NEAR is a simple, scalable, and secure blockchain platform built to give developers and users the best experience.

Near Protocol, similar to Ethereum, is a blockchain that enables smart contracts and was launched in the year 2020 to encourage the development and deployment of decentralized applications (dApps) by developers. The NEAR blockchain takes advantage of NEAR's ecosystem, which includes high speed, scalability, sharding solutions, interoperability, and low fees. This distributed blockchain is permissionless, performant, and secure, making it a suitable foundation for the decentralized data layer of the future web.

NEAR is a Proof-of-Stake Blockchain that achieves scalability through sharding. Sharding involves dividing the main blockchain into sub-chains or shards, each capable of processing independently with its own set of validators. This horizontal distribution of the load increases operating speeds by unclogging the main chain.

The Near Protocol is not controlled by a single entity but is instead run by the computers that make up its network. This allows developers to build and publish apps on the blockchain without first creating the underlying infrastructure. NEAR serves as the native token of the Near blockchain.

The NEAR platform is designed and developed with a few fundamental ideas in mind, addressing the underlying issues in centralized and decentralized systems today.

Usability: The platform aims to provide a smooth user experience for end users and effortless development for developers. The underlying technology should seamlessly integrate with applications and be invisible to end users. Developers should be able to use familiar languages and patterns during the development process. Simple apps should be easy to develop, while maintaining security for more powerful applications.

Scalability: The platform should have the ability to scale indefinitely to serve globally used applications as long as there is an economic reason to do so.

Simplicity: Each component of the system should be designed to be as simple as possible in order to fulfill its primary function. Practicality, readability, and simplicity take priority over theoretical perfection.

Sustainable Decentralization: The platform aims to achieve significant decentralization in both the short and long term to ensure the security of the platform's value. The platform and community should be open to everyone without requiring permission, and should actively promote decentralization and participation. Both technology and community governance methods should allow for practical iteration and prevent monopoly by any single entity.

The NEAR Protocol is designed to allow newcomers from both Web 2.0 and Crypto to easily establish their presence in the Ecosystem. Various features enable end users to interact with operations in a natural and straightforward manner.

• NEAR stands out with its usage of human-readable account IDs instead of public key hashes. This enhances the user experience by providing familiarity and easier recall.
• Staking on NEAR is a simple process that can be done directly from the Wallet. The NEAR wallet is also mobile-friendly for added convenience.
• The NEAR Wallet is designed to easily interface with all Dapps built on NEAR, requiring just a single click.

NEAR achieves scalability through Sharding, which allows for horizontal scaling. Sharding involves distributing the computing load among multiple parallelized shards. The addition of more hardware to the system increases the network's processing power. NEAR adopts a unique sharding design called NightShade, where all shards form a single block. Each block modifies the state of all shards, ensuring that no participant needs to download the entire blockchain. This design allows NEAR to process a high number of transactions per second by increasing the number of shards.

With four shards, NEAR can process 2500-3000 transactions per second. By introducing dynamic resharding in the future, the network will have the ability to dynamically divide and combine its shards, potentially making the transaction processing capability unlimited.

The NEAR team introduced the Rainbow bridge in April 2021, enabling seamless asset transfer from the Ethereum network to NEAR. The Rainbow bridge allows token holders to utilize their Ethereum-based assets on NEAR and take advantage of the network's fast finality and low transaction costs when using dApps built on the NEAR protocol.

NEAR is EVM-compatible through Project Aurora, which simplifies the migration of Ethereum-based decentralized applications to NEAR. Aurora operates as an L2 on NEAR, leveraging its high throughput and scalability. It consists of two essential components: the Aurora Bridge and the Aurora Engine.

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