Major Growth Across All Metrics & Notable Launches:

NEAR is a top protocol for real-world apps with millions of users and is the top L1 by user retention. To this day, the NEAR network has never experienced an outage, even during major updates to the protocol which happen live. Here are some growth highlights (with numbers from Dune and Artemis):

• 40 million monthly active users, up from 7 million this time last year
• 4 million daily active users, up 4x this year
• 8+ million daily transactions, doubled from the start of the year (with average fee at $0.002)
• 4 of the top apps in all of Web3 by monthly active users:
  • KAIKAI: 31.7 million MAU
  • HOT Wallet: 4.2 million MAU
  • SWEAT: 1.6 million MAU
  • Playember: 500k MAU
• $700 million in stablecoins flowed into the NEAR ecosystem, a 20x increase YoY
• New ATH in natively issued stablecoins in May at $760 million, with a 5x increase in DeFi TVL from $88 million to $430 million
• NEAR ecosystem teams raised $146 million in external capital in 2024
• Nightshade 2.0: NEAR now has 6 shards live, a 50% capacity increase over the start of the year (and soon to be 8 shards in Q1). The protocol working group shipped Nightshade 2.0 sharding, marking the biggest protocol upgrade since mainnet launched in 2020 and introducing Stateless Validation.
• Accelerators: the Foundation ran 3 successful accelerator cohorts, 2 for AI and one for Chain Abstraction, whose participating teams raised $50.5 million in funding
• ETH wallet compatibility: NEAR is now fully compatible with MetaMask, Phantom, and other ETH wallets
• Hosted [REDACTED]: our annual flagship conference moved to Bangkok this year, with 1200 attendees, 1600 hackers, and 6300+ transactions on the conference app

NEAR is the Blockchain for AI 

The entire internet is experiencing a paradigm shift towards AI + blockchain, and NEAR is uniquely positioned to lead this AI-first future. We must ensure that AI is truly open source and shared by all rather than controlled by a few mega-powerful corporations. It also must preserve users’ privacy and sovereignty and should be free to use, yet monetizable and sustainable for its builders and developers.

• In May, the NEAR Foundation announced that it would focus on User-Owned AI with co-founder Alex Skidanov leading R&D. 
• At [REDACTED] in November, we launched NEAR AI in Alpha with app.near.ai, a research hub building a 1.4T parameters model in a fully open way, and chat.near.ai, a user-owned AI assistant that can act on the user’s behalf in both Web2 and Web3 by connecting with other AI agents and services.
• The NEAR AI ecosystem now includes more than 50 top AI teams across research, infrastructure, data & storage, models, and applications. 

A key part of the vision for AI is about abstracting specific blockchain elements away from user experiences to improve accessibility and ease of use. Users will interact primarily with agent-driven interfaces across the entire Web; Chain Abstraction enables agents to seamlessly deliver a range of finance, commerce, and degen types of experiences on the user’s behalf. Some highlights from 2024 now making this possible:

• Chain Signatures: enable smart contracts to sign transactions on any blockchain. Live across mainnets for chains using ECDSA, with EdDSA coming soon.
• Intents: a new transaction type on NEAR allowing information, requests, assets, and actions to be exchanged between AI agents, services, and end users. Intents let agents interact with each other and complete actions across Web2 and Web3, which forms the basis for the next generation of the internet. Demo Intents app is here.
• Infinex partnership: Infinex, founded by Synthetix creator Kain Warwick, aims to abstract away UX challenges and complexities at the core of DeFi. Integrating Chain Signatures and NEAR Intents will bring Infinex closer to feature parity with centralized exchanges.

What’s Next?

We will be full speed ahead in January: building an ecosystem for autonomous agents, enabling agentic commerce, developing TEE infra for verifiably private inference, and hosting monetizable models. The momentum is already starting: check out Eliza running multichain swaps on @ai16zdao using NEAR intents. NEAR AI and Frax are teaming up to build truly autonomous agents using NEAR infra. And SWEAT is integrating AI assistant into their wallet UI.

2025 is the year of Blockchain for AI. We believe this focus for NEAR is the best way to ensure the future internet is owned by more than a few companies and supports sovereignty for users. We will make sure everything we do levels up to this mission and helping founders and builders understand why they want and need to be a part of it.

Thanks to everyone in the NEAR community for your work and commitment this year. –Illia

The post 2024 NEAR Year In Review appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

Spinouts of NEAR ecosystem initiatives allow teams to focus on their core competencies and move quickly and autonomously with clear and aligned incentives. Importantly, an open and decentralized ecosystem encourages transparency and gives everyone a fair chance to seek funding and support for their contributions. A decentralized ecosystem is also more antifragile and sustainable due to an ever-increasing number of collaborating and competing projects. 

Near One

The Pagoda team developing the core NEAR blockchain protocol is now Near One, a team of 30 employees led by Bowen Wang, Head of Protocol. Near One’s mandate is to develop and maintain the NEAR Protocol and roadmap, providing high-performance and scalable infrastructure to support the wide range of activities in the NEAR ecosystem, including consumer apps, Chain Abstraction, modularity, DeFi, and User-Owned AI. Working independently will allow Near One to operate with greater speed and autonomy, and also makes room for multiple node/protocol teams to build on NEAR without relying on an “official” one. Near One will share exciting news about the next phase of sharding later this month. 

Chain Abstraction Spinout

Following the successful launch of Chain Signatures mainnet, an independent team with key contributors from Pagoda and other nodes will focus on developing the technology and partnerships needed to make the Chain Abstraction vision a reality. This new team will continue the NEAR ecosystem’s leadership in advancing Chain Abstraction for all of Web3. More information and a name for this project are forthcoming in September, so stay tuned.

Future of Pagoda and Pagoda Services

Given that these two spinouts represent a large percentage of Pagoda’s current staff and responsibilities, the NEAR Foundation Council decided to change the model for funding the other ecosystem services Pagoda has been operating. These will now be distributed via the Infrastructure Committee to a decentralized set of providers over the next six months. For updates on Pagoda’s transition timeline and process, please consult this Future of Pagoda Services page.

These transitions mean that Pagoda will be winding down, with some Pagoda employees joining other ecosystem nodes including the NEAR Foundation, NEAR.AI, and DevHub teams. Remaining team members will be offered support to found new ecosystem projects, join other ecosystem teams, or bid as independent providers to take over existing work via an RFP process run by the Infrastructure Committee. People with strong knowledge of NEAR technologies are always encouraged to start new projects and seek funding support: this is the most transparent, fair, and sustainable approach for growing the ecosystem as it approaches 4 years since mainnet launch. 

NEAR ecosystem teams interested in hiring Pagoda team members are encouraged to share openings on the Jobs Board and to consult this opt-in list of people open to new roles. There will also be a hacker house-style Pagoda offsite in Tarrytown, New York in early September, now open to ecosystem contributors interested in connecting with team members and brainstorming independent projects (apply to attend here). 

Looking Ahead

In addition to the launch of Chain Signatures mainnet last week and the upcoming mainnet launch of Nightshade 2.0, the NEAR ecosystem has seen major recent success across a range of key metrics. Last month, in July 2024, the NEAR ecosystem had more than 20 million monthly active users across apps and projects––the highest on any L1 chain, with over 110 million accounts overall. NEAR also reached over 3 million daily active users, the highest of any chain, averaging between six and seven million transactions per day, and has the highest 12-month user retention among L1 blockchains. 

A more decentralized and autonomous ecosystem of independent projects will be better equipped to expand on this impressive growth and bring NEAR’s vision and best-in-class technology to a billion users. Those interested in keeping up with the latest news and launches on NEAR should follow along on X, attend monthly ecosystem Town Halls, watch NEAR AI Office Hours, and attend the [REDACTED] conference and hackathon in Bangkok, Nov. 9-11.

The post Ecosystem Update: Announcing Near One, Chain Abstraction Spinouts  appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

You may recall that [REDACTED] is a global convergence to shape the future of User-Owned AI and Chain Abstraction—a future where technology belongs to the people, not corporations. 

It’s an IRL movement gathering November 9-11 in Bangkok. It’s a worldwide hackathon kicking off September 5. It’s a defining moment to unify the collective working on these technologies to reclaim our sovereignty.

Are you in?

The IRL movement: speakers announced, apply to attend

[REDACTED] is a whole IRL movement: 1,500+ devs, builders, founders, funders, researchers, regulators, and more gathering in person, November 9-11, at the Avani+ Riverside Hotel Bangkok.

Some things can only happen IRL, and some are just way better. Like:

• Gaining insights from the teams defining the intersection of AI and Web3
• Upskilling and learning how to develop AI x Web3 products and apps
• Forming deep connections to build the user-owned future together

[REDACTED] will feature a wide range of curated sessions, workshops, and discussions led by the people driving AI x Web3 and Chain Abstraction. We can finally share that this includes:

• Illia Polosukhin (NEAR)
• Curtis Spencer (Electric Capital)
• Anand Iyer (Canonical)
• Maartje Bus (Messari)
• Matt Stephenson (Pantera)
• Calanthia Mei (Masa)
• Evrard-Nil Daillet (Google)

And more to come as we get closer to Bangkok.

Tickets to the [REDACTED] IRL movement are totally free—you just have to apply to attend, either as a participant or as a hacker (about which, see below). Visa letters are available to support visa applications.

For the absolute latest on the movement, join the official [REDACTED] Telegram channel.

[REDACTED] Hackathon Registration Is Live

Registration for the [REDACTED] hackathon is OPEN.

The [REDACTED] hackathon sets top problem-solvers to collaborating on the biggest issues in AI x Web3 and Chain Abstraction. Kicking off September 5, it’s eight weeks remote so teams can go deep, and it culminates at the IRL movement in Bangkok, November 9-11. 

Hackers accepted into the hackathon can expect workshops and tutorials on industry-leading tools, interactive discussion and support from category/ecosystem experts, and, oh yeah, a chance at over $500k+ in bounties and prizes.

There will also be travel scholarships so qualifying hackers can be IRL in Bangkok for the awards ceremony—and to participate in the IRL movement.

Get Involved with [REDACTED]

There are a lot of ways [for partners?] to get involved with [REDACTED], from digital marketing exposure and exclusive access to side events to major visibility at the IRL movement. Find what’s right for you.

The post [REDACTED] Speakers Announced, Hackathon Registration Is Live appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

The week kicked off with NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin delivering a keynote at the Open Source AI Summit titled “Why the World Needs User-Owned AI.” Illia presented the case for investing in open-source, User-Owned AI, emphasizing the importance of collaboration in proactively managing risk, improving user safety, and formally verifying code. He stressed that all data used in training AI models must be open-source to ensure transparency, unpack potential biases, and debug issues effectively.

Later in the week, Illia delivered a keynote presentation on the NEAR AI Hub and AI Developer concept. His talk sparked considerable interest, particularly regarding the transformative potential of Developer AI. The audience was captivated by the vision of a system where individuals, regardless of their technical expertise or financial resources, could transform their ideas into fully-fledged, decentralized, and scalable applications simply by interacting with an AI-driven development platform. This lower barrier to entry for app creation promises to accelerate innovation across the blockchain ecosystem and even in Web2.

NEAR’s presence at EthCC extended beyond AI discussions. Altan Tutar, CEO of Nuffle Labs, showcased Nuffle’s pioneering work on data availability, demonstrating how NEAR technology is scaling Ethereum L2s. This presentation highlighted NEAR Protocol’s versatility beyond its L1 capabilities and its potential to defragment Web3.

Alex Shevchenko from Aurora Labs introduced Forwarder, a personal bridge designed for seamless token transfers between centralized exchanges and various chains, addressing the rapid growth of new blockchains in the ecosystem.

A significant highlight of NEAR’s participation was the Chain Abstraction Day Brussels on July 10th. Co-hosted with Agoric Systems, this event marked the culmination of NEAR’s year-long series on interoperability and the future of multi-chain apps and transactions. The day-long program covered different methodologies to achieve chain abstraction to intents, data availability, and infrastructure, including a talk from Illia on what’s next in the NEAR ecosystem’s contributions to Chain Abstraction. A special fireside chat between Agoric’s Dean Tribble and Illia delved into architecting next-gen Web3 apps.

The NEAR AI Tech Showcase on July 11th further demonstrated NEAR’s commitment to innovation. The event featured live demonstrations of AI-powered blockchain applications, giving attendees hands-on experience with the latest developments from the NEAR ecosystem. Underpinning these developments was the NEAR Horizon AI Incubation Program, a strategic initiative designed to kickstart NEAR’s AI ecosystem by collaborating with top-tier Web3 x AI projects.

NEAR’s presence at EthCC 2024 offered the rest of the Web3 ecosystem a tangible vision of a User-Owned AI future with real technologies already taking shape. By championing the transfer of power and ownership to users, NEAR aims to unlock a myriad of benefits: enhanced productivity, improved search results, personalized experiences, and novel economic opportunities, all while maintaining a steadfast commitment to privacy and security. The ecosystem’s overarching goal remained clear: to onboard 1 billion users to a new open internet. NEAR’s unique position at the intersection of blockchain and AI showcased its readiness to address the growing demand for decentralized artificial intelligence, leveraging Web3’s inherent strengths to forge a truly user-owned digital landscape. As the event concluded, it was evident that EthCC 2024 marked a defining moment for NEAR Protocol, highlighting its visionary approach, technological prowess, and unwavering commitment to a decentralized, user-centric future.

Interested in learning more about User-Owned AI and the teams building the ecosystem? Check out the NEAR AI Office Hours series.

The post EthCC 2024: User-Owned AI Takes Center Stage appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

The NEAR AI x HZN Incubation Program is part of the NEAR Foundation’s strategic vision to build a User-Owned AI ecosystem that provides alternatives to the corporate-owned, centralized AI monopolizing the landscape today. By putting the power of AI where it belongs—in the hands of users—the goal is to maximize the benefits of AI for people and communities, provide novel economic opportunities, and accelerate creativity and innovation. 

The inaugural NEAR AI x HZN Incubator cohort includes the following teams:

• Mizu is building the first synthetic open data layer aimed at fostering an open, collaborative data ecosystem for AI developers.
  • NEAR and Mizu are developing expansive, open data platforms that support AI research and applications.

• Pond develops foundational crypto models using Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) to analyze on-chain data and predict future behaviors.
  • NEAR and Pond are collaborating on NEAR-native foundational AI models and tools that enhance decentralized applications’ ability to operate at scale.

• Nevermined creates robust payment infrastructure tailored for AI-commerce, facilitating transactional ease for AI developers.
  • NEAR and Hyperbolic are innovating AI agents for applications to streamline and secure payment processes within the AI ecosystem.

• Hyperbolic provides an open-access AI cloud, featuring a GPU marketplace and AI inference services.
  • NEAR and Hyperbolic are working to provide projects with the computational power and hosting AI models necessary for intensive AI tasks.
    
• Ringfence empowers creators and artists to monetize their work while maintaining secure ownership, aiming to be a Web3 version of DALLE-3 that directly benefits creators.
  • NEAR and Ringfence are collaborating on pathways for data monetization, labeling, and indexing of user-generated content.
    
• Exabits supplies GPU compute in a data center environment, providing the essential physical and technical conditions for serious AI training, inference, and fine-tuning.
  • NEAR and Exabits are working to democratize access to high-performance compute resources for the NEAR ecosystem.
    

“We’re thrilled to welcome these six top-tier AI teams to the User-Owned AI ecosystem on NEAR,” says Illia Polosukhin, Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol and CEO of NEAR Foundation. “Spanning data, models, compute, and inference, these projects are innovating in key parts of the emerging AI stack and represent the best of AI x Web3 projects building today.”

The AI incubation program isn’t just about individual project development: it’s about contributing to a larger vision of a collaborative and user-owned AI ecosystem, one in which users and developers have access to pioneering AI solutions that are secure, decentralized, and empowering end users as well as researchers contributing to open source. Each participating team will contribute to the growing NEAR AI x Web3 infrastructure product stack, ensuring that development is shared across the User-Owned AI ecosystem, and fostering a community-driven approach to AI development.

Participants in the NEAR AI x HZN Incubator will receive extensive support over the program’s initial twelve weeks, and in subsequent phases through May 2025. That support includes access to NEAR’s AI expert network, dedicated technical and token launch support, access to compute, and funding opportunities. 

Interested in following along with these exciting teams building the future of AI x Web3? 

1. Join the NEAR Foundation at ETHCC in Brussels, July 11, for the NEAR AI Tech Showcase and hear directly from the founders in the current incubation cohort. RSVP: NEAR AI Tech Showcase.
   
2. Tune in to the weekly NEAR AI Office Hours every Tuesday with NEAR co-founders Illia Polosukhin and Alex Skidanov.

The post NEAR Foundation Launches Incubation Program to Build Infrastructure for User-Owned AI appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

What makes KAI-Ching special? Turns out building around consumer empowerment that rewards the consumer and ensures their ownership can make you really popular. KAI-Ching is a mission-driven technology transforming consumer experience by saving them time with curated content and offerings, rewarding their engagement, and ensuring they have control and ownership of their data.

A QUICK INTRODUCTION TO COSMOSE AI’s CORE PLATFORMS 

KAIKAI is an AI-powered, opt-in interactive lock screen and mobile app that provides curated content and shopping based on the user’s preferences. By engaging with the provided content and/or shopping, users earn KAI-Ching. 

KAI-Ching, the heartbeat of the ecosystem, is a reward system integrated into Cosmose AI platforms, using a crypto-based token, $KAIC, to reward users for purchases and engagement on KAIKAI. These earned tokens can be accumulated and redeemed for discounts or full purchases on KAIKAI.

THE WHY BEHIND KAIKAI & KAI-CHING

Consumer data basically equates to currency in the digital age, but traditional data-reliant consumer apps (think Facebook, Google, social media apps etc) have often fallen short in guaranteeing ownership, privacy or ethical use of consumer-generated data.

Cosmose AI founder Miron Mironiuk, sought to disrupt the trend: “KAI-Ching was built to give users tangible benefits for their engagement, while ensuring that they retain ownership of the data.”

MAKING THE KAI-ECOSYSTEM WORK

CosmoseAI intelligently combined the best of blockchain technology and edge computing to deliver the essence of its platforms’ value. 

KAIKAI and KAI-Ching are powered by NEAR Protocol, a sharded and modular, AI Layer-1 blockchain, with low transaction fees, and super fast finality. NEAR’s dev-friendly infrastructure, negligible transaction fees, made it an ideal landing pad for the Cosmose AI team. 

Blockchain technology ensures user data ownership remains with the user, by enabling the user to permission what can be accessed or shared.

Unless you are digging deep into the architecture of KAI-Ching, you won’t know it runs on a blockchain, described by Miron in an interview as: “Instead of talking about blockchain and Web3, we built products that became part of everyday life.”

THE KAI-CHING JOURNEY SO FAR? KA-CHING!

Since launching KAIKAI and KAI-Ching, Cosmose AI has onboarded over 10m users into Web3, consistently topping daily and monthly active wallet charts since 2023. The big success can be attributed to two primary things:


– Building on a developer-friendly blockchain, NEAR Protocol, that allows the team to cost-efficiently and seamlessly ship features, with speed and robust security.

– Focusing on user journey and experience to deliver platforms that are user-friendly AND deliver tangible, repetitive value to users’ everyday life.

The success of KAI-Ching and the CosmoseAI platforms is tangible proof that user-friendly consumer empowerment models work and can attract mass adoption, no matter the underlying infrastructure. As AI increasingly becomes a major narrative in Web3 and focuses on enhancing everyday consumer preferences, KAI-Ching positions itself as a pioneer abstracted solution for the future of consumer apps.

Discover the world of KAIKAI now
https://kaikai.ai/ 

The post COSMOSE AI: TRANSFORMING CONSUMER EMPOWERMENT WITH AI AND BLOCKCHAIN appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

Over the last six months, NEAR has experienced a significant increase in users and transactions. NEAR has 3 of the top ten dapps in Web3 by users with KAI-CHING and HOT Wallet both reaching millions of daily active users in April 2024.

Chart from Pikespeak

• Total Transactions: 1.16B 
• Daily Unique Active Accounts: 1.3M

NEAR has 3 of the top ten dapps in Web3 by users according to dappradar with KAI-CHING and HOT Wallet both reaching millions of daily active users in April 2024.

All of this demand led to some congestion on one of the shards, so Bowen Wang, Director of Protocol, and the Protocol team worked on further optimizations that rolled out within days to address it. Over the course of 2 weeks, they added 2 more shards to NEAR – for a total of 6 live shards. This increased the network’s capacity by 50%. 

At the end of Q2, stateless validation is expected to  launch on Mainnet – this upgrade is projected to improve throughput for each shard by 5x and grow the total number of shards available for the network.

One of the most remarkable aspects of this upgrade is that it was implemented live—there was no need to take the blockchain offline. There was no break in user transactions.

What is sharding on a blockchain? Let’s simplify using an analogy.

Imagine you have a library that’s become too large and crowded. To manage this, you divide your books into several smaller sections and place them in different rooms. Each room now holds part of the entire collection, making finding and managing books easier. Most importantly, the separate collections will minimize congestion when the library is busy.

Now, think of the NEAR blockchain like that crowded library. Sharding is like dividing this big blockchain into smaller, manageable pieces called “shards.” Each shard is like one of those rooms, with only the contract interactions within that shard. When someone needs information, they go directly to the room (shard) where it’s stored instead of waiting for the whole chain. This way, sharding helps handle more data and serve more users efficiently without affecting users of the entire chain every time.

In NEAR’s case, the blockchain is split into multiple shards, akin to these rooms, where each shard processes transactions and maintains the state independently. This division allows for parallel processing, significantly boosting the network’s capacity and speed.

What sets NEAR apart is how these shards interact and synchronize. A developer doesn’t have to worry about which shard a specific contract might be on. This approach maintains high security and interconnectivity while allowing the network to scale effectively. As the network grows and demands increase, more shards can be added, like expanding the library with more rooms, to ensure that  NEAR can adapt to increasing usage and more complex applications.

NEAR is focusing on future-proofing the protocol to handle even more growth and usage. This proactive approach aims to minimize disruptions and maintain a consistent developer and user experience, no matter how much the demand grows.

This further validates NEAR’s thesis that sharding is the best scaling approach given what is currently  happening across the whole Web3 space. Many non-sharded chain/rollups are getting congested with transactions and have been forced to raise fees, while NEAR was able to expand capacity by adding more shards and keeping fees stable.

Homogeneous Sharding isn’t just a tech tweak; it’s a critical evolution in the blockchain that keeps transactions flowing. And it takes a team of superheroes for NEAR Protocol to be a top blockchain in Web3. The ultimate goal? To ensure that users never notice the complexity behind their seamless digital experience.

Claim your Proof of Legends of NEAR NFT

The post Legends of NEAR: Expansion from 4 to 6 Shards appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

If we want to see mainstream adoption of Web3 because we believe a more open, decentralized internet that supports self-sovereignty for all people is better for the world, then we will need to do better.

The prevailing narrative in Web3 today is modularity, or separating out the different functional layers of a blockchain, i.e. settlement, data availability, and execution, for the sake of scalability. Layer-twos, optimistic and ZK rollups, data availability layers, sidechains, and state channels are all examples of modularity solutions. 

This proliferation of blockchains & rollups has led to a degraded experience for users and developers. Modularity and a world of many chains leads to more fragmentation of liquidity, apps, and users––a significant degree of complexity in the user experience that no mainstream user could ever be expected to navigate. This also applies to developers, who feel pressure to commit to a specific tech stack while limiting the audience for their application. Now when you build a dapp, you’re enshrining yourself into a small addressable market by choosing a single chain.

I want to propose a better vision for the entire Ethereum ecosystem and all of Web3: let’s work together on advancing mainstream adoption via chain abstraction. The idea is that blockchains must be abstracted away from the user so they are not barriers to entry or participation. NEAR has been focusing on this vision since 2018 and today has achieved the most users of any network in Web3: 12.4 million monthly active accounts and 34 million accounts overall. 

Here’s how we can defragment Web3 and onboard billions of users via dapps. 

What does this look like for the user? 

Let’s imagine how using a dapp should actually work: transacting across networks and navigating between experiences with ease, all within a single interface. As one example, Alice picks up her phone and opens KAIKAI from her lockscreen. She orders a smoothie from a local place and sees in the app that there’s a discount offer from her favorite clothing store, Maison, and orders a pair of shoes for the spring. Alice sees she has earned enough KAICHING rewards to get a badge from Maison, not knowing it’s an NFT on Polygon, and redeems it in her account. 

When she browses Maison on the KAIKAI app later that day, she notices that her new badge reveals an offer to buy tickets for an exclusive event at their store with a DJ she likes. She buys the ticket with KAICHING and receives 2 tickets, still not knowing it’s an NFT on Arbitrum. Since she gets a +1, Alice invites her friend Bob to come with her and pings him for his address. 

Bob sends his NEAR address to Alice and opens his app to check out the ticket. He sends Alice some ETH to say thanks for the invite and looks at the different cryptos he has in his account. Since he’s on the metro and has some time, he decides to buy some BTC and borrow against it with USDC so he can mint a Fighting Dragon NFT on Magic Eden. His friend Charles texted him earlier to get one so they could play each other in Year of the Dragon, a new game on NEAR where their dragons can battle each other for coins they can stake.

All of these interactions and transactions can take place in a single interface and in a completely private way. There are no wallets, no switching networks, and no transaction fees to deal with; those are embedded directly in the swap or the buy and handled on behalf of the user. Alice didn’t need to worry about which network the ticket is on and Bob can send her funds for the ticket in whichever crypto he wants, moving seamlessly into buying a different one the next second. All inside of an app. This is the level of seamlessness we should be striving for as an ecosystem.

How do we achieve Chain Abstraction?

Everyone building an app in Web3 will benefit from being able to access such a broad market of potential users as in this example––i.e. anyone who uses apps. Whereas today, developers choose a network based on access to liquidity or the users of a specific rollup or chain, in a chain abstraction future they can just build with the best tech. The users will show up for the best experiences. 

Imagine if a Gmail user couldn’t just send a message to an Outlook address––it doesn’t make sense. The same is true for Web3 addresses. The core assumption of chain abstraction is: end users don’t care about the underlying blockchain. They just want apps to work. In reality, blockchains are simply infrastructure to receive value out of Web3: security of assets from seizure, economic opportunity, removing middlemen for transactions, global permissionless identity, data provenance, entertaining experiences, and more.

The core goal of chain abstraction is to defragment the increasingly fractured modular landscape of Web3. While this will be most visible at the user experience layer, this defragmentation of liquidity and accounts is possible thanks to innovation at the security layer. 

Zero knowledge (ZK) introduces a principally new approach to ledger security. Whereas before one needed to trust a decentralized set of validators, now even a single computer can prove that rules were followed with a simple proof. This means that where before, developers would be forced to either build on a shared chain or spend immense resources to launch a new one, now they can just spin one up on their single server.

This new paradigm introduces the idea of cross settlement: as more chains become fully ZK provable, if some proof is published on other chains, there is no way to revert this chain without also needing to revert other chains. Transactions from one chain can also settle on multiple others via ZK proofs. This provides mesh security as all proofs continuously get aggregated, allowing the safe movement of assets between such chains.

In order to achieve unified security, two things are needed at the bottom of the stack: Data availability, which provides a way for everyone to sync even if the operator is offline, and a decentralized sequencer for applications that don’t have a central operator. 

The next layer is identity with that security unified. Users can have an address on all possible chains and move assets between them freely. From a user perspective, this should be a single account where they interact with apps on different chains, and assets either get bridged or swapped automatically. 

I call this “account aggregation” and will share more details about it in another post soon. NEAR will launch the next version of FastAuth in March 2024, which has mapping for NEAR addresses to EVM, Bitcoin, and other addresses. NEAR accounts can request to sign a transaction for another chain. This allows them to build multichain apps directly as smart contracts on NEAR. 

The final layer is unifying the experience layer, or the application layer (e.g. DapDap)––providing a way to interact with apps on various chains without users switching or needing to leave a single interface. A decentralized frontend can provide easy components to build in a chain-abstracted way. NEAR can achieve this through NearJS, combining data indexing and decentralized frontends––V2 also coming in March 2024. 

How is NEAR enabling Chain Abstraction? 

The NEAR ecosystem has been building towards the chain abstraction vision since its beginnings in 2018, focusing on usability, a flexible account model, and a highly scalable blockchain that could support mainstream apps with billions of users. Today, the stack has expanded to support full chain abstraction across chains and all kinds of apps. 

• Scalable, integrated blockchain that can grow to 1B+ daily active accounts.
• Security aggregation stack consisting of NEAR DA, zkWASM (collaboration with Polygon Labs), and EigenLayer-powered Fast Finality.
• Account aggregation on top of this to enable transacting on all chains using a single account
• Data layer that supports everything from monolithic, integrated, modular, private and permissioned chains to query data in a predictable protocol.
• Intent relayers that can execute complex intents across chains using this infra.
• Decentralized frontends that provide discoverability and composability for multiple apps across chains into one experience.
• Super (app) wallets that are user friendly and offer a way to navigate all of Web3 without having to switch networks or deal with gas tokens and bridges.

Importantly, each of these layers supports builders from across Web3, including Ethereum, rollups & L2s, and beyond––the multichain future is becoming the chain abstraction future. 

Call to Action

2024 is the year of hiding the complexity of multichain infrastructure to deliver the Web3 experiences we’re striving for. Improving usability and discoverability should be a priority for all Web3 builders, as well as solving for liquidity fragmentation and security tradeoffs. 

Let’s make chain abstraction a movement. The NEAR ecosystem invites builders from across Web3 to take advantage of the solutions we’re offering and to collaborate with us to build more chain abstraction solutions together. Stay tuned for more news on collaborations as well as details on an exciting event that NEAR Foundation will co-host at ETHDenver 2024.

Special thanks to Zaki Manian for conversations that led to this post as well as for his review.

The post Why Chain Abstraction Is the Next Frontier for Web3 appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

The event was spearheaded by the NEAR Vietnam Hub with support from the NEAR Foundation, exemplifying strong commitment and collaboration between local and global ecosystem stakeholders.  ICYMI, here are some of the biggest sessions, announcements, and events from NEAR APAC 2023.

ICYMI, here are some of the biggest sessions, announcements, and events from NEAR APAC 2023.

Web3’s bright investment outlook in Asia-Pacific

One of the most encouraging and optimistic sessions was moderated by NEAR’s Head of Finance, David Norris, focusing on the current and future outlook of blockchain investment and development in the region. David was joined by Web3 venture veterans Riccardo Pagano from Outlier Ventures and Whiplus Wang of IVC crypto.

The trio dove into the current state of blockchain investment in APAC, and how Web3 might just ascend to becoming one of the most invested sectors in the region from a venture and infrastructure perspective. Ricardo in particular emphasized that he’s seeing a shift in perception from investors, with Web3 going from a niche technology to its own broad-based sector.

“Even though we’re technically in a bear market, investment in Web3 sub-sectors like gaming is still strong,” added Whiplus. “Games like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja were instrumental in onboarding Web2 users onto the smartphone, for example. That’s why investment into blockchain game publishers is increasing — to find that killer game that onboards billions.”

Whiplus also likened successful blockchain startups to a bowl of Pho, with a blend of technical and business elements being integral to a delicious final dish. The panel also touched on technical nuances like ZK rollups and modular blockchains, emphasizing the need to invest in talent and innovation through initiatives like hackathons.

The session encapsulated a forward-looking perspective on Web3’s trajectory. With the bar for founder participation evidently rising, the panel stressed the importance of education in the space. There was unanimous optimism about Southeast Asia’s digital future as potentially outpacing even established tech hubs like Korea and Japan.

NEAR supports B.O.S. and blockchain builders in APAC

Tons of activity also took place in and around the Builder Stage, with the NEAR Foundation and local blockchain organizations teaming up to educate and assist developers, builders, and job seekers in advancing themselves into Web3. Cameron Dennis, CEO of Banyan, led a panel on the stage informing developers on how to upskill from Web2 to Web3.

Local developer advocates from notable projects like the Graph and Khyber network also participated in sessions, workshops, and panels on the Builder Stage designed to upskill local blockchain professionals. There was something for everyone, from a job fair for Web3 newbies to a Greenhouse area connecting founders and projects to VCs for funding.

Exploring everything from dApp architecture to tokenomics, the Builder Stage action was highlighted by an incredible Hackathon, with participants receiving guidance from experts like Oleg Fomenko, founder of SWEAT. On the final night of the festivities, NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin presented awards to the winners on stage in front of a packed main hall.

Pagoda takes the main stage to talk user adoption and FastAuth

Alex Chiocchi, the CPO of Pagoda, showcased FastAuth during his session titled “Unlocking the Power of B.O.S: Product Update for Founders & Developers.” FastAuth aims to redefine the user experience for developers and founders, addressing the longstanding challenges of both onboarding and retaining new Web3 users.

A primary takeaway was how FastAuth’s next release will minimize gas fees when onboarding, thus removing barriers for end-users. The introduction of multiparty compute (MPC) allows proofs from various organizations to be combined, simplifying processes like email recovery. Chiocchi emphasized the potential for users to migrate effortlessly from Web2 logins, hinting at a seamless integration between the two web generations.

Discussing the nuances of retaining users in Web3, Chiocchi stressed that coin incentives alone aren’t sufficient. The “toothbrush test” was highlighted, illustrating that many apps don’t become daily necessities for users. Trust plays a pivotal role, especially with the rise of scams in the decentralized space. 

Side events and after-parties storm the streets of Saigon

NEAR APAC fully embraced the “work hard, play hard” ethos of Vietnam and Asia-Pacific. Even during the event, there were LED dancers, Manga Cosplay, and several massive DJs and party breaks. Not to mention the NEAR APAC Opening Night party at the Intercontinental Hotel, where Illia officially welcomed attendees and kicked things off in an intimate setting.

And in one of the coolest side events in recent NEAR memory, Dap Dap showcased its platform to B.O.S. enthusiasts at the My House meeting venue nestled in one of Saigon’s many cozily-lit alleyways. Dap Dap is the first commercial B.O.S. product and will act as a gateway to hundreds of chains and protocols for users from a single, user-friendly interface.

B.O.S Beats by DAO Records was the grand finale of NEAR APAC, offering a vibrant blend of hip-hop beats from prominent DJs on the decentralized record label. Held at Indika Saigon — and with pizza supplied by Pizza DAO — attendees enjoyed live performances, refreshments, and networking opportunities with the global and APAC NEAR communities. 

NEAR APAC was an incredible Web3 Bánh Mì, layering an eclectic mix of speakers, insights, and events to create something completely unique. The NEAR Foundation would like to thank every cook in the kitchen, especially local partners like the NEAR Vietnam Hub who made sure that the first ever NEAR APAC had the perfect mix of sweet, sour, and spicy.

The post ICYMI: Scootering Through Web3 at NEAR APAC’s Vietnam Showcase  appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

With each session, industry leaders shed light on challenges and the future trajectory of the fast-paced Web3 ecosystem in APAC. From the unique positioning of Web3 gaming in Asia to the potential rise of the next Web3 cycle, the discussions were varied and far-reaching. Let’s dive on into all the Day 2 happenings at NEAR APAC in Vietnam!

APAC experts discuss the next big trends in Web3

Let’s begin the Day Two recap with a standout panel diving into the next big Web3 trends. Experts agreed that it won’t just be about technological progress, but also the transformative ways that blockchain will weave into daily life. Asset tokenization, generative AI integration, and the proliferation of decentralized creator economies were some top trends on the table.

“Generative AI and asset tokenization are revolutionizing Web3 ecosystems, especially in growing economies like India,” said Sudeep Choudhari, head of blockchain at the India National Payments Corporation. “As integration across borders accelerates, we’ll also challenge traditional FX rates, anticipating a future with minimal cross-border payment costs.”

Hanna Tantoco, APAC Marketing Director at Blockdaemon, piggybacked on the transformative role of generative AI in enhancing blockchain user experiences. She also pointed out the rising prominence of gaming in Asia, particularly on NEAR. Additionally, she highlighted Singapore’s burgeoning creator economy, powered largely by NFTs, as another future trend.

How brands can futureproof themselves with blockchain

Another morning highlight was a panel discussion about how brands and enterprises can harness the potential of Web3 to adapt and thrive. Key points revolved around democratizing user data control, countering data monopolization by tech giants, tokenizing assets, and challenges in linking the physical and digital worlds.

“Enterprises often face challenges with hiring experts who may quickly move on to other projects,” observed Oleg Fomenko, founder of SWEAT. “While consultancies can provide insights, the real breakthrough comes when you start building and experimenting with MVPs. Though initial attempts might fall short, perseverance can yield surprising results.”

Alex Chiocchi, CPO of Pagoda, added that Web3 streamlines verification, challenging traditional ad networks. By using an open blockchain system, excessive fees are prevented, promoting shared value with users. This shift allows benefits like self-custody and reputation while redistributing margins back to the people.

Among the key takeaways from the session was that businesses harnessing blockchain’s capabilities can anticipate a transformative impact on the global economy, especially with asset tokenization’s projected growth through 2030. As brands navigate challenges like ensuring digital authenticity and early adoption, having a targeted strategy is crucial.

Web3 gaming: Asia’s landscape and blockchain utilization

The Asian gaming landscape is buzzing with the rise of Web3 development, promising an unprecedented era of innovation and user empowerment. Central to discussions at the “Web3 Gaming: Asia Landscape” session was the gaming community’s appetite for asset and data ownership, often prioritizing this over the complexities of Web3 itself.

After attending Korea Blockchain Week, it’s evident that Japan and Korea’s mobile giants are pioneering in Web3 gaming,” said Luke Xie, founder of gaming VC fund Press Start Capital. “As opposed to Web3 games like Axie, creating AAA games takes much longer. Given the rapid pace of crypto, former mobile developers align better with this fast-paced dynamic.”

Ishank Gupta, co-founder of Kratos Studios in India, emphasized that gamers prioritize asset and data ownership over backend Web3 tech. He predicted that blockchain games should bring benefits that gamers care about with a focus on ease of usability. For instance, leading studios in India are integrating well-known IP into Web3 games while ensuring they remain engaging.

“We’re witnessing a new golden age of gaming driven by indie studios,” added Xie. “Small teams, empowered by AI, are crafting games that punch above their weight. We believe that on-chain gaming, while difficult to execute at present, is the future. It’s all about selecting the right chain based on tech, community, and support. NEAR excels at all of the above.”

The panel agreed that the Web3 gaming industry in APAC and beyond is undergoing a transformative phase, with blockchain offering gamers more control over assets and data. As developers continue to build, the focus will be on seamless onboarding, speed, and user-centric experiences. Blockchains should be subtly integrated without disrupting the gaming experience.

Bringing Web3 together with Multichain: a call for collaboration 

Today’s blockchain landscape consists of independent Layer 1’s vying for supremacy, bringing up the core question of interoperability. With users often navigating several ecosystems, creating cross-chain experiences becomes paramount. This star-studded panel explored new frameworks to address hurdles and challenges in the current siloed multi-chain user experience.

“Web3’s ethos is modularity, similar to Lego blocks,” explained NEAR CEO Marike Flament. “While we prioritize access and user growth, interoperability challenges persist. But trust and unified solutions drive adoption, not a fractured approach. It’s essential that technology seamlessly serves the end user.”

Cameron Dennis, CEO of Banyan, added that key management is a critical issue. He pointed out ways to simplify these processes with tools like FastAuth. Dennis added that addressing the noticeable gap in cross-chain liquidity should be a focus. He believes that a true multichain future that drives adoption will solve key and wallet management for a better UX.

“Reflecting on a decade in this space, the competitive landscape has shifted,” mused Mary Beth Buchanan from the Cardano Foundation who is also an advisor to NEAR, “Earlier, exchanges hesitated to collaborate, fearing a loss of advantage. Today, there’s a collective push to learn from one another, ensuring technology works seamlessly for the end user.”

Cameron believes that reinforcing the current ecosystem is paramount before extending cross-chain efforts, even though creating a decentralized internet remains a resource-intensive endeavor.

Marieke stressed the importance of open-source technology in attracting top talent. Drawing inspiration from Web2’s approach to 5G standardization, she suggested that Layer 1 leaders could unite in an ‘L20’ alliance to champion unified standards, fostering a unified vision for the industry’s future.

And that’s a wrap for the official Day 2 sessions at NEAR APAC. From gaming and brand adoption to multi-chain standards and collaboration, it was clear that this first-of-its-kind regional event was a rousing success for developers and the NEAR community alike. Sunday in Saigon rolls on with more side events and after-parties, so stay tuned for the full ICYMI tomorrow.

The post NEAR APAC Day 2 Recap: Asia Gaming Trends, Interoperability, and Web3 for Brands appeared first on NEAR Protocol.