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Blockchain technologies are incredibly popular today and are widely used in various fields of activity. Today, NEAR technology also deserves attention, as it significantly expands the capabilities of developers, who use the resources of Open Finance and Open Web. What is special about NEAR? It allows developers to quickly build applications based on blockchain. As a result, effective smart-contracts are created according to the protocol, and their formation takes only 2-3 minutes.
Developers have long been interested in the idea of creating a decentralized webspace. Thereby, you can perform various financial transactions and effectively protect data from fraudsters and hackers. In this article, you will learn more about what the NEAR Protocol is, what it is for, and where it is used. Many companies actively support its development and implementation: including Fabric Ventures, Pantera, and others.
What is NEAR Protocol?
So what is NEAR protocol? NEAR first launched its network in the spring of 2020, when one billion tokens were created. Five percent of the additional supply is allocated annually to keep the network running. The main part of this volume is issued to validators, the rest of the funds are transferred to the treasury.
Thus, NEAR is a proprietary Proof of Ownership blockchain protocol. Its operation is not pricey, but it has a great effect. The NEAR team decided not to use the classic centralized software for conducting various financial transactions.
They chose a different path of development – segmentation. This algorithm is called “Nightshade”, it allows sorting the computational load of transactions. In addition, it allows users to maintain absolute decentralization, therefore it is not controlled by third parties.
The NEAR team has an ambitious goal to completely transform the modern global network and give users the ability to manage various resources. They believe that we need to create a system that will provide maximum confidentiality.
Even large companies will not be able to access users’ sensitive information and use it for their own gain. Also if the government decides to block a certain resource, users will keep their personal data and business. The main benefits of NEAR are:
- It is not an additional system, but the main protocol for the functioning of the Open Web.
- All services that are based on Dapps are located on top of the base layer of this protocol.
- The system can be scaled without limits.
- It is a practical, convenient, high-quality protocol. Allowing developers to create various applications in just a few minutes.
Thus, NEAR is a decentralized platform that is based on the NEAR protocol. It resembles a standard cloud platform and is, therefore, inexpensive to operate. This platform is equipped with various tools, applications, functions, so developers can endlessly improve and supplement it. The protocol makes it possible to process up to 1 billion transactions on a decentralized basis without the use of expensive equipment.
Another important difference is the availability of source code and a large development team. People and entire companies are actively involved in the creation of the platform, who direct their efforts to improve it for developers and users.
How does NEAR work?
The network has its own NEAR token, which has such capabilities:
1. Charges a commission for making financial transfers and storing information.
2. It is designed to run a validator node, for this, tokens are placed.
3. It is actively used to conduct various votes in the field of governance. This allows you to competently think over the strategy for determining the protocol vector in the future.
What is more, the Near Protocol created a set of tools intended for developers and ordinary users that greatly facilitate the use of the platform. These tools are:
- SDK. It contains universal data structures and all the necessary testing tools used for Rust and AssemblyScript.
- Gitpod. This tool facilitates developer workflows by providing prebuilt, collaborative development environments.
- Wallet. It’s a high-quality and simple solution for storing cryptocurrency allowing users to store, receive and send tokens.
- Explorer. It allows users to create and work with smart-contracts.
The platform tools allow you to build, test, and implement various applications in the shortest possible time. They are suitable for both users and developers themselves.
Today NEAR is a delegated PoS blockchain that is compatible with smart-contracts and has its own cryptocurrency. It is also compatible with Ethereum and other active tokens, various decentralized applications. The main feature is sharding, which is more convenient than using separate chains. Blocks in NEAR are created as a shared blockchain where all blocks are snapshots of financial transactions that are carried out on each separate segment.
Read also: How to choose the right blockchain?
NEAR token economics explained
The issue of NEAR Protocol tokens is called inflation and is required in order to pay for validators. The annual net profit from the project is about five percent of the total, the bulk of the flow is transferred to the operators. They take care of financial transactions on the platform ensuring the security of their conduct, storing information about transactions, and much more.
Commissions, which are levied on financial transfers, are burned. The five percent of the issue discussed earlier does not take such fees into account, so inflation in the protocol can be negative as network usage increases.
NEAR gas fees
Any financial transactions require bandwidth. It’s necessary for making calculations and integrating them into the block. For greater convenience, these systems are combined into one, which is called “gas”. This is what the operators must use to secure the transaction. The NEAR platform uses a special WebAssembly system, which ensures the conduct, entry and storage of data about each performed operation. The amount of gas spent is also taken into account. The main purpose of gas is to represent a general measure of the resources that are required to carry out transactions.
If a user wants to make a financial transfer, he will be charged a commission. Its amount is calculated based on the amount of the specified measure, which is necessary for its implementation. In this case, the amount received is multiplied by the current gas price. Gas prices can decrease or increase, but there is always a minimum price to be paid. This makes blockchain easier and cheaper to use. In Bitcoin and Ethereum, the savings are due to the lack of financial transfer processing, but NEAR seeks to save by increasing the number of shards.
When securing transactions, operators do not use commission in any way, but place a deterministic order. Commissions are necessarily burned because:
- The lower the commission, the higher validator’s income.
- All operators do the same job and solve the same tasks.
- The likelihood of blocking tokens in other applications increases.
NEAR rewards
All validators receive a certain income, which directly depends on their participation in the functioning of the platform. Each operator specifies how many blocks he can make, and as a result, the number is checked against what was planned from the beginning. If the final number of blocks is less than 90% of what it was planned to receive, then the operator does not receive a reward. If the indicator is 90% and above, then the operators are rewarded.
As an example, if there are 100 seats, then the operator with one gets 615 cents per working day, but only if the uptime is more than 99%. If the operator has provided only 95% of the uptime, then he will receive 55% of the remuneration.
NEAR roadmap
Today NEAR is community-driven, so there is no roadmap. We can only speculate about the community’s plans based on the statements of the experts. The most important aspect is maximum confidentiality. At the moment, the platform’s cryptocurrency is becoming more popular, which forces developers to take serious measures to ensure the safety of personal data of miners and ordinary users.
Another thing of notice, the NEAR platform has a segmented basis, so that users can enjoy all the benefits of this blockchain. Also noteworthy are mobile nodes with which you can mine cryptocurrency. It is not very convenient to mine on mobile devices, but nevertheless, such an application can be useful for developers and ordinary users.
NEAR network progress
The network is working effectively, at the moment it is planned to launch more than 10 projects. Their implementation will be carried out over several months. The developers plan to improve applications, create new features, improve wallets and make the network suitable for users all over the world. On the basis of this platform, it is planned to form a completely new Internet – Open Web or Web3.0.
What are the use cases for the NEAR blockchain?
Thanks to the NEAR protocol, there is a cryptocurrency that is becoming more popular every year. It unites miners, users, developers, operators into a single system. Such a system provides users with reliable storage of personal data and finances, as well as complete confidentiality, and developers get the opportunity to have a stable income and constantly scale the platform.
Operators get higher profits for doing their jobs.The NEAR blockchain can be used in various fields of activity: for example, in accounting, economics, small or large businesses. It is a versatile and secure platform that is constantly evolving and improving. We are partnering NEAR and have custom use cases with NEAR blockchain.
Why choose NEAR?
The entire NEAR system is a very fast blockchain that is compatible with smart contracts. This is a modern solution that suits ordinary users and ensures the complete safety of their personal data. The system is 100% decentralized, therefore, it is not controlled by the government. It is only influenced by the community that manages the platform and consists of operators, developers, experts and other professionals. But even they do not have access to the user’s personal data.
An important advantage of the platform is the availability of its own cryptocurrency, which is becoming more popular and growing in price. The blockchain is capable of supporting about 100,000 transactions in just one second. This speed provides high user comfort, and the network is quite inexpensive to operate. Now the new token shows great prospects for further development, therefore, it is in great demand. It has established itself as an inflationary project, so experts speak positively about it and give optimistic forecasts. A distinctive feature is the interaction with the smartphone. For many users, this is a great advantage, so at the moment we can talk about the prospects for the further development of the platform.
In addition, the community cares about users, so they trust it and are ready for cooperation. We are the official partners of NEAR and have a wealth of experience working with their blockchain. Check out 4ire Labs projects, which are available here. We offer profitable and safe cooperation.
