAR Protocol Market Cap
Market Cap
5.34B $
NEAR Protocol Supply
Circulating Supply
1.11B NEAR

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NEAR Protocol basics

Name

NEAR

Category

Infrastructure

What is NEAR Protocol?

NEAR is a decentralized development platform that uses a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism and will eventually feature a sharded architecture to scale transaction throughput. Its block generation scheme is called Doomslug and its proposed sharding design is dubbed Nightshade. These technologies will work together to scale the network and minimize congestion. NEAR has also been designed to be developer and user-friendly as it features a few key innovations to accelerate the application development and user-onboarding processes. The NEAR blockchain was created and developed by the NEAR Foundation. Its mainnet went live in April 2020, and network validators voted to unlock token transfers in October 2020. NEAR's bridge to Ethereum (called the Rainbow Bridge) launched in March 2021.

NEAR Protocol token type

Token name

NEAR

Token type

Native

Token uses

Payments, Vote, Work

What is NEAR Protocol used for in 2024?

NEAR is the native currency of the NEAR protocol. It represents the core medium of exchange and unit of account for native transactions. It primarily serves the following purposes:

  • Security: Stakers receive awards in NEAR by staking their tokens and contributing to network security. NEAR's user of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) provides Sybil resistance from DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks.
  • Network Fees: The utility of the network is provided by storing application data and providing a way to change it by issuing transactions. The network charges transaction fees for processing the changes to this stored data. The NEAR network collects and automatically burns these fees, such that higher usage will lead to more NEAR tokens being burned. A minimum percentage of smart contract usage fees is allocated for developer rewards. This reward effectively incentivizes early application development that increase network use. When a contract is called, some portion of the transaction fees is generated by the network is automatically allocated to the contract. A minimum value has ben set as a system-level parameter and the developers can choose any value to or above this minimum value.

NEAR Protocol history and first price

Launch style

Crowdsale, Private Sale

When did NEAR Protocol launch?

NEAR protocol created 1 billion NEAR tokens at genesis, which were allocated to individuals and organizations on an ongoing basis during the rollout of its mainnet on Apr. 22, 2020. Inflation, transfers, and vesting schedules did not begin until the final phase of NEAR's mainnet rollout, which started on October 13, 2020.

How did NEAR Protocol come about?

NEAR was a machine learning project before it became a blockchain development platform. Illia Polosukhin and Alexander Skidanov started NEAR.ai in early 2017 to explore program synthesis: the field of automating programs from a human specification. Named for the science fiction novel The Singularity Is Near, the NEAR project drew from Illia’s work as a lead contributor for TensorFlow at Google and Alexander’s as the lead engineer at MemSQL.

Researching program synthesis led the team to explore programmable smart contract platforms and crypto payments in late 2017 and early 2018. As they explored the solution space and tried out a variety of blockchain protocols, they realized the current state of the tech didn’t meet their needs and began to design a blockchain that could. Illia and Alex gathered a team of engineers and formally started building NEAR Protocol in August 2018. The founding vision for the NEAR platform was to offer developers an easy path to building decentralized applications that can scale to mass usage. To achieve these goals, NEAR adopted a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism to support transaction verification and block production.

NEAR combines a horizontal scaling approach with a new consensus mechanism that splits the network into parallel shards and dynamically distributes the computation to increase the network's processing capacity. The network launched in April 2020, became community-operated in September 2020, and passed a vote to enable token transfers in October 2020.

NEAR Protocol roadmap 2024
Formation of Near Protocol
August 2018 · Project Operations

Illia Polosukhin and Alexander Skidanov summoned a team to create a scalable, mobile-first, fully sharded, permissionless blockchain.

More Details

Mainnet Phase 0: PoA Genesis
April 2020 · Mainnet Launch

The first phase of Near's a href=" "multi-stage mainnet rollout/a arrived on Apr. 22, 2020. The network featured a a href=" "Proof of Authority/a (PoA) consensus system in which the NEAR Foundation, the non-profit organization supporting protocol development, operates the only nodes.

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Mainnet Phase 1: Restricted
September 2020 · Network Change

Phase 1 was the second stage of Near's mainnet rollout. In contrast to the centralized first phase, this phase marked when Near started onboarding third-party validators. In the first mainnet stage, validators were managed only by the Near Foundation.

More Details

Mainnet Phase 2: Community Governed
October 2020 · On-Chain Upgrade

Phase 2 was the last planned stage of Near's gradual mainnet rollout. In this second phase, Near protocol governance responsibilities were handed over to the community as decided by an on-chain governance vote. This stage also unlocked token transfers and protocol rewards.

More Details

Rainbow Bridge
April 2021 · Network Integration

The Rainbow Bridge is a bridge developed by the NEAR Foundation to connect the Ethereum and NEAR blockchains. It launched in April 2021.

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NEAR Protocol technology explained

NEAR’s blockchain uses a new consensus algorithm and a sharding architecture to achieve a relatively high level of performance. The key elements of NEAR’s technology are:

  • Dynamic Re-Sharding
  • Nightshade
  • Doomslug
  • Fees as Developer Rewards
  • Token Balance-Based Storage

Dynamic Re-Sharding There are two ways to approach scalability - Horizontal and Vertical. NEAR has chosen to use sharding, which is a type of horizontal scaling technique. Sharding is an approach to scaling databases, and it involves spreading computing and storage capacity across multiple servers. In the world of blockchains, sharding involves partitioning a blockchain across subgroups of nodes and distributes computation across multiple parallelized sub-chains ("shards"). Sharding is not live on NEAR at the moment.

Once sharding goes live on NEAR, the network intends to regularly adjust the number of shards supported by the network based on user demand. The project calls this demand-based approach to scaling "Dynamic re-sharding." This scheme allows the network to only pay for the infrastructure and scale it needs at any given time. Dynamic re-sharding might be a more cost-efficient approach to scaling and securing a sharded network since node storage requirements can adjust with demand.

Nightshade NEAR uses a new sharding approach called Nightshade to reach consensus and settle cross-shard transactions. Most sharded networks use a smaller validator committee that rotates its lead block proposer when validating transactions across shards. This approach introduces some difficulties to the validation process. For instance, these validator groups must either download the entire state of each shard or receive only the portion that changed. The validation process for either technique can be inefficient as the first one requires a bigger time frame and the second one requires a larger state size.

Nightshade offers a different model by modifying the typical sharding abstraction. It assumes that each shard works together to produce "chunks" of data that collectively create a single block. Blocks are produced with a regular cadence regardless of whether each individual shard has produced its “chunk” for that specific block height. Nightshade is a leader-based system, meaning it assigns a single validator to produce each block. This validator must assemble the data chunks generated by each shard during their leadership period into a block. Leadership assignments will rotate through the existing validator set. Validators don't accept transactions, only chunks.

Doomslug Doomslug is NEAR Protocol's new block production technique. According to the team, it enables the network to achieve some sense of practical finality after one round of communication, with a finality gadget providing BFT finality after a secondround. Practical finality in Doomslug (or Doomslug finality) is when a block is irreversible unless at least one participant is slashed. Doomslug also allows the network to continue producing and finalizing blocks as long as over half of the validator set are online and honest, although the finality gadget will stall if less than two-thirds of participants are online.

Fees as Developer Rewards NEAR distributes 30% of any transaction fee to the contract (or contracts) that transaction calls. The contract’s owner (often a developer group or a DAO) can decide how to allocate these funds. These fee “rewards'' effectively incentivize early application development on NEAR. The percentage of fees allocated to this reward is a system-level parameter (can be adjusted by governance), but developers may choose to receive any amount equal to or above this minimum value.

Token-Based Storage NEAR token holders have the right to store data on the chain. For example, if someone holds a balance of 1 NEAR, it means that the person can store nearly 10 KB of data on the account. This model is similar to how checking accounts in banks require a minimum balance to have an account. It allows contracts that are maintaining important state to pay validators proportionally to the amount of data they are securing.

NEAR Protocol core contributors
Individuals
Companies
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Alex Skidanov
Co-Founder at NEAR Inc
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Erik Trautman
CEO at NEAR Foundation
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Illia Polosukhin
Co-Founder at NEAR Inc
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NEAR Foundation
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NEAR Inc.
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NEAR Protocol supply limit

General Emission Type

Inflationary

Precise Emission Type

Fixed Inflation rate

NEAR Protocol supply curve details

Ongoing Emission The network issues inflation rewards at a rate of 5% per year. Of these epoch rewards, 90% (4.5% total) goes to validators, and the remaining 10% (0.5% total) will go to the protocol treasury. Near also burns 70% of all transaction fees; therefore, real inflation (rewards - fees burned) could be less than 5% depending on the level of network activity. The other 30% of a transaction's fee will be rebated to the smart contracts touched by the transaction.

Learn More: Near Economics Blog Post Near Economics Paper

Who funds NEAR Protocol core development?
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Fundamental Labs
As an investor and an incubator, Fundamental Labs has invested in more than 30 blockchain related portfolios. Our mission is to empower the entrepreneurs to create more influential innovations. Fundamental Labs belongs to fundamental foundation, and connects to more blockchain foundations all around the world. The team of Fundamental Labs has unique investment philosophy and strong network resources in blockchain technology. We focus on the fundamental innovations both in technology and in business. And in the coming several years, we will help more people using blockchain technology to reform the traditional industry. It’s time to get things move on to the blockchain.
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Zee Prime Capital
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Xpring
Xpring (pronounced "spring") is a Ripple initiative that builds infrastructure and helps innovative blockchain projects grow through investments and partnerships.
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Three Arrows Capital
Three Arrows Capital Pte. Ltd. is a hedge fund manager established in 2012 and focused on providing superior risk-adjusted returns, founded by Su Zhu and Kyle Davies.
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Pantera Capital
Pantera Capital is an investment firm focused exclusively on ventures, tokens, and projects related to blockchain tech, digital currency, and crypto assets.
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Multicoin Capital
A thesis-driven cryptofund offering LPs venture capital economics with all the advantages of public market liquidity
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MetaStable Capital
An actively managed fund of hedge funds
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LD Capital
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IDEO Colab
IDEO CoLab is a collaborative R&D Lab exploring emerging technologies and its future impact.
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Homebrew
Homebrew provides seed-stage fund and operational expertise for entrepreneurs building the bottom up economy.
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a16z Crypto
a16z crypto is the blockchain and cryptoasset investment arm of Venture Capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The fund was launched with $300 million to invest in crypto companies and protocols. a16z crypto is structured to hold investments for 10+ years and invest throughout various market cycles. Along with capital a16z Crypto provides support from the a16z team to assist startups with executive and technical recruiting, regulatory affairs, communications and marketing, and general startup management.
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Fabric Ventures
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Electric Capital
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Dragonfly Capital
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CoinFund
A cryptoasset-focused investment and research firm in Brooklyn, New York
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Coinbase Ventures
Coinbase Ventures invests in companies building the open financial system. It provides financing to early-stage companies that have the teams and ideas that can move the cryptoasset industry forward.
User photo
Blockchain.com Ventures
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AU21 Capital
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Arrington XRP Capital
Arrington XRP Capital is a digital asset management firm launched by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington. The $100 million fund chose Ripple (XRP) as its base denomination.
User photo
Alameda Research
Alameda Research was founded in October 2017. It manages over $100 million in digital assets and trades $600 million to $1.5 billion per day across thousands of products: all major coins and altcoins, as well as their derivatives.
Show more
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NEAR Protocol consensus

General consensus mechanism

Proof-of-Stake

Precise consensus mechanism

Nightshade

How NEAR Protocol works?

The consensus mechanism implemented on NEAR is called Nightshade. Nightshade models the system as a single blockchain. The list of all the transactions in each block is split into physical chunks, one chunk per shard. All chunks accumulate to one block. Note that chunks can only be validated by nodes that maintain the state of that shard.

Theoretically, each logical block contains all the transactions for all the shards. However, since transmitting a logical block across the network would be prohibitively expensive, it is never initiated. Instead, each network participant maintains the state that corresponds to the shards that they validate transactions for and any additional shard that they want to track.

The consensus is based on the heaviest chain consensus. Meaning, once a block producer publishes a block, they collect the signatures of validator nodes. The weight of a block is then the cumulative stake of all the signers whose signatures are included in the block. The weight of a chain is the sum of the block weights. Additionally, the consensus utilises a finality gadget that introduces additional slashing conditions for higher chain security.

Resources: Nightshade Whitepaper How to run a node

NEAR Protocol governance

Onchain governance type

Upcoming

What is NEAR Protocol governance?

Network governance is open to contributions from the community. Anyone can submit or comment on an improvement proposal. These governance discussions take place within the NEAR forum. Proposals typically go through a draft stage where they are open to community feedback and scrutiny. If proposals receive enough support, NEAR development teams will build a spec and aim to merge the change. The timing of the proposal's implementation will depend on the change's urgency (e.g., a hotfix for a critical bug would be administered almost immediately). Validators ultimately choose whether to adopt a new version of the protocol by running the latest client release.

FAQ
1.What is the best app to store NEAR Protocol?

Store NEAR Protocol with Cropty cryptocurrency wallet by 3 simple steps:

  1. Download the app from the Apple AppStore or Google Play, or open your browser wallet.
  2. Create your Cropty wallet account with Face ID or Touch ID security options.
  3. Transfer NEAR from external wallet.
2. How can I receive NEAR Protocol?

Receive NEAR Protocol to your Cropty wallet by QR-code, phone number, e-mail and nickname:

  1. Download the app from the Apple AppStore or Google Play, or open your browser wallet.
  2. Create your Cropty wallet account, set up a nickname.
  3. Click ‘Receive’ and follow the instructions.
3. How can I store NEAR Protocol safely?

You can transfer your NEAR Protocol holdings and store it safely with Cropty wallet. Cropty secures safety of your holdings through various verification options like using password, authenticator app, Face ID, Touch ID and backup codes. You can be sure no one can get access to you NEAR Protocol holding except you.

4. How to start investing in NEAR Protocol easily and securely?

Start investing in NEAR Protocol with Cropty cryptocurrency wallet by 3 simple steps:

  1. Download the app from the Apple AppStore or Google Play, or open your browser wallet.
  2. Create your Cropty wallet account, set your authentication settings.
  3. Transfer NEAR from external wallet.
5. Why should I choose Cropty to store and transfer Bitcoin?

The Cropty wallet provides the most convenient application for storing and transfering NEAR Protocol. Cropty targets to become one the best crypto wallets for Android and iOS in 2024. Cropty provides convenient application and secure custodial services, built for crypto beginners, as well as for crypto-savvies.

6. How can I receive NEAR Protocol as payment?

You can receive NEAR Protocol as payment in Cropty wallet. It is a convenient mobile app to receive, store and transfer NEAR Protocol NEAR safely and instantly. Open Cropty app, click ‘Receive’, follow simple instructions and get your NEAR Protocol holdings immediately.

7. How can I receive NEAR Protocol donations?

You can receive NEAR Protocol donations instantly with Cropty wallet. Download Android or iOS app or open the web version, sign up, click ‘Receive’ and follow simple instructions. Share your address with someone who wants to donate you in crypto.

8. Can I send NEAR Protocol without verification?

You can receive NEAR Protocol donations instantly with Cropty wallet. Download Android or iOS app or open the web version, sign up, click ‘Receive’ and follow simple instructions. Share your address with someone who wants to donate you in crypto.

9. How can I send NEAR Protocol without fee?

You can send NEAR Protocol instantly without fee in the Cropty wallet. Download Android or iOS app or open the web version, sign up, click ‘Send’, choose ‘Send via e-mail, phone number or nickname’ and follow simple instructions.

10. How to make money with NEAR Protocol?
  1. Sign up to NEAR Protocol wallet.
  2. Top up your balance with NEAR Protocol.
  3. Store, trade or deposit your NEAR Protocol.
  4. Get NEAR Protocol deposit interest directly to your Cropty wallet.
USD to NEAR converter
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NEAR Protocol Price statistic
NEAR Protocol price today
NEAR Protocol price
4.80 $
Price change (24h)
0.88% 0.042 $
Trading volume (24h)
144.52M $
Market Dominance
0.216%
Market rank
#30
NEAR Protocol price history
All Time High
Jan 16 2022 (2 years ago)
76.29% 20.30 $
NEAR Protocol Market Cap
Market Cap
5.34B $
NEAR Protocol Supply
Circulating Supply
1.11B NEAR
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