What’s Happening at NEAR? Updates From Behind the Scenes

In Crypto, public forums like Reddit, Twitter, and Telegram are oftentimes at the center of a project’s development. But as many know, a lot more can be learned about a project by paying attention to what is not at the center of attention: By looking at hard core fundamentals, tech updates, and team morale. 

NEAR Protocol is currently one of the fastest growing and high potential projects in all of crypto. The catch with NEAR is that they continue to fly underneath the radar in spite of their stellar team, exceptional focus on product market fit, and demonstrated capacity to execute time and time again. 

Stealth Product Development

Eugene, also known as Evgeny Kuzyakov, is one of the Core Devs working at NEAR. In one of his recent twitter threads he delves into some of the most important developments happening in terms of protocol development “Behind the Scenes at NEAR.”

What his twitter thread shows, is that NEAR is not merely ‘another L1 protocol’. It is not replicating existing standards and innovation created elsewhere. It is enhancing and improving upon it to lay the foundation for the next generation of open-source blockchain protocols. Generally speaking, these benefits revolve around lowering transaction costs, increasing transaction speeds, adding new tools for Builders, and making it easier to build on NEAR. 

An entirely new non-fungible token standard is being created on NEAR, that will allow NFT’s to be listed on multiple marketplaces, while still maintaining ownership. Other benefits like removing storage managements from NFT contracts are also included.

NEAR Grants Are Live

The NEAR Foundation dropped a huge announcement in the last couple of days: $1 million dollars seeded into the NEAR Grant program for devs and educators to help build out the NEAR Ecosystem. Here is what NEAR’s Peter DePaulo  had to say about the announcement: 

“These are for NEAR projects, but they serve 2 core categories. 1 is to extend the technology, and 2 is to reward stellar contributions within the NEAR collective, and the NEAR Ecosystem. Broadly we are really interested in these programs and these projects that are focused on adoption usability, and intuitive developer experience. That is the thing that we are really , really looking for.”

Sputnik DAO is Coming

We have heard that it’s been in the works for a long time, and this much is clear: Sputnik DAO is coming to launch as the premier financing machine on NEAR Protocol. Currently you can visit the early, early stages of Sputnik here. As the DAO of all DAOs on NEAR, Sputnik will allow for open community funding of all sorts of initiatives – other DAOs, new communities, Guilds, and much more. It is going to be an open and decentralized home for funding the future of the NEAR Ecosystem. 

The Sandbox is Getting Ready for Launch

Check out the forum post

A third community initiative on NEAR is preparing for first phase launch in early Quarter 2, that will provide contributors and Guilds alike with a unique opportunity within crypto: To work across Ecosystem projects, teams, and activities to earn NEAR, network, learn, and add value to the ecosystem. With the Open Web Collective Batch 2 finishing in parallel, the Sandbox is striving to become a digital hub for NEAR contributors, artists, and crypto enthusiasts – all with the goal of building out the ecosystem in as many ways as possible. To follow the development of the Sandbox you can start here

Storage Discussions Yield New Designs

Eugene mentioned this point in the above twitter thread, but its significance marked it as a separate development on its own: After much discussion the NEAR team has decided to decrease storage ‘rent’ costs on NEAR by up to 10x the current cost. 

The full discussion on the decision can be found here, and the video livestream can be found here. These storage discussions, although far from ‘hype’ remain important for the long-term health of the network and NEAR’s capacity to handle large amounts of growth in the coming months. 

What Does This Mean?

Community, cash, and code are the fundamentals of open-source ecosystems. NEAR is demonstrating an awareness of all three in fast-moving developments that are only just coming to the surface. Sputnik DAO and the Sandbox are positioned to jumpstart massive community engagement on NEAR. NEAR Grants will fuel open-source development while also speeding up small technical fixes and bugs on the core protocol. The NEAR Core Development Teams continue to build at record speed – on multiple fronts. It is evident to those inside of the Ecosystem that NEAR is building something special: The real question is when will the rest of crypto catch on?  

Introducing NEAR at ETH Denver Featuring NEAR’s Peter DePaulo

Friday marked the launch of ETH Denver. As one of the most popular and memorable conferences of its kind, ETH Denver is a place for networking, product announcements, and community building across the crypto space. NEAR Protocol’s Peter dePaulo took the stage in the opening ceremonies to send a message to the crypto world about NEAR – it’s focus and how it is an accommodating and win-win Layer 1 / Layer 2 Hybrid solution for the space. 

“Why are we at ETH Denver? There is a misconception about NEAR that has been bothering me since we started this project. The misconception is essentially that we are a competitor in some way to Ethereum. I am here to contest that.”

To kick off the presentation Peter focused on clarifying the position of NEAR in relation to Ethereum: NEAR is not a competitor of Ethereum. Rather, NEAR is focused on collaborating and bridging – not only with Ethereum but multiple other L1 blockchains. In the context of the larger crypto space, Peter explains NEAR’s role as being the Developer Usability Team: 

“I see NEAR’s role in the Ecosystem as the developers usability team, think of us, as the people who, rather than spending all of our time focusing on the scaling side, we are the people thinking: How can we make the onboarding experience, how can we make the developer experience better?”

NEAR GRANTS ARE HERE! 

The second most important announcement in Peter’s opening ceremonies speech was that the NEAR Grants program has officially launched with an astounding $1 Million dollars in available funding, split between NEAR and FIAT USD. 

“These are for NEAR projects, but they serve 2 core categories. 1 is to extend the technology, and 2 is to reward stellar contributions within the NEAR collective, and the NEAR Ecosystem. Broadly we are really interested in these programs and these projects that are focused on adoption usability, and intuitive developer experience. That is the thing that we are really , really looking for.”

With the crypto market booming, NEAR is making a big play for bringing new developers into crypto – for the benefit of all projects. A full transcript of the talk can be found here

NEAR Protocol and Social Tokens: Is 2021 The Year of Social Tokens?

In crypto, constant innovation is a privilege that is easy to forget. As Bitcoin has demonstrated with peer-to-peer value transfers, and Ethereum has demonstrated with decentralized finance, new forms of tokenizing assets, building crypto-denominated protocols, and writing smart contracts results in the frequent possibility of creating something entirely new and valuable. Like Non-Fungible tokens, Social tokens are a new and quickly emerging asset class in crypto that has garnered serious attention in recent months. Many have even said that 2021 will be the year of Social Tokens. What does that exactly mean? 

Define Social Tokens: The tokenization of value tied to a specific person or groups of people, and written into smart contracts. 

To date, tokenization has largely encompassed assets: In DeFi this refers to certain financial assets, while for NFT’s this relates to things like content, art, music, and so forth. But with Social Tokens, what is tokenized is access to a specific person or community. Specifically Andrew Steinwald, explains the following about Social Tokens: 

Personal Tokens: “Personal tokens are created by individuals and often used to exchange forms of labor. For example, a graphic designer will do one hour of work if paid 100 of their social tokens. In this example, the individual drives the token’s value by performing a service.” (Source

Community Tokens: “Community tokens are generally used for memberships or communities. For example, creators will launch a community token that users must acquire in order to gain access to private Telegram groups, Discord servers, newsletters, etc. They are also given as rewards and thus incentivize behavior within a community. For example, a community could launch a competition where participants compete to create the best infographic and then token holders vote on the winner.” (Source

That is to say, that social tokens, unlike other forms of tokenization, center upon the accessibility or services of a particular person or community, pre-defined in the token contract. For many, the concept may initially be somewhat difficult to wrap their minds around. But Social Tokens represent a new frontier of the gig economy, and perhaps new life for industries like media. 

Source: Forefront, 2020 in Review. 

The Future of Freelance Work: Issue tokens for yourself that are predefined about when you are available, how many hours of work a token encompasses, and what kind of work can be traded for the token. Allow any individual to purchase your token, and thus pay for your services – either up front or as needed. As a single freelancer becomes more known, popular or valuable, the demand for the token will equally increase due to limited supply. 

Access to Special Communities: Clubhouse is a new audio-based application that is invite only. Similar communities in crypto, could allow access via a social token. These communities may range from high profile newsletters, to entire media outlets, to niche groups of like minded people that want to guarantee buy in from other users. Social tokens effectively merge commitment to a group by requiring a ‘buy-in’ up front. 

2021: The Year of Social Tokens? 

In Forefront’s comprehensive review of Social Tokens, they ask whether 2021 will be the year that social tokens go mainstream. The creator economy or ‘passion’ economy as it was originally known, is already becoming popular: 

From https://forefront.news/ranking

Messari estimated in October of 2020, that Social Tokens – fully diluted – were valued at close to $200 million USD. In 2020, bigger investment names like Fabric and a16z jumped on board social token platforms like Rally or Roll. Altogether, such trends have led many to speculate about what kind of value and opportunities social tokens might unlock in the years to come – and if truly 2021 will be the year of social tokens? 

Social Tokens and NEAR Protocol: A Sign of Things To Come?

From MintGate

In the short time since Mainnet Launch, NEAR has already garnered a reputation for being a hub for non-fungible tokens, artists, and content creators. Social tokens, in many ways, are a natural next step. MintGate is a current project in the Open Web Collective that holds the promise of incubating a home for Social Tokens on NEAR.  

According to Forefront, Mintgate is described as “a platform for building tools to empower the creator economy.” With a leading vision “to reinvent value creation by giving creators an easy way to monetize their content with social tokens. We turn any online content into exclusive rewards.”

Mintgate seeks to inaugurate ‘permissioned-tokens’ as a form of accessing content, and creating new value streams for creators. Beyond only permissioned tokens, Mintgate will also offer individuals the ability to launch their own social tokens for themselves, their content or their community. 

“This means if someone wants access to your blog, article, design board, video, album, website, or software they need to hold your social token or any other ERC-20, NFT or multi-asset token you specify.” (Mintgate.App)

Ultimately, social tokens are an emerging asset class with an untested frontier ahead. While expectations remain high for the year, it is still unclear exactly how much adoption social tokens will garner, and where in the niche market things might go mainstream.

Common Fund Launches on NEAR: The Future of Crowdfunding Has Arrived

“The non-custodial crowdfunding solution that’s open to anyone.” 

As the NEAR Ecosystem continues to mature, new projects continue to build and onboard to the protocol. While many of these projects represent a new frontier of innovative Web3 solutions, others are hard at work re-imagining existing solutions in new and more accessible ways. In this context, the NEAR Team is pleased to welcome Common Fund to the NEAR Ecosystem.

Common Fund is one of the world’s first non-custodial crowdfunding platforms. Similar to popular crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, Common Fund is a place where startups, individuals, and passionate creators can get funding for their projects. However, unlike these legacy funding models, Common Fund is fully smart-contract based: Pledged funds are transferred directly between funders and campaigns, without any intermediary involved. 

As an innovative model for crowdfunding that is positioned to scale into the future, Common Fund inverts traditional practice by placing value in auditable and transparent smart contracts so that different stakeholders can interact with one another in a fully decentralized manner. As Kieran Mesquita, CEO of Common Fund states: 

“The vision of Common.Fund is to be a platform where projects are able to raise the support they need to bring forth wonderful ideas and initiatives into the world through decentralized cryptocurrencies. This way, projects can garner support from anyone from anywhere in the world.”

Not only is the platform accessible to anyone around the world, it also allows for payments to be made in global cryptocurrencies—making it usable in any particular country. Common Fund is the blueprint for the future of both supporting and bootstrapping projects. It facilitates cryptocurrency-based funding in combination with a platform that is non-custodial and decentralized, while simultaneously providing a stellar user-experience.

Why Build On NEAR?

Common Fund initially started development on Bitcoin Cash before deciding to make the switch to NEAR. According to CEO of Common Fund Kieran Mesquita, Common Fund is looking for a larger ecosystem and community interested in helping early crowdfunds get off the ground faster. NEAR, while young and still under development,  offers the best of both worlds: bridging over to ETH, cheap transactions, and an easily accessible and user-friendly wallet for getting connected to the platform. In addition to these benefits the Common Fund team has also found NEAR to be quick and easy for their developers to launch smart contracts —making the platforms’ pathway to market much faster.  

“Obviously NEAR transaction fees are a lot, lot cheaper than ETH. It just doesn’t make sense if we are going out and saying that we are able to provide you a platform that has much lower costs than kickstarter and Indiegogo and have someone pledge 10$ in transaction fees.”

Common Fund Future Developments: What To Expect?

“It is our goal to fully decentralize Common.Fund in the years to come.” 

In its current form, Common Fund represents an initial foray into a future of decentralized applications and open-source collaboration. In the coming months to years Common Fund will be growing their team—currently at roughly five full time people—and work to fully decentralize the platform so that anyone from anywhere can easily start a campaign or fund a new initiative with their cryptocurrency of choice. More immediately, stable coin integration and pledge routing through a DEX are at the top of the agenda for the Team. 

From a broader perspective Common Fund sees its mission as one piece of a much larger process of democratizing access to finance around the world. Through Bitcoin, other Cryptocurrencies and DeFi, finance and money have become systems that are now Open for anyone to participate in. Common Fund represents the next generation of solutions that embodies that same spirit, but for crowdfunding and supporting new projects, companies, and passions. 

“I view the whole movement of crypto’s as a way to even the playing field – we give everyone equal opportunity and equal access to world wide finance. So I certainly take the optimistic role and hope that Common Fund can be a component in that process.”

Be sure to follow the development of Common Fund in the coming months, as more campaigns launch on the platform and new crypto’s become compatible for fundraisers and projects alike! To get in touch with the Common Fund Team you can find them on Telegram or visit their website.

4NTS January Newsletter

Welcome to the 4NTS January Newsletter. January has felt like a year of its own. Turmoil in traditional financial markets has made many people take a second look at crypto, both as an investment and a core technology. Elon Musk has jumped on Bitcoin, and to some extent DeFi. NEAR has continued to build at rapid speed – with the EVM making serious progress, and the NEAR marketing team kicking into gear. Here’s what happened in January: 

NEAR Marketing is Kicking into Gear (Buckle Up): 

Alexandra Tinsman and the NEAR Marketing Team started off the year with an overhaul and roadmap for marketing goals in 2021. The most important new pieces of information include the following: 

The NEAR Vision: “A world where people have control of their money, data, and power of governance.”

The NEAR Mission: “Accelerating the World’s transition to open technologies by growing and enabling a community of Developers and Makers.”

NEAR Goals (Posted in this update here): “We’ve got a shared goal across NEAR to help onboard 2,500 developers and support 10 successful apps in 2021. We think this is achievable but it means we need to ramp up awareness campaigns.”

Our takeaways from these updates: Support NEAR because it is explicit about it’s desire to safeguard privacy, and democratize innovation. It also is going to boom.

NEAR EVM Update: 

After significant discussion, the NEAR EVM team reported that nETH will base the NEAR EVM. You can follow the discussion on this decision here. Second, the EVM Team set a Q1 goal of launching the EVM on testnet. Team lead Arto Bendiken had the following to say: 

“For most of our partners to succeed in deploying they should be able to deploy their apps to test-net once it is all up and going and they should certainly be able to bring it over.”

The team set the aspirational goal of getting to Main Net by the end of the quarter. Regardless of whether this is reached it is fair to expect a Main Net Debut of the EVM around Mid-Q2 based on current progress (i.e. that is subject to change). The full update can be found here. 

DragonFly Capital Joins the NEAR Validator Advisory Board:

Image from near.org

DragonFly jumped into the NEAR Ecosystem with a 17.3 million NEAR stake on the network, making them the 3rd largest validator. A full writeup of the reasons why DragonFly signed on can be found in the excellent blog writeup by Managing Partner, Haseeb Qureshi.  

Other NEAR Updates: 

The NEAR Governance Forum Launched. It’s awesome to use and will definitely be the home for much discussion and development into NEAR’s future. NEAR DAO’s are making a steady march into the Ecosystem (Sputnik, Developer, Angel) → More on this to come in February. And the NEAR DevEx, led by Matt Lockyer is staffing up for a busy spring starting with ETH Denver. 

What is on the Horizon? 

For contributors and new Guilds, the NEAR Sandbox is slowly rolling out, and is expected to ramp up in February into Quarter 2.  

NEAR Without the Noise Episode 9 will feature the NEAR DevEx Team led by Matt Lockyer as they detail their plans for onboarding hoards of developers in 2021. 

Humans of NEAR is an original series on the backstory of the different NEAR team members. It is poised to launch in the coming weeks, with insights into the origins of NEAR, and unique stories in crypto. 

Academics incoming – the 4NTS Vector strategy will officially launch in February, bringing in new perspectives, discussions, and contributors to the NEAR Ecosystem. 

What We Are Reading:

Capturing the Fourth Industrial Revolution.  

Tower of the Future Design for Shenzhen Bay Global Headquarters Space

The Road to Enlightenment Is Littered with Irritating, Superfluous Parentheses

Down the Deep, Dark, Web