If Bitcoin is digital gold and Solana is a racing car, then NEAR Protocol is like a global, community-run library. It’s a place where anyone can build apps, share information, and own their own data without needing a giant tech company to manage it.
The idea for NEAR began in 2017, but it wasn’t always a blockchain! It actually started as an Artificial Intelligence (AI) project. The founders eventually realized they needed a better blockchain to build their AI on, so they built NEAR. The network officially launched in April 2020.
NEAR was founded by two brilliant computer scientists:
Illia Polosukhin: Before NEAR, Illia worked at Google. He was one of the lead authors of a very famous research paper (“Attention Is All You Need”) that paved the way for the AI technology we use today, like ChatGPT!
Alexander Skidanov: Alex was a director of engineering at MemSQL and a software developer at Microsoft. He even won a gold medal in a world-famous coding competition (ICPC).
The NEAR Collective: Today, NEAR is supported by a huge global group of developers and creators who all work together to make the network better.
NEAR is a decentralized application platform (dApp platform) designed to make the “Open Web” easy to use.
Easy Usernames: On most blockchains, your address is a long string of random letters like 0x71C.... On NEAR, your address can be something simple, like yourname.near. It’s as easy as an email address!
Sharding (Nightshade): Imagine a busy grocery store. If there’s only one checkout line, it’s slow. NEAR uses “Sharding,” which automatically adds more checkout lanes (shards) whenever it gets busy. This keeps things fast and cheap for everyone.
Carbon Neutral: NEAR is super eco-friendly. It’s been certified as “Carbon Neutral,” meaning it doesn’t hurt the planet while it runs.
Because NEAR is so user-friendly, people use it for:
Digital Ownership: Using apps like Mintbase, you can create and sell your own NFTs (art, music, or tickets) in seconds.
AI-Native Apps: Since the founders are AI experts, NEAR is becoming the “home” for AI that can actually own its own money and make decisions on the internet.
Decentralized Social Media: Imagine a version of Instagram or X (Twitter) where you own your posts and your followers, and no company can delete your account.
Gaming: Fast, low-fee games where you can win rewards and trade items with other players instantly.
Want to claim your own .near name or see what apps are being built?
Official Resource: NEAR.org
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