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What is NEAR Protocol (NEAR)?
NEAR Protocol basic info
What Is NEAR Protocol?
NEAR Protocol is a decentralized platform tailored for the creation and execution of serverless applications and smart contracts. It was founded in 2017 by Alex Skidanov and Illia Polosukhin. Fundraising events of NEAR Protocol attracted such investors as Andreessen Horowitz, FTX Ventures, and Pantera Capital. The official launch in April 2020 marked the arrival of a platform aiming to bridge the gap between the complex technicalities of blockchain and the end-users. Unlike traditional blockchain platforms, NEAR places a significant emphasis on scalability, usability, and sustainability. These three pillars have shaped its design philosophy, ensuring that as the digital landscape evolves, NEAR remains adaptable and resilient.
One of the defining features of NEAR Protocol is its developer-centric environment. Recognizing the pivotal role developers play in the blockchain ecosystem, NEAR has been engineered to provide them with the tools they need, devoid of the typical constraints seen in other blockchain systems. This facilitates more seamless development of decentralized applications (DApps), ultimately enhancing user experience.
Furthermore, NEAR Protocol's commitment to decentralization goes beyond mere technicalities. The platform embraces a community-driven approach, emphasizing transparency, open access, and a collective drive towards refining and expanding the ecosystem. This ethos ensures that NEAR's growth is not just technological, but also holistic, fostering a vibrant community of users, developers, and stakeholders.
Resources
Official Website: https://near.org
Official Documents: https://docs.near.org
NEAR Wiki: https://wiki.near.org
NEAR University: https://www.near.university
How Does NEAR Protocol Work?
NEAR Protocol is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain that integrates the concept of sharding for data processing. By incorporating both PoS and sharding, NEAR Protocol can address two significant challenges faced by traditional blockchains: energy efficiency and scalability.
The PoS consensus mechanism differentiates itself from the energy-intensive Proof-of-Work (PoW) models. Instead of relying on computational power to validate transactions, PoS uses validators who lock up a certain amount of tokens as stakes. These validators are chosen based on the amount of token they hold and are willing to 'stake' or lock up as collateral. This ensures a more energy-efficient and faster transaction validation process.
The brilliance of sharding comes into play when you consider the bottleneck issues other blockchains face. Sharding partitions the data into segments, known as shards, which permits simultaneous processing of transactions. Each shard processes its transactions and smart contracts independently. By doing so, it massively increases the overall throughput of the network, allowing for faster and more efficient processing. Thus, the amalgamation of PoS and sharding empowers NEAR Protocol to achieve exceptional speed and scalability.
Beyond these core features, NEAR Protocol has taken significant strides to ensure a seamless interplay with Ethereum, one of the foremost blockchain platforms in the industry. Recognizing the expansive and established ecosystem of Ethereum, NEAR introduced two pivotal solutions. The first is the Rainbow Bridge, which acts as a conduit between NEAR and Ethereum, facilitating the effortless transfer of assets between the two chains. This ensures that users can fluidly move between both ecosystems without the need for third-party intermediaries.
The second initiative is Aurora, a layer-2 solution developed atop the NEAR Protocol. Aurora is crafted to be fully compatible with Ethereum, allowing Ethereum-based decentralized applications (dapps) to operate seamlessly on NEAR. This not only provides dapps with a high-speed environment but also extends the usability and reach of the NEAR Protocol to the vast Ethereum user base.
What Is The NEAR Token?
The NEAR token is the native cryptocurrency of the NEAR Protocol. Since the network is a PoS blockchain, NEAR is needed to become a node. It serves multiple purposes within the ecosystem:
- Staking and Security: NEAR tokens are staked by validators, who in return get the chance to participate in the block production and consensus processes. This staking mechanism ensures network security and trustworthy operation.
- Transaction Fees: Like most blockchain networks, NEAR Protocol charges fees for transaction processing. Users pay these fees using the NEAR token.
- Smart Contract Deployment: Developers deploying and running smart contracts on NEAR Protocol will need NEAR tokens to cover the associated costs.
NEAR Protocol's Impact on Finance
The world of finance is undergoing rapid transformation with the advent of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. NEAR Protocol, with its focus on scalability and usability, provides a fertile ground for the development and operation of DeFi platforms. Its scalable infrastructure ensures that financial applications can handle high volumes of transactions, a must-have for any serious financial platform.
Moreover, NEAR's efficient fee structure provides a cost-effective alternative for developers and users alike, challenging traditional financial systems in terms of both speed and economy.
What Determines NEAR Protocol's Price
The NEAR Protocol, a significant player in the blockchain space, has been making waves with its innovative approach to decentralized application (dApp) development. The current price of the NEAR Protocol is influenced by a myriad of factors, including its unique technology and the vibrant ecosystem it fosters. As a Layer 1 blockchain, it stands out with its scalability and user-friendly features, pivotal factors in determining the current NEAR crypto price. The NEAR coin market cap is also significantly impacted by its native token, NEAR, which is utilized for transaction fees and storage on the platform, fostering a dynamic NEAR token price today.
An analysis of the NEAR Protocol's price reveals that its unique Nightshade sharding system plays a crucial role in price determination. This system allows the blockchain to scale horizontally, enhancing transaction speeds and reducing costs, which is a significant factor in the NEAR cryptocurrency price prediction for 2023. Moreover, the NEAR Protocol's focus on sustainability and user-friendliness makes it a promising venture in the crypto space, potentially influencing the NEAR Protocol coin price positively. The graph showcasing the history of NEAR Protocol price movements is also expected to be influenced by its compatibility with Ethereum through the Aurora Layer 2 scaling solution, combining the scalability of NEAR with the reach of Ethereum and offering a lucrative platform for dApp developers.
Furthermore, forecasts for the NEAR Protocol price are buoyed by its robust tokenomics. With a maximum supply of 1 billion NEAR tokens and a current market cap exceeding $1 billion as of September 2023, the NEAR Protocol is poised for substantial growth in the coming years. Live updates of the NEAR Protocol price indicate that it is expected to benefit from recent fundraising rounds, which have bolstered its financial position, enabling it to compete effectively with established players in the market. The current NEAR Protocol price in USD is hovering around $1.12, with speculations indicating a potential tripling in value over the next year, making it an attractive investment option.
NEAR supply and tokenomics
Uniqueness
NEAR uses its Nightshade technology to improve transaction throughput massively. Nightshade is a variation of sharding, in which individual sets of validators process transactions in parallel across multiple sharded chains, improving the overall capacity of the blockchain. In contrast to “regular” sharding, shards in Nightshade produce a fraction of the next block, called “chunks.” In doing so, NEAR Protocol is able to achieve up to 100,000 transactions per second and achieve near-instant transaction finality thanks to a one-second block cadence while simultaneously keeping transaction fees at virtually zero.
NEAR Protocol also improves upon the convoluted onboarding process of other blockchains by having human-readable addresses and building decentralized applications with similar registration flow to what users have already experienced. Moreover, it provides developers with modular components, helping them start projects like token contracts or NFTs more quickly.
Token utility
NEAR is the native currency of the NEAR protocol. It represents the core medium of exchange and unit of account for native transactions. It primarily serves the following purposes:
- Security: Stakers receive awards in NEAR by staking their tokens and contributing to network security. NEAR's user of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) provides Sybil resistance from DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks.
- Network Fees: The utility of the network is provided by storing application data and providing a way to change it by issuing transactions. The network charges transaction fees for processing the changes to this stored data. The NEAR network collects and automatically burns these fees, such that higher usage will lead to more NEAR tokens being burned. A minimum percentage of smart contract usage fees is allocated for developer rewards. This reward effectively incentivizes early application development that increase network use. When a contract is called, some portion of the transaction fees is generated by the network is automatically allocated to the contract. A minimum value has ben set as a system-level parameter and the developers can choose any value to or above this minimum value.
Links
What is the development prospect and future value of NEAR?
The market value of NEAR currently stands at $7.06B, and its market ranking is #21. The value of NEAR is widely recognized by the market. When the bull market comes, the market value of NEAR will likely continue to increase.
Moreover, if NEAR can play a greater role in practical applications, such as NEAR Protocol builders fully leveraging the potential of NEAR, partnering with more businesses, and increasing its user base, the long-term value of NEAR will be significantly enhanced.
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