The Ethereum competitor, Near Protocol, is a community-run dApp (Decentralized Application) that focuses on offering a developer and user-friendly environment.  Near Protocol is becoming the many ambitious DeFi projects for the qualities it has over the Ethereum blockchain. Near is known for its amazing token and tokenomics and scalability.

Blockchain is inevitable and its universal acceptance is driving and reshaping the decentralized finance and conventional concept of digital assets. The progressive nature of blockchain is great yet comes at the cost of harming the planet through huge carbon emissions – that definitely is not the future we want. Bancambios is a flagship project to heal the planet through dedicated funds, NFTs, and educating the community about Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, NFTs, and DAOs.

Qualities and Innovation of Near Protocol:

1. Scalability and Sharding:

The near protocol is known for sharding technology called “NightShade” which promises increased scalability without compromising the security and decentralization of the network.

The Ethereum network is super congested because of the number of transactions. Users have to bid higher by paying more fees to perform their transactions faster. Ethereum can perform 15 transactions per second and the fee can go as higher as $50. Near Protocol leverages NightShade to solve the problem by providing alternative channels through dedicated nodes to perform the transaction.  This helps not only maintain the lower fees but also improved scalability by outperforming Ethereum.

2. Consensus and PoS

Near Protocol is a community-run dApp that uses Delegated Consensus Mechanism to make the whole ecosystem fully decentralized. The PoS (Proof of Stake) approach is used by Near protocol to empower those who don’t have their computer parts or coins to become a validator through DoomSlug. Through the DoomSlug mechanism, a set of contributors produce and broadcast blocks by taking turns. 

3. Governance:

Near Protocol has a very mature governance and maintenance mechanism to carry out upgrades and make decisions proactively with the inclusion of community elected representatives. Near protocol is run and maintained by a non-profit foundation called Near Foundation however the technical upgrades are done by the Reference Maintainer. Near protocol is nearing Web 3.0 development to distinguish itself from the competition.

4. Human Readable addresses and usability

0xbb4CdB9CBd36B01bD1cBaEBF2De08d9173bc095c

This is what a cryptocurrency address looks like and if you narrate to someone on phone or memorize yours, it seems impossible to do. What near protocol did is it made the contract addresses “Human Readable” just like you can receive your crypto at “myname.near”. Correct, Ethereum does the same but does that come free like in Near Protocol? I doubt that.

Near Protocol focuses on a user-friendly environment by following a usability-first approach. Progressive Security Model, User-friendly interface, Easy subscriptions, and user-centric policy makes Near Protocol DeFi’s favorite pick.

5. Near Token:

The use case is what makes a token valuable. Near Token in its native ecosystem serves the purpose of fuel, fees, and consensus mainly. This primary native asset is used as a token to participate in the staking procedures to validate nodes. The token is also used to influence the community through the Proof of Stake and Consensus Mechanism. The total supply is 1,000,000,000 NEAR coins while the circulating supply is 622,103,218 NEAR coins with a market cap of $7,170,031,698.65.The Near token ranks in the top 25 cryptocurrencies tokens and coins according to the CoinMarketCap ranking.

If we look at the daily price chart of the NEAR/USD pair, we can see that the token stays bullish in a highly bearish market. While the cryptocurrency market bleeds red, NEAR is rising to make higher lows on a gradually rising support line.

Projects on Near Protocol:

DeFi market is challenging the traditional banks and centralized institutions with the tsunami it brings to shatter the monopolies. DeFi is a huge market that has a Total Value Locked (TVL) of above 195.88 billion. Near Protocol shares $104.72m with Oin Finance Dominance of 5.25%. There are several projects on top of Near Protocol, few are as listed.

1. Aurora cross-chain bridge

Aurora is a cross-chain bridge built on Near Protocol. Aurora serves Decentralized Applications and users on the Ethereum network to bridge to Near Protocol. The Aurora Platform was successfully launched on December 02, 2021. Aurora claims to be the perfect scaling solution for Ethereum Network.

2. Rainbow Bridge:

Rainbow is also a bridge between Rainbow and Ethereum. Rainbow enables Ethereum assets to be usable on Near Protocol and vice versa. Users can onboard Rainbow Bridge using MetaMask Crypto Wallet.

3. REF Finance

Ref Finance is another core project in the DeFi ecosystem on Near Protocol having more than $68 million TVL on the platform. REF Finance mainly focuses on DEX, Lending Protocols, and synthetic asset issuers.

4. OIN Finance:

OIN Finance is Near backed stable coin issuance platform. OIN Finance is expected to launch NEAR-collateralized stablecoin so that the investors can unlock the liquidity without selling their Near Tokens. OIN Finance has a TVL of $5,492,821 on Near.

5. MetaPool

With TVL above $30 million, MetaPool is a Near Backed DeFi platform that offers liquidity staking. MetaPool is the first platform to offer NEAR’s first liquid staking token, the stNEAR. Stakers earn a $Meta token as a reward on every epoch.

Near Protocol is the first choice of many other DeFi Projects like Proximity Labs, Berry Club, Cheddar, and Skyward Finance.

6. Bancambios x Near:

Impact-driven Multi-chain Bancambios is a tool that provides the services to DEX, Swaps, and DeFi platforms to gain mass adoption and create impact together. The project has developed its platform on top of rust language. Rust not only saves memory but it is the super functional, secure, and high-performance language that avoids the pitfalls of C, C++, and Solidity. The language will increase interoperability between the said blockchain. Moreover, Bancambios comes from the hands of veteran developers who contributed to Aurora’s infrastructure development.

Concluding Thoughts:

Near Protocol is an incredible ecosystem that is simple, secure, and highly scalable. Many DeFi projects have already joined the Near Protocol and there are more who see their inclusive future with such a capable project. The Robust infrastructure of NEAR is taking over DAOs, DeFi, and NFTs through intuitive developer tools and a decentralized community.