This is where NEAR Foundation’s newest partner, Shred Spots, steps in. Shred Spots is a unique social platform specifically designed for active participants and community members in the street sports realm. Despite impressive growth, a dedicated, verticalized social platform that caters to these Gen Z skaters has been noticeably absent – until now. 

In a convergence of skating and the open web, Shred Spots has partnered with NEAR Foundation to create a unique, interactive experience for street sports enthusiasts. This fusion will empower skaters to create, compete, and immortalize their achievements via innovative NFT technology within the action sports metaverse.

Shred Spots: grinding in popularity among the open web generation

Shred Spots has established itself as a go-to app for street skaters and has formed partnerships with significant street sports brands like Red Bull, GoPro, and XGames. It’s a community-driven digital platform that allows its users to track their achievements, compete with their peers, and express themselves creatively.

A unique feature of Shred Spots is its live map, updated by the community, where users can find and add sports locations. They can search based on the type of obstacle, difficulty level, or even the likelihood of getting “busted.” These attributes have led Wired to proclaim Shred Spots as “the only app street skaters will ever need.”

In a recent interview, Shred Spots founder, Lev Filimonov, also emphasized the app’s unique ability to combine skaters’ experience with AR and NFTs, fostering a dynamic interaction with the history and culture of skate spots worldwide while allowing users to monetize their art and achievements.

Shred Spots’ popularity is a testament to its success. With its growth primarily driven by word-of-mouth within the street sports community, it has rapidly emerged as an essential tool for skaters worldwide. This organic growth underscores the platform’s ability to resonate with its audience and fulfill a clear need with Web3 and NEAR.

Making every trick memorable with Shred Spots x NEAR

The partnership between NEAR and Shred Spots brings an innovative twist to the realm of action sports, introducing the transformative potential of Web3 technologies to this vibrant community. Shred Spots plan to leverage NEAR’s blockchain to generate unique, collectible NFTs from skating highlights, enriching the overall user experience.

In this exciting new chapter, every trick recorded and uploaded onto Shred Spots could be minted into an NFT within the street art metaverse. This integration not only adds a rewarding layer to the platform but also deepens the connection between skaters and the fascinating world of blockchain.

Growth within the Shred Spots community has been largely organic, a testament to its widespread acceptance within the skating community. This partnership with NEAR amplifies the platform’s user experience through the integration of NFT technology, extending the reach of Web3 into the action sports world.

The alignment of Shred Spots and NEAR’s vision aids in democratizing access to Web3 technologies, introducing an entirely new user base to the possibilities of blockchain. This marks a pivotal step in broadening the horizons of the street sports community, linking their passions with the power of Web3 and digital ownership.

The collaboration between NEAR and Shred Spots epitomizes how the open web can enrich user experiences in growing niche communities like skateboarding and action sports. It also illustrates the future confluence of the open web, sports, and real-world achievements. And it’s bringing the blockchain to a whole new generation of action sports enthusiasts.

The post Shred Spots and NEAR Foundation: Kick-Flipping Into the Future of Social NFTs appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

Škoda, one of Europe’s biggest car manufacturers headquartered in the Czech Republic, is quickly becoming one of the most forward-thinking industry brands in Web3 and the metaverse. Late last year, the company announced its global Škodaverse initiative, integrating virtual test drives and NFTs into an immersive environment.

And now the Škodaverse is coming to the Indian market, powered by the NEAR Protocol, that will enable Škoda fans to buy, trade, and engage with NFTs in Web3. It’s a crucial step in the brand’s journey towards building a tight-knit community of Škoda loyalists, offering a space for fans to connect, co-create, and establish long-term relationships with the brand.

Steering Škoda fans towards NFTs with NEAR

Mr. Christian Cahn von Seelen – Executive Director of Sales, Marketing, and Digital, Škoda at Auto Volkswagen India – expressed excitement at the unveiling of the Škodaverse India NFT platform. He envisions it as a dynamic hub for connection and creativity, exemplifying Škoda’s commitment to its customers and fans in India. The Škodaverse India will offer unique and immersive experiences to a rapidly growing market.

“Škodaverse India signifies the brand’s leap into uncharted digital territory,” said von Seelen. It’s not just about creating extraordinary digital assets, it’s about forging deep connections with a community that shares an unwavering passion for the brand and its initiatives in India. It also showcases our commitment to sustainability and innovation, through leveraging carbon-neutral blockchain technology that enables secure, transparent, and decentralized transactions.”

Škodaverse India is designing its metaverse platform to be exciting and engaging for Škoda enthusiasts of all demographics, whether they’re familiar with blockchain technology or not. Whether it’s an image, video, sound, or ticket, each NFT collection released on the Škodaverse India platform will be curated to create memorable driving experiences

The first NFT collection, honoring sustainability, will be created on NEAR Protocol. As a South Pole-certified, carbon-neutral blockchain, NEAR’s eco-first philosophy aligns seamlessly with Škoda India’s sustainability efforts.

Driving Škoda India’s Web3 Strategy into the future

As part of the brand’s intensified Web3 strategy, Škoda Auto India is collaborating with Antier, a leading blockchain consulting firm, to foster the creation and minting of innovative NFTs. Each NFT collection released on the Škodaverse India platform will be thoughtfully curated to represent memorable driving experiences. 

These unique collectibles will unlock exclusive experiences, strengthening the bond between Škodaverse and its community of users. The Škodaverse India platform also ensures users stay updated with the latest in the creation and sale of NFTs. Users can sign in, create, and maintain their profiles, and monitor for updates via Škodaverse India’s Discord, Telegram, and Twitter.

With the launch of Škodaverse India, Škoda Auto India embraces blockchain technology, signaling a significant move towards Web3 applications. Powered by NEAR Protocol, Škodaverse India will offer engaging, community-building experiences, further solidifying Škoda’s position as a forward-thinking automobile brand in Web3 and the metaverse.

The post Škoda Ventures into NFTs with NEAR to Create the Škodaverse India appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

Rove and Rove World v2 removes many of the key friction points that occur when brands and creators try to engage their audience with Web3 technology. Notable brands are already on board, as Rove has collaborated with the likes of Tommy Hilfiger on the Web2 side, alongside some of Web3’s largest brands such as Claynosaurz and MonkeDAO, with more exciting partnerships and activations to be announced soon.

“A multichain approach was always at the forefront of our long-term growth strategy for Rove,” said Jason Desimone, Founder of Rove. “Having built and launched the initial version of the Rove World mobile app, our goal is to now expand the reach and traction of Rove to other ‘Layer 1’ blockchain communities and ecosystems that align with our vision and will help us achieve our goals with the launch of Rove v2.”

Let’s take a look at how Rove World V2 is a game-changer for branded NFTs on NEAR.

How Rove is helping brands amp up their NFTs

The Rove ecosystem is a solution to many of the core issues facing brand and entertainment NFT campaigns, launches, and projects. That’s because Web3 itself is often difficult or daunting for the end user, who amongst other things might have questions about the value or utility of NFT ownership.

What Rove brings to the table is a user-friendly mobile app where NFTs are minted in mere seconds and with minimal steps. Brands can also easily add utility to the NFTs which are easily accessible by the user. Rove’s vision aligns seamlessly with NEAR’s Web2.5 strategy of making the onboarding of the next billion users into Web3 as easy as possible.   

Brand and entertainment NFT experiences built atop Rove and NEAR lets users log in seamlessly through familiar means like social media log-in, Apple ID, or facial ID. NFTs are easily sent and received on the Rove app via usernames, again with a similar Web2 interface to that of Venmo.

Rove World v2 release lets brands create buzz

The Rove World v2 release will be a major part of Rove’s suite of tools that make it easy for brands to get started with blockchain technology. Their approach is to allow brands to engage with NFTs in a collaborative manner that benefits creators, brands, and end users alike. Rove World v2 on Near is a huge leap in that direction.

The main feature is the in-app store that brands can now leverage in combination with Rove’s flagship app for curated NFT launches and blockchain-based ticketing. Not only will attendees be able to claim NFTs instantly at the tap of their phone, but brands can also now leverage Rove World v2 to offer seamless in-app purchases via the mobile store.

NEAR and entertainment continue to shine with Rove

Rove has many brands in the pipeline across the fashion, film, music, and sports verticals that want a seamless NFT experience for their customers. This not only brings more notable and forward-thinking brands into NEAR’s orbit but also showcases how the NEAR ecosystem continues to make major strides in the sports and entertainment verticals. 

Eventually, Rove will serve as a central ticketing and NFT project on NEAR. Users can easily create assets, mint the NFT, and distribute it however they’d like. The entire experience will be on a single mobile app, bridging the technical gap between users and brands while giving a fairer share to creators than mainstream NFT marketplaces.

All assets on Rove and Rove World v2 also have some form of utility. Anyone who owns an NFT on Rove can stake that asset for Rove credits that unlock various perks. It’s a great example of how Rove is making all of Web3 simple, including things like staking. 

Ticketing and NFT distribution for brands and creators are about to get a whole lot easier for everyone thanks to Rove. And with Rove World v2’s in-app store, major brands are lining up to be at the forefront of making web3 truly accessible, user-friendly, and financially fair.

“NEAR’s emphasis on onboarding the next billion users into Web3 with a specialized focus on entertainment, sports, and culture fit identically with our approach,” said Rove’s Desimone. “Not to mention NEAR’s industry-leading technology which enables a seamless migration of the easy-to-use features of the Rove World mobile app onto the NEAR blockchain.”

The post Rove World v2 Simplifies Web3 Ticketing and Loyalty for Brands appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

Solaire is pioneering phygital use cases and brands will be able to leverage the NEAR blockchain in tandem with Solair’s powerful APIs to engage with their audience in novel ways.  Solaire’s suite of APIs seamlessly integrates with a brand’s existing retail channels. This enables new revenue channels and richer data. 

Solaire’s entire backend is fully on-chain and facilitates an easy-to-use web2 interface, with no wallet or crypto needed from shoppers. The NEAR blockchain helps Solaire provide these benefits for brands, as well as unique integrations with NEAR. This includes Solaire integration with the NEAR Mainnet, native NEAR wallet support, and the NEAR token as a payment option.

How Solaire is Changing Fashion with Phygital

Solaire establishes a 1:1 connection between a physical object and its digital twin. Brands can then leverage Solaire’s infrastructure and suite of APIs to engage customers with NFTs and phygital experiences in a seamless, user-friendly way, removing some of the typical web3 friction points.

“We aim to do all the hard work on the backend so that brands and consumers can enjoy a familiar user experience with all the benefits of Web3 but without the hassle of dealing with wallet or crypto,” says Vivian Zhang, CEO of Solaire. “And NEAR’s blockchain is perfectly suited to run enterprise-level protocols to ensure a seamless and frictionless user experience.”

Soliare infrastructure helps brands create meaningful digital twins for physical goods, as well as providing a means for consumers to buy and trade phygital assets. Solaire allows for minting unique NFTs attached to physical goods and offers an end-to-end solution for securing and tracking a product from manufacturing through its entire product lifecycle.

Solaire has already collaborated with major fashion brands like Freeman’s Limited Edition Phygital Harry Potter™ Collection and Ilona Song. Smart contracts facilitate shipping, returns, and exchanges all on the NEAR blockchain This allows customers to shop and purchase with transparency and confidence.

Benefits of Phygital Assets for Fashion Brands

Phygital assets are a new way for fashion brands to engage consumers, combining the physical and digital worlds to create a more immersive shopping experience. For example, when a customer buys a dress in real life, they also receive a digital wearable. This can be in the form of an AR filter, a digital skin in their favorite game, or to wear in the metaverse. 

“Solaire’s mission is to empower the retail industry with web3 tools to cultivate a more connected and automated ecosystem,” Zhang continues. “With our suite of APIs, brands are able to maximize revenue and gain valuable data from digital assets, facilitate the secondary market, and build community.”

Brands can then use Solaire as a powerful CRM tool. Through the digital twin in customers’ wallets, brands will have a constant open channel of communication with both the primary customer and secondary owners. Smart contracts also automate royalties from secondary selling, giving brands visibility into trading data.

Another exciting feature is the secondary market experience brands can now provide. Solaire’s backend enables peer-to-peer physical asset trading without a middleman, utilizing blockchain-secured data and smart contracts. Buyers and sellers can independently confirm possession and authenticity of assets on-chain, and smart contracts resolve any disputes.

Solaire and NEAR Building a Phygital Fashion Future

“We’re building on NEAR because it champions community, and it’s one we have found to be incredibly supportive,” remarks Vivian Zhang, CEO of Solaire. “We’ve been able to connect and collaborate with so many partners as we build an entire retail ecosystem together on NEAR.”

As fashion brands recognize the value of web3, NFTs, and phygital technology as important audience touchpoints, Solaire has the potential to partner with even more fashion brands and designers. Solaire’s game-changing approach and tech stack – aided by the NEAR blockchain – will bring web3 to more fashionistas without some of the usual pain points.

“Together with NEAR, we hope to lay out the Web3 infrastructure for the retail industry to onboard the next billion users into web3,” concluded Zhang. 

The post How Solaire is Revolutionizing the Fashion Industry with Web3 Technology and Building the Retail Infrastructure on NEAR appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

With Keypom, that’s about to change. Keypom is a new zero friction onboarding protocol with a companion no-code app, built on Near. 

Now users, regardless of their background, can experience the value of Near’s blockchain technology whether or not they have a wallet. Envisioned as a community-driven, public good — or a public utility — Keypom’s APIs (the Keypom Protocol) will be completely fee-free. The Keypom App will also allow non-developers to take full advantage of Keypom’s powerful wallet-less onboarding experiences.

How Keypom’s frictionless onboarding works

Debuting at NEARCON 2022, Keypom’s onboarding solution is entirely on-chain and non-custodial. It’s  run completely on the Near blockchain via Near smart contracts  — not on any centralized databases.

Keypom allows Near and Web3 to function more like Web2, where developers and end-users alike can use applications without Web3’s usually confusing, tedious, time-consuming onboarding. For those looking to explore this technology, Keypom will offer an App, which is currently set to release at ETH Denver 2023. This app will give users and organizations the ability to easily create links to invite users to experience aspects of the Near blockchain without having to set up a wallet first.

On other blockchains, users are commonly onboarded with pre-created, pre-loaded wallets. Keypom operates on the basis of Near’s unique access key model, which allows for much more flexibility in the end user-experience. 

With Keypom, users are given a special type of access key that can be used to experience a crypto application and later be turned into a wallet. This key can be embedded within a simple Web2 style link that, once clicked, allows users to enter into a crypto experience, entirely on-chain and non-custodially. 

Currently, Keypom experiences include receiving $NEAR, NFTs, Tickets to an event, or even dropping the user into a trial account with Near tokens to spend on a preset selection of apps. Once a user has enjoyed an experience with a Keypom link, they can upgrade to a full account and enjoy the entire Near ecosystem.

For organizations that have experienced Keypom and choose to develop on top of their protocol, the Keypom SDK and Wallet Selector plugin allows for a seamless integration of Keypom’s technology into their own apps. Companies will be able to customize every aspect of the user experience to tailor their needs, all while using carefully designed plug-and-play libraries meant to abstract complicated processes for the developer. 

Low-cost, customizable linkdrops

Typically, linkdrops have been used to onboard developers and end-users looking to build on Near. The cost of creating 1,000 accounts via traditional means has been approximately 1,003 $NEAR. With Keypom, the costs for onboarding 1,000 users can fall to about 3.5 $NEAR. 

“We imagine a world where decentralized applications use the Keypom Protocol to create truly immersive user experiences and specialize in specific use-cases spanning across the entire ecosystem,” says Keypom’s Ben Kurrek. “Companies can build anything from event ticketing to subscription-based payments and multi-sig tooling. While the Keypom App would still allow for users to experience these use-cases, it would be at a much smaller scope.”

Keypom can be used, for instance, to automatically register users into a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) as part of the onboarding process. Another use case is for events ticketing. With Keypom, users wouldn’t need a wallet to enter an event, and would also be able to receive a POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol) NFT.

Perhaps one of the most powerful use cases is the ability for applications to use the Keypom protocol to give their users a free trial. After choosing an account name, the user is instantly signed in and can begin exploring and experiencing the app. Just like with gift cards and other vouchers, the funds can only be used on that dApp thus preventing the possibility for a rug to occur. Once the trial is over, the user can onboard fully with the added option of a payback condition for the funds that the dApp fronted. 

In this new model, Keypom introduces a paradigm shift in Web3 where users experience crypto first and only focus on onboarding once they’ve seen the benefit and gained value.

“We leave it to those building atop the Keypom Protocol to specialize and create applications however they see fit, such as charging custom fees,” says Keypom’s Matt Lockyer. “We’ve created a world where there are no limits and we simply provide the technology that unlocks these experiences.”

For a full explanation on what is possible with Keypom’s customizable linkdrops, check out the Keypom Protocol README. Keypom developer documentation can be found here and Keypom Executive Summary here. 

The post Keypom Brings Frictionless Onboarding to Near and Web3 appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

With Dropt, teams and enterprises can now easily and seamlessly introduce blockchain-powered loyalty and engagement mechanics into their customer journey. These Web3 features will help increase engagement, retention, and lifetime value without customers ever even knowing they are interacting with the blockchain. Customers simply use apps and sites just as they do today, but with new NFT-powered features. 

NEAR and Dropt believe this is the key to mass adoption. Users are not interested in what is happening in the background—they simply want a fun experience that is engaging and rewarding. 

For one of its first integrations, Dropt will be partnering with a NBA championship team, led by one of the most dominant players in the world. 

Blockchain mechanics shift the paradigm for customer engagement

By introducing NFTs to the customer journey, brands immediately integrate an incentive structure into the customer experience that elevates participation and engagement like never before. Branded marketplaces, where customers can interact with tokens, give users the ability to monetize their engagement with a brand.”With Dropt, NFTs can feature different kinds of perks and benefits. In this way, customers are better aligned with the brand’s and naturally become true evangelists.

A changing landscape

In an era where customer expectations are evolving and acquisition costs are rising, Dropt’s highly curated experiences enable brands to exceed these expectations. Let’s face it, loyalty is stale. Consumer expectations are shifting—people want to align themselves with brands that connect with authenticity and make consumers feel like part of a community.

Dropt transforms the loyalty experience into a deeper, more community-based level of engagement, enabling brands to better connect with their communities. This not only modernizes how brands engage in this digital era, but also creates new acquisition channels.

To capitalize on this opportunity, NEAR Foundation and Dropt believe user experience is vital. It’s unrealistic to expect customers to change their behavior, which is why Dropt and NEAR are working alongside cutting-edge authentication and gamification partners to build a web that’s both familiar and brings the best of what Web3 has to offer. 

Dropt is confident that in partnering with the Foundation, mass adoption is NEAR.

The post NEAR and Dropt to Revolutionize Loyalty and Engagement appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

With 2023 around the corner, it’s a great time to reflect and take stock of all the exciting happenings and announcements that took place in 2022. NEAR Foundation congratulates every developer, community member, and partner that made 2022 a blast.

Without further ado, here’s everything that happened with NEAR in 2022, how the ecosystem is successfully navigating bear market conditions, and why NEAR is primed for explosive growth heading into 2023!

Protocol Progress and JavaScript SDK

The last 12 months saw huge progress on the protocol level, with an exciting roadmap charting the course for 2023 and beyond. From staking upgrades to new developer tools, the NEAR protocol made huge strides in onboarding new builders and the next 1 billion users.

NEAR introduced the brand new JavaScript SDK, enabling developers to build on NEAR using the most popular programming language in the world. Brendan Eiche, the inventor of JavaScript and co-founder of privacy-first browser Brave, even joined a panel at NEARCON to discuss the new SDK, Brave’s new support of Aurora, and why he’s excited about NEAR.

NEAR also saw the introduction of meta-transactions, allowing third parties to pay transactions for the transaction cost of any account. Users can then be onboarded to NEAR apps without owning any NEAR tokens. Meta transaction development will continue through next year and will be critical to new wallet growth.

Stake Wars’ latest iteration also began in 2022, marking another step towards decentralizing the network. Stake Wars will increase the total number of validators as chunk-only producers for the next phases of sharding. The chunk-only producer role will be more accessible to new validators who don’t have sufficient $NEAR to run a Block Producer node.

Phase 1 of Nightshade Sharding Commences

Stake Wars was a critical step in the transition from Simple Nightshade to Phase 1 of sharding in 2022. As Phase 1 continues, total validators will increase from around 100 to 300, with a significantly lower seat price. Phase 1 was crucial to facilitate scaling, improve decentralization, and bring the Open Web to mass adoption.

There will be an 86% decrease in collateral requirements to become a chunk-only producer as Phase 1 of Nightshade concludes in 2022 and continues into the next year. Phase 1 went live on mainnet in September 2022 with key contributions and assistance from the Pagoda team.

As NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin told CoinDesk in the lead-up to the Phase 1 roll-out, “the more users the network gets, the more decentralized the network gets as well.” This allows NEAR to add more validators in response to more demand for the network, delivering on the promise of speed, scalability, and efficiency. 

Major Strides in Funding and Transparency

A thriving NEAR ecosystem requires resources and trust, both of which made major strides. The birth of Transparency Reports assured the community that all core stakeholders in NEAR are operating in good faith and from a position of financial strength. These reports provide important information about the health of the protocol and ecosystem, including staking distribution, daily transactions, and new accounts created. (Read the Q3 Transparency Report.)

NEAR Foundation CEO Marieke Flament also hosted a post-FTX AMA, re-assuring the ecosystem of NEAR’s runway and explaining why the current bear market is a time for a conviction to build.

To see how NEAR Foundation and other ecosystem funding projects have been distributing portions of the $800M in funding throughout 2022, check out Q1/Q2 and Q3 Transparency Reports. Key areas of funding include Proximity Labs and DeFi, DAOs, NFT infrastructure, and Regional Hubs. The NEAR Digital Collective (NDC) was also announced and launched at NEARCON, with one of the goals being to further decentralize and democratize grants giving and decision-making processes.

Ecosystem Growth

NEAR’s 2022 was one of huge growth and innovation. New partnerships like Sweatcoin and SailGP were major stepping stones toward bringing Web3 to the masses. Projects in areas such as gaming, music, and NFTs showcased that the NEAR ecosystem is thriving and poised for new heights in 2023.

The NEAR protocol experienced 15x growth in cumulative accounts over the past year with 22M+ today. NEAR also has 900K monthly active wallets, marking a major increase from this time last year. And in 2022, the NEAR ecosystem generated $330M of external capital in projects building on NEAR. 

Movement Economy

One of the biggest catalysts for new NEAR wallet and account creation was the partnership with Sweatcoin. The $SWEAT token rewards users for every step they take throughout the day, encouraging users to live healthy lifestyles. Sweatcoin migrating to NEAR pushed total wallets from 2 million at the beginning of the year to over 20 million by November. As Flament pointed out during the Sweatcoin keynote at NEARCON, the movement economy is in its infancy, and NEAR is poised to be a leader in the space with the help of Sweatcoin.

DAO Innovation

Another huge addition to the NEAR ecosystem was the world-renowned boat racing league, SailGP. SailGP partnered with NEAR to pioneer the intersection of sports, Web3, and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). In addition to offering NFT collectibles on the NEAR blockchain to fans, SailGP will use AstroDAO tooling to create the first fan-owned team as a DAO. In addition to the growth of ecosystem projects like Kin DAO for equity and inclusion, it was a banner year for NEAR and DAOs.

Blockchain Music

You may not have noticed, but 2022 saw a massive surge in interest about music and Web3. And one of the most innovative projects in this area was in the NEAR ecosystem, with the launch of Endlesss. The music creation, marketing, and community development platform’s NEAR integration went live in the summer as a virtual gathering place blending social media features with music production tools. Endlesss enables musicians of all skill levels to conduct “jam sessions” on the NEAR blockchain and mint their music as NFTs. 

Gaming

The NEAR ecosystem got a huge dose of star power with the unveiling of Armored Kingdom. Backed by Hollywood star Mila Kunis, Armored Kingdom will be an immersive gaming, NFT, storytelling, and metaverse experience built on the NEAR blockchain. The project kicked off with a first edition NFT comic book airdrop at Consensus, Austin. NEAR also announced the launch of the South Korea Regional Hub with a focus on bringing the NEAR blockchain to the massive local game development community. 

PlayEmber also established itself as a key player in the NEAR gaming ecosystem, taking a mobile-first approach to Web3 gaming and bringing advertisers into the space. PlayEmber’s games now have over 4.2 million monthly active users, and recently closed a $2.3 million pre-seed raise led by Shima Capital.

NFTs

With core NFT infrastructure maturing in the NEAR ecosystem, 2022 was a year of innovative use cases and groundbreaking projects. NEARCON saw the announcement of a key grant to Few and Far, a premium NFT marketplace on NEAR with a seamless UX and simple minting solutions. One of NEAR’s biggest NFT projects, Mintbase, received over $12 million in funding this August. Mintbase empowers niche creators with the ability to mint NFTs of any type with little technical know-how, exemplifying NEAR’s commitment to making Web3 easy for everyone.

Looking Ahead

From the launch of Phase 1 sharding to protocol upgrades and ecosystem growth, 2022 was a huge leap for the NEAR ecosystem in many respects. It’s the year that the “Create Without Limits” vision was introduced, the biggest NEARCON ever took place, and some of the most important partnerships in the history of NEAR were cemented. It was also a year in which NEAR committed to more transparency and communication with the community.  

Looking forward, NEAR will continue to champion Web3 as a catalyst for change, in addition to environmental sustainability as a carbon-neutral blockchain. In 2023, the NEAR community can expect even more partnerships that push boundaries and support projects that will enhance and empower a prosperous NEAR ecosystem.

The post NEAR 2022: A Year in Review appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

Yet Web3 also hasn’t fully delivered on its promise to open the web. While important progress has been made, much more needs to be done for this technology to deliver fairer, freer digital systems. Today’s Web3 suffers from inaccessible user experience, siloed applications which are difficult to discover, few real-world use cases, and technology tribalism. Put simply, too much hype and not enough value for users. 

Since 2018, NEAR has focused on building scalable, secure technology and infrastructure that is easy to use and enables developers to freely create usable applications. Since launching Mainnet in late 2020, the NEAR ecosystem has made incredible progress, becoming one of the top layer-one blockchains with 22 million accounts, 600K monthly active wallets (active defined as 2+ transactions), and 15x growth in users and projects just in the last year. And despite chaos in the market and a major downturn in recent months, NEAR Foundation has sufficient capital to sustain at least five years of operations in bear market conditions thanks to responsible treasury management. 

While Web3 has yet to deliver on its promises, NEAR Foundation believes that NEAR is the only ecosystem where Web3 promises can be delivered and where mainstream adoption can happen. All the fundamentals have been established for some time and NEAR is charging full-speed ahead into its next growth phase in 2023. This post will cover NEAR’s convictions heading into next year, the strategic approach to drive our next phase, and a look ahead at new areas of product and development. 

Fundamentals and Convictions

• NEAR has the best technology in Web3. Provably scalable, easy to onboard and use, developer friendly, secure, and decentralized, with the most advanced account model and onboarding in the blockchain space. 
• NEAR has world-class talent and ample runway. From the core teams at the Foundation and Pagoda, to the incredible NEAR Foundation Council and advisors, to the diverse group of brilliant entrepreneurs building companies, apps, and funds on NEAR, some of the best talent in the world is here on NEAR. And thanks to the Foundation’s responsible treasury management, core ecosystem operations and funding are well-positioned to run for many years to come. 
• Achieving mainstream adoption is about users. Not TVL, not flashy headlines, not cultish maximalism. NEAR focuses on what matters for the long term and the bear market will separate the high quality projects from the ones fueled mostly by hype. 
• Web 2.5 will get us there. Sweatcoin proved that NEAR can support an app with tens of millions of users on open web infrastructure. This is the next phase of adoption: helping another generation of Web2 apps and communities take advantage of the opportunities Web3 offers while providing a richer, more sustainable experience to their users. 

Strategic Approach

Enabling NEAR to make the most of these convictions in today’s climate means committing to the following goals over the next year. 

Growing usage on NEAR will begin with a top-down approach focused on partnerships. The world-class business development team at the Foundation will focus on working with major applications and brands with substantial, established communities to partner with NEAR on real use cases that drive engagement, such as ticketing and earning. High-traction focus verticals include sports, entertainment, and loyalty. Major partnerships in recent months include Grupo Nutresa, Google Cloud, and Sweat Economy. 

Any great Web3 ecosystem is an emergent product of a dedicated community of believers. The bottom-up, grassroots approach for the next year on NEAR will empower the community to invest in its own expansion through grants, primarily through 3 major community DAOs: Developer DAO, Marketing DAO, and Creatives DAO (visit the DAO websites to get involved). This means the NEAR Foundation will no longer directly allocate capital to projects, instead supporting the community in these decisions and further decentralizing key elements of the ecosystem. These grassroots DAOs will be supported by the NDC, which has achieved initial traction, including launching a new Governance Working Group and plans to roll out a v1 governance infrastructure for the ecosystem early next year.

In the new year, the NEAR Foundation will form an early-stage accelerator that will provide support to promising projects and founders on NEAR in areas including education, tech, hiring, legal, UX, and GTM guidance, setting them up to grow into the landmark Web3 projects of tomorrow. 

Looking Ahead 

With NEAR’s protocol, infrastructure, and developer tooling already well established, the next step in providing the best user experience to Web3 will be at the discovery layer: the connective tissue that connects applications, tooling, social, earning, and developer components across the open web. This stack is what we call a “blockchain operating system.”

Many of the building blocks of the blockchain operating system already exist on NEAR, either as features or apps. These include NEAR Crowd, a gig economy platform with 50% of users transacting every day, and NEAR Social, an on-chain social network with a widget framework that lets developers fork entire app frontends to build new experiences. Combined with upcoming improvements to onboarding, including from EVM wallets (which we’re calling remote accounts), native meta transactions, Keypom, and new chat/social capabilities, NEAR will deliver even more amazing value directly to developers and users. 

All of these user-centric elements further up the stack, particularly at the app layer, will form the basis for a core component of the NEAR ecosystem’s product and technical focus in 2023. Pagoda, NEAR Foundation, and other key ecosystem participants will work together to deliver the best possible technology with an increasingly integrated and seamless experience for developers and end users. The goal from here is evolving NEAR to be more than just a layer-one blockchain: it will become a global blockchain operating system. It’s still early days, but building is underway and the vision is clear. 

NEAR is Now 

NEAR is the place where mainstream adoption of the open web will happen. Soon, anyone in the world—app users, developers, founders, creators—will be able to create without limits.

Thank you for reading our NEAR 2023 Strategy Blog Post and/or participating in the NEAR Go Forward Strategy Twitter AMA! If you have questions or comments we would love to hear them!

The post NEAR Strategic Update and Outlook for 2023 appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

NFTs in sports and entertainment are becoming more widespread and high-profile. Professional athletes and musicians love flexing their profile pic NFTs these days. But there are more meaningful ways to use NFT technology in the Web3 space. This is precisely SeatlabNFT’s aim: use NFTs and the underlying technology to revolutionize ticketing.

How NFTs can make ticketing fairer

A major long-standing issue in the ticketing industry is control over the secondary market. Tickets to popular events often sell out in a matter of minutes—often due to scalpers and ticket wholesalers—only to reappear on the secondary market at a significant markup. It’s an unfortunate reality that many music and sports fans have come to accept.

“While various ideas to beat scalpers have been tried in the past, Web2 lacks the tools required to provide genuine control over the secondary market,” wrote Ryan Kenny, CEO of SeatlabNFT, in a recent op-ed for City A.M. 

“The result, in many cases, is that fans are unable to see the performers they love without paying extortionate amounts of money,” he added. “And, with the profit falling into the hands of scalpers, artists miss out on any revenue generated by secondary sales.”

The SeatlabNFT live event and ticketing platform, built on NEAR, has a clear plan to solve those issues. Artists will be able to mint and sell tickets directly to fans on SeatlabNFT, while those who purchase will avoid scalper markups. And unlike buying a ticket in today’s secondary market, NFT technology will ensure that the ticket they buy isn’t fraudulent.

“With the arrival of Web3, there is a huge opportunity to change this dynamic by issuing tickets as NFTs,” wrote Kenny. “NFT technology is a natural fit for ticketing, as it solves many main problems plaguing the event ticketing industry.”

But maintaining fair pricing and putting more revenue into the pockets of creators themselves is just the tip of the iceberg. SeatlabNFT has other ideas for how to use NFTs to change the ticketing landscape.

Creating more profound relationships with fans

SeatlabNFT has big plans to help artists and teams make the fan experience much more fun, immersive, and bi-directional. Fans and attendees will feel less like consumers being sold an experience, and more like active participants. SeatlabNFT’s NFT platform will open doors and opportunities to increase fan engagement and loyalty.

For starters, artists will be able to create, issue, and sell NFT collectibles associated with various live events. This goes beyond images, as NFTs can also exist on the blockchain in the form of audio recordings, videos, and other forms of digital artwork. These event-associated NFTs could be airdropped on demand, displayed online, or traded with the same smart contracts used to control the secondary market for tickets. 

Creators can also airdrop event-based NFTs or collectibles using SeatlabNFT smart contracts, rewarding some of the best and most loyal fans who attend live events. For instance, a musical artist could airdrop NFTs to fans who have been to multiple live shows, with their attendance verified by the blockchain. This gives creators the chance to issue everything from digital collectibles to utility NFTs that grant things like discounts on merch, early access to future sales or even unlock on-site perks like access to restricted areas or free food and drink.

Ticket royalty splits and price ceilings

Underpinning all of these NFT ticketing value propositions is SeatlabNFT’s smart contracts that enable royalty splits (on NEAR, royalty splits are baked into smart contracts) and price ceilings. Royalty splits and price ceilings give artists and event organizers the tools they need to fight back against scalping. It allows creators to configure the tickets before they go on sale, and ensures that even on the secondary market, event creators can still capture the value they create.  

With these cutting-edge ticketing efforts, SeatlabNFT is working to create a fairer, more transparent, and equitable playing field for all parties.

What’s next for SeatlabNFT

SeatlabNFT is currently in Phase 2 of its roadmap, with a variety of features and functions already live. The SeatlabNFT app is downloadable on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, with tickets to various events currently on sale. 

The SeatlabNFT membership card available on the app is also a precursor to the Immersive Fan Pass, an NFT-based fan membership card program exclusively on SeatlabNFT. These passes will be NFTs with various tiered utility and benefits that artists can offer as part of an immersive fan club package. Backstage passes, early access to demo tracks, and artist meet-and-greets are just a few potential ways the Immersive Fan Pass could be used.

SeatlabNFT also just announced a new partnership with Elrow, one of the world’s biggest dance brands. At Elrow’s Dubai festival, scheduled for February 18, 2023 , SeatlabNFT technology will be used for exclusive VIP ticketing and immersive experiences. Elrow Dubai is taking place at D3 Dubai Design District, which can accommodate up to 10,000 people, making it a great opportunity to onboard many new people into both NEAR and Web3.

The ticketing industry and experience are long overdue for disruption, and SeatlabNFT is well on the way to doing just that. Artists, creators, and sports teams can offer more fair pricing to their fans while receiving a greater share of the revenue via SeatlabNFT’s royalty split smart contracts. And fans get better pricing with the peace of mind that they’re purchasing an authentic ticket.

And even more exciting, integrating NFT technology into the ticketing space opens the door for limitless possibilities in connecting fans with their favorite artists and teams. Linking exclusive digital NFT collectibles and airdrops with tickets is ripe for experimentation, and the Immersive Fan Pass will engage fans on a level never before seen.

The post Introducing SeatlabNFT: The Web3 Startup Changing the Ticketing Game  appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

“We tend to conflate games with fun, but the thing is, a game doesn’t necessarily have to be fun to be engaging,” says Chase Freo, CEO and Co-founder of OP Games. “There are a lot of different games out there that evoke different types of emotions.”

Though many gamers have a keen sense of what they enjoy and want to see more of, Web3 gaming’s direction will be determined not only by what is fun, but also by what developers and gamers realize is possible through experimentation. 

Freo compares Web3 gaming to couture fashion season, when designers and runway models often show styles that stretch the limits of taste and the imagination. Think enormous hats, clothes made of garbage, and costumes that would seem extreme even at Burning Man. This couture fashion isn’t meant for the street—it’s made to see what’s possible.

In Web3 gaming, the goal isn’t necessarily to make or viral iconic games, but to plant the seeds for what games might one day be able to do. This starts with the technology itself.

Web2.5: The bridge to Web3

“A lot of times people sacrifice player experience to have a Web3 spin to it—that makes sense,” says Freo, who says gaming needs developers willing to experiment and try new things to evolve the ecosystem. “For example, bring[ing] game states on-chain [is] not optimal…but you kind of want to push it that way, so that you’ll see exactly where you can draw the line.” 

Freo explains that there are generally two camps of developers: Web2 game designers who focus on gameplay, and devs who really push the envelope with blockchain but sacrifice playability in the process.

“Most games in Web3 are actually a combination of Web2 and Web3, so it’s like Web2.5,” says Freo. “[They combine] aspects of what works on the blockchain [and] everything else is centralized because it works better.” 

Hugo Furneaux and Jon Hook at playEmber, a game-fi middleware company that brings Web3 to Web2 mobile games, echo Freo’s “Web2.5” view. Furneaux, playEmber’s CEO, describes the platform as “an amalgamation” of Web2 and Web3, where developers make extremely fun games while on-ramping Web2 users into Web3. They simply play games they already know and love with Web3 features that are low-key. 

“There’s an added element now, which makes it more fun, where you can just put in your email [and] we do all the rest in the background,” he says. “And it sets up your NEAR wallet and you’re playing, effectively, a Web3 game but as a Web2 user.”

Getting gamers to board the Web3 train

At the forefront of Web3 gaming is NEAR’s Human Guild. Created in early 2021 by Sasha Hudzilin and Vlad Grichina, both early builders on NEAR, their approach is simple: easy onboarding and gamers earning by doing what they love. 

“The mission is to help people earn in crypto and join the online economy,” says Hudzilin. 

Human Guild also helps game designers develop their ideas, launch on mainnet, improve their products, and generally expand an already strong, supportive community of game developers. This makes Human Guild a vital resource within the NEAR ecosystem. 

“[We] provide support starting with the concept of the game, designing economic upside for the community to get involved, DAO creation, bootstrap community engagement, consider foundries, share initial MVP with the community, and involve influencers,” says Hudzilin. 

“We know Web3 can be difficult to navigate,” he adds. “So, we want to make sure people are not discouraged and can get the best out of this space.”

Indie versus AAA game studios in Web3 

Currently the most popular Web3 games feature around 200,000 active wallets, says Hudzilin, and there are only a few of them. By comparison, Web2 mobile games can have over 100 million users, and in some cases one billion users. Truly, these early days demand that designers think differently about what games are and what they can be. 

Perhaps because of Web3 games’ relatively low numbers, most of the creativity in game development comes from smaller indie studios. Not unlike the music, film, or book publishing industries, bigger budget games from AAA studios tend to be more formulaic (and less likely to take risks). This makes some sense, as AAA studios are often more pressed to turn a profit and follow previously successful models. However, Web3’s low market saturation does have its advantages. 

“If you do launch, you’re almost bound to succeed,” says Hudzilin, who notes the bar for success is about 10k users giving the game a shot. “Especially in an ecosystem like NEAR where very few things have gone live so far.”

Human Guild is starting to focus more on smaller indie game developers, as they can deliver on smaller budgets with more creative spark. The idea is that this creativity will carry over into the future of Web3 gaming. Crypto games are labors of love and passion projects. Some developers even sacrifice career stability for their projects. 

“Sometimes they live below the poverty line, which is kind of crazy because they’re very talented developers,” says Hudzilin. “And so we work with some of them.”

While most pure Web3 games don’t have mass market appeal, many companies are trying hard to make that happen. PlayEmber, for instance, is all about mass market appeal with their “hyper casual” gaming experiences that look very much like Web2 mobile games. With Ember Coin, playEmber offers a “play and earn” model where gamers don’t even need to think about earning cryptocurrency. Their goal is ambitious: to onboard a million new crypto wallets within a year once their games are live on EmberCoin. 

Bridges to the physical world 

There is also a real hunger to see games interfacing with the physical world. Endlesss, a live collaborative music creation platform inspired by game mechanics, recently showcased one possibility at NFT.NYC: a MIDI-enabled arcade game. Although arcades are niche, this experience opened a door to other Web3 physical integrations and in-person social interactions.

For playEmber’s Jon Hook, the Web3 bridge to the physical world could feature partnerships with big brands for retail experiences. 

“Imagine partnering with Nike: you’re playing a game and hidden within the game are magic loot boxes,” he muses. “When you find one, it actually unlocks sneakers. It’s a little NFT so that when you go into the Nike store, you redeem it. It’s kind of like gamifying retail.”

This is, of course, in addition to designing and buying NFT avatars and using them across a gaming or Web3 ecosystem. Just like in the physical world, Furneaux envisions an experience where  “you change moods, you change styles, you change clothes, so why shouldn’t you be able to change your NFT to reflect that too?”

NFTs are also useful for re-engagement. Jon Werthen Jr. at ARterraLabs envisions players earning in-game NFTs, then using them as an entry fee for gaming tournaments or a token to redeem real-world prizes. 

A tapestry of visionaries

One thing that Web3 gaming has going for it is the abundance of visionaries. No doubt a crucial ingredient for crypto gaming’s future.

Human Guild’s Vlad Grichina, for instance, imagines a world where massive multiplayer games keep running forever on the blockchain—especially games from the 2000s and 2010s that disappeared because server costs were just too high for game studios. How? A separate group of validators would essentially run that part of the blockchain.

“As long as a community is interested in this kind of game, it should continue,” Hudzilin says. 

Futuristic possibilities aside, currently Human Guild is gearing up for NEARCON where the NEARCON Gaming Lounge will have up to 20 playable versions of games. This is as much about research as it is entertainment, as the Human Guild will use NEARCON metrics to measure things like retention. 

Despite the visionary nature of many Web3 game developers, there is little certainty about what it will look like in the future. Will personal computers still dominate Web3 games? Can mobile developers break past gatekeepers like Apple’s App Store? Will consoles jump aboard? What about virtual reality? It is likely to be some combination of all of these, but only time will tell. 

It’s likely that Web3 game developers, on NEAR’s carbon neutral protocol or others like it, will redefine what is possible. This is something that current and future gamers alike can look forward to.

The post NEAR & Gaming: The Future of Gaming on Web3 appeared first on NEAR Protocol.