NEAR Protocol | NEAR

Overview

NEAR Protocol is a proof-of-stake blockchain for applications and digital assets. Its native NEAR token is used to pay network fees and participate in staking, which helps secure the network. Developers can build smart-contract applications on NEAR, while the ecosystem also offers tools intended to make activity across different blockchains easier for users. NEAR's sharded architecture divides network work across parallel parts of the chain to support capacity. The project also develops chain abstraction and AI-related infrastructure. Those initiatives have different products and stages of adoption; the NEAR token should not be treated as a direct claim on every application in the ecosystem. NEAR Protocol is a layer-one blockchain with smart contracts and a proof-of-stake validator network. People use its native NEAR token to pay transaction fees, and token holders can delegate NEAR to validators. Its Nightshade sharding design distributes processing across shards, an approach intended to let network capacity grow without requiring every participant to process every transaction in the same way. The ecosystem includes applications built directly on NEAR as well as tools for activity across blockchains. NEAR Intents is a live cross-chain execution system: a user specifies a desired outcome, and participants called solvers can compete to fulfill it. Chain abstraction is the broader effort to make interactions across networks easier to use. These are project capabilities and development directions, not guarantees of transaction results or token value. NEAR also positions itself around user-owned AI and agent infrastructure. Individual AI-related services should be assessed on their own availability and capabilities; the broad AI vision should not be described as a completed feature of every NEAR application. NEAR remains a volatile crypto asset, and network use, ecosystem activity, and the token's market price are separate measures.

Project features

• Proof of stake network
• Smart contract execution
• NEAR token for network fees
• Validator staking and delegation
• Nightshade sharding
• NEAR Intents cross-chain execution