
Energy-Efficient
NEAR is one of the first blockchains that has managed to operate in a climate-neutral way due to its PoS consensus algorithm. Other blockchains have a considerable carbon footprint and are only at the beginning of their path to eco-friendliness and sustainability. But with NEAR, you can easily launch new energy-efficient projects without sustainability concerns and pressures. For comparison, the CO2 emissions connected with the NEAR protocol’s use are 200,000 lower than Bitcoin’s.

Secure
The top-tier security level of the NEAR protocol is achieved by using a unique stake election mechanism during transaction processing. NEAR uses a specific form of a PoS mechanism called Threshold PoS, or TPoS. This approach enables more randomized and secure validator selection that minimizes the risk of bias or manipulation. Besides, NEAR established a collaborative partnership with Elliptic in February 2022 to enhance on-chain security and forensics.

Developer-Friendly
The entry barriers to NEAR development are low, with coders specializing in different programming languages able to use NEAR in their projects. Smart contracts for NEAR apps and platforms can be written in community-supported, widespread languages, such as Rust and AssemblyScript, which are fed into compilation software (WebAssembly) afterward. The protocol also has built-in bridges that simplify the developers’ work and enable better interoperability.

Super-Fast
Using NEAR to develop your next blockchain project guarantees that your platforms and apps work really fast. The architecture of NEAR enables the unparalleled speed of transaction processing, which contributes to good UX and fuels the adoption of NEAR-powered solutions by larger numbers of users. Therefore, if you use NEAR for your project, you can be confident about instant token transfers and transaction completion regardless of the system’s load.

Cost-Effective
The costs of developing NEAR projects and using them as a regular customer are lower compared to other blockchain options. The average commission size for NEAR apps’ ad platforms’ users is around 1,000 times lower than that of Ethereum, making the on-chain fees negligible. Besides, 30% of NEAR’s fees are allocated to the blockchain’s ecosystem development, giving it strong support and revealing the team’s commitment to sustainable growth.

Limitless Scalability
NEAR has addressed the problem of scalability typical for many other blockchain projects with the sharded infrastructure. The use of sharding enables unlimited scaling of any project, giving users an attractive combination of low fees and high processing speed. NEAR shards both state and processing for the sake of scaling, thus achieving frictionless capacity increases with new nodes’ participation. Besides, it has economically justified thresholds for scaling, which guarantees the ecosystem’s sustainability.