1. What Is NEAR Protocol?
NEAR Protocol is a Layer 1 blockchain co-founded by Alexander Skidanov and Illia Polosukhin. Polosukhin formerly worked at Google Brain and co-authored “Attention Is All You Need” (2017), one of deep learning's most significant papers. It proposed the Transformer architecture underlying today's LLMs, including ChatGPT.
As a blockchain created by AI specialists, NEAR focuses heavily on user experience. Instead of long wallet addresses such as 0x7a3b...2f1c, it uses human-friendly names such as alice.near, sponsored gas through meta transactions, and key-based access management to provide a Web2-level experience.
Since 2024–2025, NEAR has positioned itself as a leader in the AI × Crypto narrative. Drawing on its founder's AI background, it launched NEAR AI to build a future where AI agents use blockchains.
📊 Key NEAR Facts
• Ticker: NEAR
• Launch: April 2020, mainnet
• Consensus: Nightshade PoS with dynamic sharding
• Maximum issuance: 1 billion NEAR initially, plus 5% annual inflation
• TPS: Theoretically 100,000+ with full sharding
• Account model: Human-friendly named accounts, such as alice.near
• Founder: Illia Polosukhin, co-author of “Attention Is All You Need”
• Upbit/Binance: Listed on both
2. Core Technology: Nightshade Sharding
① Nightshade — Dynamic Sharding
Nightshade is NEAR's proprietary sharding technology. While Ethereum has not yet implemented full sharding, NEAR is one of the few chains operating dynamic sharding in production. Shards process transactions independently in parallel before being combined into a single block.
Stateless Validation, introduced in 2024, lets validators verify blocks without storing the complete state, establishing a basis for flexibly increasing the number of shards.
② A Human-Friendly Account System
NEAR's account model exemplifies blockchain usability:
- Named Accounts: Readable account names such as bob.near
- Function Call Keys: Limited-permission keys for each DApp, avoiding repeated wallet approvals
- Meta Transactions: DApps pay gas for users, creating a zero-gas-fee experience
- Native multisig: Multiple keys can be added to an account for built-in multisignature support
3. Chain Abstraction and AI
Chain Abstraction
Chain abstraction is NEAR's central 2024–2025 strategy. It aims to let users act without knowing which chain they are using. One NEAR account can manage assets and execute transactions across chains including Ethereum, Solana, and Bitcoin.
NEAR AI
The NEAR AI initiative draws on Illia Polosukhin's background:
- AI agents: A framework for agents that transact and decide autonomously on blockchains
- AI marketplace: A decentralized market for AI models and data
- User-owned AI: A vision in which users, rather than companies, own their AI models
4. Token Economics
- Initial issuance: 1 billion NEAR
- Inflation: 5% annually, paid as validator rewards
- Fee burning: 70% of transaction fees are burned and 30% goes to contract developers
- Net inflation: Approximately 3.5–4% after burning
- Staking rewards: About 9–11% APY
💡 30% of Fees Go to Developers
NEAR's distinctive design returns 30% of transaction fees to the developer of the relevant smart contract, providing DApp developers with a direct revenue model and encouraging ecosystem growth.
5. Ecosystem
- Aurora: An EVM-compatible chain on NEAR that runs Ethereum DApps
- Ref Finance: NEAR's largest DEX
- Burrow: A lending and borrowing protocol
- Mintbase: NFT infrastructure and an AI marketplace
- SWEAT Economy: A walking app with more than 20 million users, demonstrating Web2-to-Web3 onboarding
- Kai-Ching: A Web3 payment app together with Cosmos
6. Investment Outlook
Upside Factors
- AI × Crypto narrative: The founder's “Attention Is All You Need” background is a distinctive strength.
- Chain abstraction: Potential to serve as a front-end hub in a multichain future
- Full sharding: One of few sharded chains operating in production
- Strong UX: A Web2-level user experience
Downside Factors
- Ecosystem size: Lower DeFi TVL and user counts than Ethereum or Solana
- AI narrative risk: Exposure to a collapse in AI hype
- L1 competition: The challenge of remaining distinctive among numerous L1 and L2 networks
7. Risks
⚠️ Check Before Investing
• NEAR has fallen substantially from its historical $20.42 all-time high.
• Overreliance on the AI narrative can cause major losses if a bubble bursts.
• An allocation within 10% of the portfolio is recommended.
• This is informational content, not investment advice.
NOONOO TRADING uses 100 AI agents trading on pure data rather than AI × Crypto hype.