At the same time, the rise of AI agents across the entire Web has created a need for their interoperability. Agents need a negotiation and commitment framework that allows them to work together across a variety of systems under the hood. While some may see on-chain DeFi participants and AI agents as completely separate today, the NEAR ecosystem envisions an AI-first economy where AI agents and solvers are both responsible for executing intents and fulfilling the transaction commitment to users. 

Today, we are excited to introduce NEAR Intents as part of the core NEAR Protocol. NEAR Intents are a new type of transaction that allows multiple actors to commit to certain changes of their state. This allows the exchange of information, assets, physical goods, and services between AI agents, services, and end users. Intents represent a novel transaction framework for both Web2 and Web3, allowing the execution of off-chain actions and multichain transactions with unparalleled speed, security, ease of use, and reliability.

As the blockchain for AI, NEAR Protocol is launching NEAR Intents to unlock a new era of interactions between AI and the real world, making AI agents and on-chain liquidity readily available to everyone. NEAR Intents are starting in beta today on near.org/intents and will fully launch in Q1 2025.

Leveraging NEAR Protocol’s chain abstraction stack and the intent solver network, NEAR Intents allow trading of any asset on any chain from a single account or by any agent, without the need for bridging or wrapping assets. Both AI agents and end users can take action with NEAR Intents across Web2 and Web3, unlocking a massive range of new functionalities and use cases with better usability than ever. 

In addition to unifying liquidity across all chains, NEAR Intents enable use cases above and beyond simple swaps, including on-chain functions natively for stablecoins across any chains, DeFi programmability for non-smart contract assets like Bitcoin and Dogecoin, collateralizing existing derivatives positions to borrow stablecoins on another chain, or even swapping/selling entire accounts. When you combine any intent type with the power of AI agents, net-new primitives like inter-agent trading, communication, and much more become possible, creating even more new and innovative DeFi opportunities. 

Some of the key features of NEAR Intents include: 

• Decentralized Finance Infrastructure: NEAR Intents enable decentralized, cross-chain DeFi infrastructure for trading of various financial instruments. Designed to be open and permissionless, any developer can launch their own financial products.
• Multichain Abstraction: Leveraging NEAR Protocol’s chain abstraction technology, NEAR Intents seamlessly integrate multiple blockchain networks without relying on traditional bridges, reducing associated risks and costs, as well as wait times. This ensures that any app can add instant support for new networks and tokens.
• Intent-Based Architecture: Instead of a traditional AMM architecture that requires on-chain pools, NEAR Intents operate on an intent-based model with requests for quotes fulfilled by solvers. This allows for better liquidity access (DeFi, CeFi, and off-chain), resulting in better prices.
• AccountFi: Leveraging the concept of AccountFi where financial operations are conducted upon accounts rather than individual tokens, NEAR Intents allow for the trading, lending, and management of accounts possessing different assets, such as fungible tokens, NFTs, and non-transferable tokens like Soulbound Tokens (SBTs).

The NEAR ecosystem believes that the next wave of DeFi will power the future AI economy. NEAR Intents are a major step towards realizing this vision, opening up amazing new use cases for DeFi and unlocking the true power of Chain Abstracted blockchain and AI combined. 

To learn more and get started, go to near.org/intents. 

The post Introducing NEAR Intents: A New Type of Transaction Between AI and the Real World appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

Chain Signatures utilizes a decentralized multi-party computation (MPC) network enabling NEAR accounts to sign transactions on any blockchain protocol. Chain Signatures are the only MPC solution where smart contracts can sign transactions on any chain and for any number of accounts. This is because accounts are smart contracts by default in the unique NEAR account model. 

Chain Signatures reduce the work of multichain dApp development to a single layer: a smart contract on NEAR that can talk to all other chains. In this way, Chain Signatures abstract away the complexity and hassle of multichain dApps, for developers and users alike, and open up an entirely new design space of applications and user interfaces for Web3. Additionally, while existing bridges or cross-chain messaging protocols cannot support all chains or scale at speed, Chain Signatures can support every blockchain without native integration, whether Ethereum, Bitcoin, the Cosmos ecosystem, or (soon) Solana.

Five applications with more than 6 million active users between them are already using Chain Signatures Mainnet as of launch, with more than fifteen projects actively building. Soon there will be a full ecosystem of Chain Signatures products across this new design space, ranging across wallets, DEXs, lending, trading bots, bridges, and more. 

• Sweat Wallet: 2.5 million active Sweat Wallet users (on NEAR) can bridge assets to and from any chain, starting with BNB and Base, while paying for gas in $SWEAT.
• Allstake: Allstake is now live at Phase 0 with mainnet launch on NEAR, Solana, and Ethereum, supporting top LST and LRT protocols such as LiNEAR Protocol, MetaPool, Marinade, Jito, Renzo, and EtherFi.
• HERE Wallet: Mobile, Web, and Telegram wallet supporting transactions on any chain. Check out this Hot Protocol (by Here Wallet) demo.
• Bitte Wallet: Passkey wallets for any chain, including Bitcoin. Connect to all Ethereum apps with Bitte Wallet using WalletConnect. Watch a demo of how Bitte Wallet is using Chain Signatures here.
• Defuse: Truly multichain spot DEX. Trade between any assets on any chain in seconds. See how NEAR Chain Signatures are transforming DeFi in this demo.

Kendall Cole of Proximity Labs – a contributor to Chain Signatures – said, “Chain Signatures is pivotal to replacing the fragmented Web3 landscape with a single user and developer layer that addresses current interoperability challenges. This innovation simplifies the user experience, enables DeFi for blockchains like Bitcoin that do not traditionally support smart contracts, and empowers developers to support all chains seamlessly. By eliminating the need for bridges, Chain Signatures can significantly expand the liquidity and utility of assets across various blockchains. We’re excited to see Chain Abstraction in the wild, transforming how users and developers interact with decentralized finance and making it more accessible.”

Another key layer of the Chain Signatures stack is the Multichain Gas Relayer. Instead of forcing users to acquire a separate gas token every time they transact on a new chain, the Multichain Gas Relayer performs the gas payment on the destination chain, on the user’s behalf. The user only needs to pay the equivalent amount in an asset they already hold, whether that’s NEAR or other NEAR-native fungible tokens (such as USDC or USDT). The power of Chain Signatures, together with the gas abstraction of the Multichain Gas Relayer, offers a streamlined user experience as exemplified by top dApps like Sweat Wallet. 

Illia Polosukhin, Co-Founder of Near Protocol and CEO of NEAR Foundation, added, “Chain Signatures is a game-changing innovation that brings Chain Abstraction to life. Whereas before we had fragmented liquidity in DeFi, now there will be a single DeFi layer for all chains. There is no more need for dozens of wallets and addresses, manual bridging, and paying gas fees in every token. Instead, all of DeFi is accessible from wherever users already are. It’s all possible because smart contracts can now sign transactions for any blockchain, even Bitcoin. This opens up a whole new design space for financial apps in Web3, benefitting degens and also paving the way for new user bases.” 

As of mainnet launch, Chain Signatures’ MPC network is secured by eight reputable validators: Pagoda, Luganodes, The Lifted Initiative, InfStones, Staking4All, Node.Monster, Black Sand Technologies, and Aurora. The initial audit for the Chain Signatures protocol has been conducted by Kudelski, the final report of which will be published soon on the Chain Signatures GitHub. 

The Chain Signatures development roadmap includes adding EDDSA support before the end of the year, increasing throughput, and increasing the number of nodes. As of mainnet launch, Chain Signatures supports all blockchain protocols based on the ECDSA elliptic curve, which includes most chains such as Ethereum, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and recently, NEAR. With the additional support for the EDDSA elliptic curve (e.g. Solana, TON), Chain Signatures will be able to sign transactions on every known blockchain by Q4 2024. By the end of the year, Chain Signatures will aim to increase throughput up to 300 transactions/second to match NEAR’s sharded capacity. Finally, the number of validators on the network will gradually increase over time with the aim of achieving 40+ highly independent nodes, which would require 27 for a single signature.

For all app builders in Web3 who want to build multichain experiences from day one, explore these resources and start building:

• Chain Signatures: Getting Started Guide
• Multichain Gas Relayer: Getting Started Guide
• Request support for building with Chain Signatures
• Join the Chain Abstraction Dev Group on Telegram

All the above resources and more can be found on the Chain Signatures landing page: https://near.org/chain-abstraction.

The post Chain Signatures Mainnet Launches: Smart Contracts Can Sign Transactions on Any Blockchain appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

Why the idOS Matters 

For developers diving into DeFi, the idOS (Identity Operating System) on NEAR offers a robust framework. It’s not just about creating decentralized financial applications; it’s about crafting solutions that can interact with real-world systems, regulations, and meet user expectations.

1. Composable & Permissionless Integration: With the idOS, developers can effortlessly combine different protocols that require identity verification, leveraging the “money legos” concept. This composability ensures that your DeFi applications can scale and evolve with the ecosystem.

2. Enhanced User Experience & Identity Verification: One of the major pain points in the decentralized world is the repetitive identity verification processes, often known as KYC. With the idOS, this process is streamlined. Users verify their identity once, and then, by simply signing with their wallet, they can reuse their verified credentials across any NEAR dApp without undergoing KYC again. This not only enhances user experience but also ensures faster onboarding and interaction with dApps.

3. Seamless On/Off Ramps: The idOS facilitates smoother crypto-fiat transactions, a significant pain point in web3 adoption. By integrating the idOS, developers can offer users the ability to easily transition between the decentralized and traditional financial worlds, unlocking use cases like remittances or DeCommerce payments.

Beyond DeFi: Proof-of-Personhood Use Cases

While DeFi is the cornerstone, the idOS’s potential extends beyond. For founders looking to innovate in areas like decentralized governance or community voting, the idOS provides the tools to ensure proof-of-personhood:

1. Decentralized Voting: Governance is a critical aspect of any decentralized protocol. With the idOS, developers can integrate systems where users prove their unique human status, ensuring one person, one vote. This minimizes the influence of bots and whales, leading to fairer governance outcomes.

2. Portable user profiles across Web3: For platforms that require user profiles like Near.org, the idOS offers a decentralized solution. Users can create and manage their profiles, ensuring data privacy and control. This is especially crucial for platforms that want to offer personalized experiences without compromising on user data sovereignty.

Privacy-Preserving KYC & Compliance

No developer wants to compromise on user privacy. With the idOS, KYC processes become more user-centric. Users can obtain KYC credentials from multiple providers, with the assurance that their data remains encrypted and under their control. For founders, this means complying with global financial regulations without sacrificing user trust.

Join the revolution with idOS

For developers and founders ready to shape the future of DeFi and decentralized applications, the idOS on NEAR offers the tools, scalability, and compliance required for success. As we venture into a world where decentralized finance and real-world applications converge, solutions like the idOS will be at the forefront, ensuring that innovation remains uncompromised.

Join the revolution and explore how the idOS can redefine your DeFi applications and enhance user identity verification on NEAR.

The post Unlocking the Future of DeFi with the idOS on NEAR: A Developer’s Guide appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

The company behind the Super app, designed to seamlessly connect a billion users to the crypto world safely and securely, has created an innovative marketplace that allows users to access a range of apps on prominent Ethereum Layer-2 ecosystems such as Polygon zkEVM, zkSync, Base, and Linea, greatly increasing accessibility and discoverability for users. 

The result is a both a web app and mobile app (details below) that provides a gateway to more than 70 chains and 15,000 dapps including cross-chain bridging, money markets, and decentralized exchanges — all in a single interface. Coin98 has achieved this by harnessing the power of NEAR’s B.O.S, the Blockchain Operating System. 

“At Coin98, we are dedicated to providing our users with the very best one-stop DeFi experience in our pursuit of the vision to make Web3 accessible for everyone.” says Thanh Le, Coin98 Founder. 

“With NEAR’s B.O.S, we can create a user-friendly interface thanks to its composability, while enabling decentralization under the hood,” he said. “Our dapp store offers hassle-free interaction with the most exciting L2s in the market. Soon, we will expand our collection to offer even more ecosystems and dapps, as B.O.S greatly reduces the development process, enabling a fast and scalable way to integrate new applications.”

Coin98 selected NEAR’s B.O.S thanks to the ease in the development process. All the widgets and components running on the B.O.S are fully composable, enabling developers to freely combine them to fit their needs. 

Coin98 utilized the B.O.S as a frontend layer to fully decentralize the user experience. Instead of routing parts of the process through centralized servers, all the featured dapps on the Coin98 gateway have frontend components whose code are stored on-chain on NEAR, which directly interact with the smart contracts on the original chains. No centralized servers are used.

“The NEAR ecosystem is excited to see Coin98 build their decentralized app store on the B.O.S and deliver much better experiences to their users,” says Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol. 

“This is exactly why we set out to build the B.O.S: because NEAR’s technology can help founders achieve decentralization and discoverability in parallel,” he added. “Now Coin98’s users can explore multiple L2 ecosystems all in one app, through the wallet of their choice, in seconds, with no complexity or switching costs. NEAR’s mission is to drive mainstream adoption of the Open Web through great user experiences and we hope more founders and projects will join us on the B.O.S.”

Coin98’s decentralized app store offering follows the launches of major B.O.S gateways by Polygon zkEVM and Mantle, two top L2 ecosystems. The success of these wallet gateway partners highlights the benefits that B.O.S helps Web3 founders deliver to end-users, demonstrating NEAR’s commitment to enabling products that simplify the blockchain experience and globally expand access to the Open Web.

Want to try the new B.O.S integration? Download the mobile app on Apple or Google Play store today.

The post Coin98 Launches Decentralized Dapp Store for its 7 Million Users on NEAR’s Blockchain Operating System (B.O.S) appeared first on NEAR Protocol.