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NEAR Social: Building The Foundation of the Open Web

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DELVING DEEPER : NEAR INDIA

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VEAX LAUNCHES PUBLIC TESTNET OF ADVANCED DEX BUILT ON NEAR

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NEARWEEK LAUNCHES HEROES

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HOW TO BRIDGE ASSETS TO AND FROM NEAR

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The Rise of the Ecosystem Fund: Lyrik Ventures (A Year In Review)

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NEARWEEK INTERVIEWS : CALIMERO

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Top 5 DeFi Wallets on NEAR

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DELVING DEEPER: NEAR BALKANS - SEVEN COUNTRIES, ONE HUB

A weekly update on everything that moves NEAR Protocol&nbsp;Nº&nbsp;157 · Tue 23 Apr, 2024&nbsp;GM NEAR community (⋈), &nbsp;As the web3 space races forward, the NEAR ecosystem isn't just keeping pace—we're blazing trails with progressive developments in Chain Abstraction and AI. The community is buzzing, and this week's newsletter is packed with strong updates from the ecosystem: from achieving major transaction milestones on the protocol, to a new (and Chain Abstracted!) podcast series, an exciting update on&nbsp;Burrow x Frax, a fresh Whiteboard series with Illia and Aptos Labs, and much more! Each update in the NEAR ecosystem broadens the possibilities of the NEAR tech stack, bringing new opportunities for users and developers alike. We're here to keep you updated and connected with the latest in the NEAR ecosystem as we advance towards the Open Web! Stay NEAR, Team NEARWEEK Pssst! Don't&nbsp;miss our weekly Alpha Space - set your reminder <a href="https://nearweek.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed13caf5cf7d37689d81ef60b&amp;id=5b9d2ab300&amp;e=6fb53beb32">here</a>!

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Edition

BUIDL Asia 2024 ignites, and Chain Abstraction Day roars back! Building on the momentum of our electrifying discussions at ETHDenver, the NEAR Foundation and Agoric are excited to bring you another opportunity to join the movement.​This time, we gather at BUIDL Asia, fostering a vibrant community of researchers, developers, and enthusiasts all driven by the same mission: building a future where blockchain complexity fades into the background, and an accessible, inclusive Open Web flourishes.​Prepare for a day of in-depth technical discussions, interactive workshops, and hands-on sessions led by industry experts. Dive deep into the latest advancements in chain abstraction, learn how to leverage them to build innovative applications, and actively contribute to shaping the future of Web3 development.​This is your chance to connect with fellow developers, gain practical skills, and collaborate on building a more accessible and developer-friendly blockchain ecosystem.​​**Registrations will be approved in waves. Please be patient!​AGENDA​12-1:30pm Doors Open &amp; KryptoSeoul Builders Brunch​2:00 - 2:20pm Why Web3 Needs Chain Abstraction | Illia Polosukhin, NEAR Foundation​2:20 - 2:35pm Ushering in the Era of Bridgeless Cross-Chain DeFi | Mike Purvis, Proximity Labs​2:35 - 2:45pm Bitcoin Beyond Gold | Riqi Ra, EAST Blue​2:45 - 3:15pm Scaling Bitcoin Matters: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly | Firat Sertgoz, Pagoda; Bowen Shen, Proxmity Labs; Riqi Ra, EAST Blue (moderator)​​BREAK​3:25 - 3:55pm Unlocking Institutional Capital Through Multichain UX | Amos Zhang, MetaWeb Ventures; Matt Stephenson, Pantera Capital; Phil Hedayatnia, Airfoll; Vikas Pandey, NEAR Foundation (moderator)​3:55 - 4:15pm Abstractors Assemble: How We Achieve Chain Abstraction | Zaki Manian, Sommelier; Illia Polosukhin, NEAR Foundation​4:15 - 4:45pm The Future of Bridgeless Technology: Emerging Trends and Research Directions | Maxwell S., 0xbow / Ethdenver; Dean Tribble, Agoric; Ethan Francis, Particle Network; Altan Tutar, NEAR Foundation (moderator)​​BREAK​4:55 - 5:10pm Bridging the Multichain Divide: Account Aggregation and Gas Relayer Solutions | Firat Sertgoz, Pagoda​5:10 - 5:25pm Orchestration: The New Multi-Chain DX | Dean Tribble, Agoric​5:25 - 5:45pm Enhancing Bitcoin: A Rising Tide Lifts all Bags | David Millar-Durant, Pagoda; Muneeb Ali, Stacks​5:45 - 6:00pm Anoma: From VM to IM | Adrian Brink, Anoma​6:00 - 6:10pm From Chains to a Unified Gateway: Simplifying Web3 with Abstraction | Nik Wadz, DapDap​BREAK &amp; DINNER​7:00 - 7:50pm Hacker Team Building​7:50 - 9:30pm Mentoring​7:50 - 8:30pm Chain Signatures Workshop (English) w/ Korean Translator for Q&amp;A | Mike Purvis, Proximity Labs​8:30 - 9:10pm Chain Signature를 활용한 멀티체인 트랜잭션 전송 실습 (니어 계정으로 이더리움 오픈씨 거래하기) | Sun Tae Kim, Namu Labs​9:10 - 9:55pm NETWORKING​9:55 - 10:00pm Goodbye, Thank You!

Chain Abstraction Day @ BUIDL Asia 2024

<a href="https://www.buidl.asia/">https://www.buidl.asia/</a>

Buidl Asia 2024

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🎙️ Unlocking Chain Abstracted Future with NEAR & LiNEAR

Calling all Nearians! 🌟 Don't miss NDC Ops Weekly Community Call every Wednesday at 3pm UTC! Tune in for exciting weekly updates straight from the Ops Team to the community and AMA session! See you there!

NDC Ops Weekly Community Call

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[WAX]$10 giveaway - Potlock & Build DAO

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✨NEAR @ Night w/ Meta_Pool ✨

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The Future of RWAs + Tokenization w/Plastiks, Ecosapiens, RWA World

<h2><a href="https://ethseoul2024.devfolio.co/">https://ethseoul2024.devfolio.co/</a> </h2><h2>Welcome to ETH Seoul</h2>ETH Seoul is a 3 day hackathon that takes place in Neowiz building in Pangyo, South Korea. Organized by KryptoSeoul, Ludium, and Dystopia Labs, ETH Seoul started in 2022 and this year will be our 3rd hackathon. We urge you to come out, meet our vibrant builder community, and BUIDL cool apps using the latest cutting edge tech in the Ethereum ecosystem!<h2>Short Summary of the Event</h2><ul><li>Place: <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/%EB%84%A4%EC%98%A4%EC%9C%84%EC%A6%88/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x357b587553c36533:0x9a26cc0b0106ca0e!8m2!3d37.4002608!4d127.1043632!16s%2Fg%2F1pty11sf1?entry=ttu">Neowiz Pangyo Tower</a></li><li>Date: Mar 29th - March 31st</li><li>Programs<ul><li>Opening Ceremony</li><li>Team Formation / Hacking</li><li>Conference / Talks</li><li>Mentoring</li><li>Workshops</li><li>Idea Pitch / Judging</li><li>Award distribution / Closing Ceremony</li></ul></li><li>More detailed hacker guide will be updated</li></ul><h2>Caveat</h2><ul><li>Please register as a hacker on Devfolio to participate. Eligible participants will receive confirmation e-mail</li><li>At least one member of the team must register on site to participate</li><li>Meals, late night snacks, drinks will be provided for all participants</li><li>Venue will be open 24 hours only for hackers. There will not be any separate accommodation other than the designated venue. Please plan accordingly</li><li>Detailed hacker guide will be updated soon</li></ul><h2>Rules</h2><ul><li>Follow the <a href="https://devfolio.co/code-of-conduct">Code of Conduct</a>.</li></ul>

ETHSeoul 2024

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@auroraisnear">https://www.youtube.com/@auroraisnear</a>

Aurora Weekly Update

<h1>NEAR Research Collective: Weekly Insights Forum</h1> Join the NEAR Research Collective’s Weekly Insights Forum, a dynamic space where the Research Collective unites to spark illuminating conversations.Delve into the heart of diverse research topics, spurring knowledge exchange and collaborative understanding. This is your stage to voice your insights, provide and receive feedback, and actively contribute to our collective research journey. Regardless of whether you’re an experienced researcher or simply intellectually curious, these sessions provide a valuable opportunity to broaden your perspectives, connect with like-minded individuals, and shape a constantly evolving body of knowledge.Don’t miss out on your chance to be part of these riveting discussions! Tune in weekly on Fridays at 3:00 PM UTC (10:00 AM EST) on <a href="https://t.me/ResearchWG/1">Telegram</a>.

NEAR Research Collective: Weekly Insights Forum

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Near Insider x Plato

<h2>​SheFi Summit is coming to Seoul!</h2>​Join us for a transformative day of learning, networking, and discovery in the world of frontier technologies! Whether you're a seasoned expert or a curious newcomer, the SheFi Summit is the place to explore the limitless possibilities of onchain technology.​🌐 Discover your spark with illuminating panels, high-impact workshops, and elevated connections.​🚀 Engage with top leaders and pioneers in the Web space.​💡 Experience hands-on learning with step-by-step tutorials on the top Web3 applications.​Secure your spot now and get ready for an unforgettable experience at SheFi Summit!​대표적인 Web3의 여성 커뮤니티 SheFi가 서울에서 처음 행사를 4월 2일 이화여대에서 엽니다! SheFi 서울 리드인 Erica Kang의 주최로, 국내외 다양한 활발하게 Web3에서 활동중인 여성분들을 모셔 알차게 행사를 꾸며보았습니다.​공식 웹사이트 확인해보세요! <a href="https://www.buidl.asia/shefisummmitseoul2024">https://www.buidl.asia/shefisummmitseoul2024</a>

SheFi Summit Seoul

​NEAR Town Hall!

In Near Foundation's commitment to transparency and building stronger connections with the community, the team will be running regular live Town Halls. Don't miss this chance to get a first hand view of the latest updates and exciting developments in the NEAR ecosystem! Make sure you mark your calendars and hit that subscribe button!

NEAR Town Hall - April 3, 2024

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$10 giveaway - Potlock  and Build DAO

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The Chain Abstracted Future Ft. NEAR

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Wasmcov meets NEAR

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✨ NEAR @ Night w/ @Potlock_ 🫕

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Octopus Network : Community Call #20 is coming up

From the latest in wallets and indexers to the advancements in oracles and bridges, In this monthly NEAR Ecosystem Infrastructure Updates livestream the aim is to dive into every vertical, highlighting what's new, what's needed, and what's next. Whether you're curious about the state of RPCs on NEAR or eager to discover the next big development around explorers. Don't miss out on insights into what's thriving and what's in the works. Tune in, get involved, and be part of shaping the future of NEAR infrastructure.​Tune in via the YouTube Live Stream: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6nVzj-wCOs" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6nVzj-wCOs</a> Or if you would like to get involved, ask questions, and provide feedback, join the call directly! <a href="https://near-foundation.zoom.us/j/85912391014" target="_blank">https://near-foundation.zoom.us/j/85912391014</a>

NEAR Ecosystem Infrastructure Updates [Monthly]

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$10 giveaway - CHATAFISHA

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AMA with @realisnetwork: Prospects and challenges of  #GameFi

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THE $NEAR ALPHA SHOW 🔮

DK LLLounge | Thursday | 5PMBears are going back to sleep and the bull reigns supreme. With a major upswing in the market, cryptocurrency in 2024 is officially in the bull run, a period of rising market prices and soaring optimism. But this isn’t just about price spikes. It’s an opportunity for brands everywhere — marketing becomes pivotal during these periods, allowing brands to stand out and attract investors amid fierce competition. So from decentralized finance (DeFi) to cybersecurity, traceability and trust building, NFTs and beyond, what do we as communicators need to know about these Web3 trends to make the marketing industry thrive even more?The host of this discussion Ida Pandur (CEO NEAR Balkans; co-founder ZeroEffort Design, IAB Croatia Member) will explore the new bull era together with Matea Sučić (COO, Calimero.Network), Josip Vlah (Head of innovation and creative, RZLT web3 marketing agency), Ilija Brajković (CEO, Kontra, HURA and IAB Croatia Member) and Strahinja Vukoičić (CEO Moonstruck, Web3 dev studio).Piva Poslije Programa / Post Program Pint powered by Ožujsko pivo is a unique forum that encourages the audience to engage in the conversation. It is not a lecture, it is not a presentation, it is not a panel. It is created for you. There are no stupid questions and no wrong answers at our PPPs. Let’s navigate this topic together in a relaxed environment with a free (yes, we give them out like candy) cold Ožujsko beer in our hands and just have fun. Pro DK tip: PPP always attracts a big crowd, so make sure to be there on time to reserve your seat.

PPP: Web3 Goes Mainstream — the Bulls are Back in Town

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The Staking Meet Up in Buenos Aires, ARG | April 25th.

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$10 giveaway - DAO ASHÉ

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✨NEAR @ Night w/ @airdao_io ▶️

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Aligning Interests: Governance, Rewards, and Voting 🗳️

Are you a builder, researcher, academic, student, funder, philanthropist or public official deeply immersed in (or curious about!) the future of public goods funding?​Join us for the 8th Funding the Commons conference​April 13-14th, 2024 at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California​For this 2-day event, our focus is on two areas of rapid innovation underpinning fundamental infrastructure for navigating the digital-physical commons: AI and the Open Web.​Themes explored will include:<ul><li>​Pioneering experiments in new funding mechanisms for public goods</li><li>​Platforming successful model methodologies leveraging open source technologies and artificial intelligence with scaling potential</li><li>​Understanding the role of AI and open source in funding, building and supporting public goods – and as public goods themselves</li><li>​Frameworks for incubation and methods of support for high-potential innovation</li><li>​Explorations of feedback loops to optimize impact evaluation</li></ul>​What to Expect​We will iterate on our signature format, bringing together builders, funders, and researchers to spotlight the latest research and innovations in open source technology and AI as applied to digital public goods and funding infrastructure.​Expect a mix of inspirational talks, workshops, networking corners, as well as intimate conversations with thought-leaders.​Speaker Highlights Include:<ul><li>​Brian Behlendorf (Linux Foundation)</li><li>​Dr. Dawn Song (Berkeley RDI)</li><li>​Kevin Owocki (Gitcoin)</li><li>​Al Smith (Tor Project)</li><li>​Navroop Sahdev (Digital Economist)</li><li>​Juan Benet (Protocol Labs)</li><li>​Eugene Leventhal (Metagov)</li><li>​LaNaMu (Optimism)</li></ul>​We will be announcing more speakers soon - follow us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/FundingCommons">@FundingCommons</a> and sign up for our newsletter for regular updates on conference programming.​Partners &amp; Sponsors​The Funding the Commons experience design team is thrilled to be joined by partners <a href="https://rdi.berkeley.edu/">Berkeley Center for Responsible Decentralized Intelligence</a>, <a href="https://blockchain.berkeley.edu/">Blockchain at Berkeley</a>, <a href="https://www.opensource.observer/">Open Source Observer</a>, <a href="https://grayarea.org/">Gray Area</a>,  <a href="https://edge.network/en/">Edge Network</a>, <a href="https://www.artizen.fund/">Artizen Fund</a>, and infinitely grateful for our sponsors <a href="https://protocol.ai/">Protocol Labs</a>, <a href="https://near.org/">NEAR</a>, <a href="https://octant.app/projects">Octant</a>, <a href="https://www.drips.network/">Drips Network</a>, <a href="https://brave.com/">Brave</a>, <a href="https://www.optimism.io/">Optimism</a>, and <a href="https://astrofitters.space/">Astrofitters</a> in curating an interdisciplinary program of discourse, participatory engagement and experimentation.​Our Choice of Venue​Steeped in natural beauty and a history of strong activism, technological innovation, and environmental stewardship, the San Francisco Bay area boasts rich natural, cultural, academic and technological ecosystems.​The Bay Area is uniquely positioned to host productive and catalytic discussions to address pressing challenges for the benefit of humanity and the planet's ecosystems with academics, builders, funders, philanthropists &amp; institutional investors, and much more.​In partnerships with the Berkeley Center for Responsible, Decentralized Intelligence, Funding the Commons will be hosted at the <a href="https://browercenter.org/">David Brower Center</a>, a LEED certified “green model” building.​Our Gift to You​Your ticket also grants you access into the inaugural conference of Earth Commons - our sister conference focused on exploring new funding models and mechanisms for climate action. In case you are interested in dropping in, this parallel event is taking place at the same location. <a href="https://fundingthecommons.io/earth-commons-san-francisco-bay-area-2024">More info here</a>.​About Funding the Commons​Funding the Commons was incubated by <a href="https://protocol.ai/">Protocol Labs</a> (Network Goods) as an independent project and a bridge between builders and researchers to establish new mechanisms for public goods funding leveraging open source technologies.

Funding the Commons, April 13-14, SF Bay Area

Funding the Commons is coming to the San Francisco Bay Area on April 13-14 at David Brower Center in Berkeley. We will iterate on our signature format, bringing together builders, funders, and academics leading innovation in the public goods space. This time, our focus is on two areas of rapid innovation underpinning fundamental infrastructure for navigating the digital-physical commons: AI and the Open Web.​The FtC experience design team is thrilled to be joined by partners<a href="https://rdi.berkeley.edu/"> UC Berkeley Center for Responsible, Decentralized Intelligence</a>,<a href="https://blockchain.berkeley.edu/"> Blockchain at Berkeley</a>,<a href="https://www.opensource.observer/"> OS Observer</a>,<a href="https://grayarea.org/"> Gray Area</a>, <a href="https://www.drips.network/">Drips Network</a>, <a href="https://edge.network/en/">Edge Network</a>, <a href="https://www.artizen.fund/">Artizen Fund</a>, <a href="https://near.org/">NEAR</a>, <a href="https://protocol.ai/">Protocol Labs</a>, <a href="https://fil.org/">Filecoin Foundation</a>, and <a href="https://octant.app/projects">Octant</a> in curating an interdisciplinary program of discourse, participatory engagement and experimentation.​Stay tuned, as we'll be announcing speakers and the schedule as soon as we have more information to share!

Funding the Commons: San Francisco Bay Area 2024

Experience the year's widest range of meetups, workshops, networking events, hackathons, and parties, providing unparalleled networking opportunities.Watch this space for continuous updates, and join the conversation by using #TOKEN2049Week on Twitter.

Token2049

Community call today 3pm UTC Agender:- gameplay- dev updates - engagement activity discussion - feedback from community - rewards <a dir="ltr" href="https://t.co/R1Xx6BvzSF" target="_blank">https://t.me/MarmaJGaming?videochat…</a>

[Marma J Gaming] Community call today

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[WAX]$10 giveaway - Tne Society

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MpDAO migration process with Meta pool

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[BLASTOFF]BlastOff On X

<h1>✨About The Verified</h1>​0x499 DAO will be partnering with Near to host "The Verified" summit on the 17th of this month, with special thanks to Binance for their support.​The theme of "The Verified" summit revolves around validation and recognition. In this event, we gather validated and recognized projects, participants, and thought leaders, showcasing their outstanding achievements in the Web3 domain. Through rigorous scrutiny and selection, we ensure that all content presented at the event is validated, thereby demonstrating the highest standards of innovation and quality to participants. "The Verified" represents our commitment to quality and authenticity, as well as our confidence in the future direction of the industry.

The Verified Summit by 0x499&NEAR

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Onboarding Non-Web3 communities

[CHATAFISHA]Onboarding Non-Web3 communities

Docs Community Group Call

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[NEARWEEK]THE $NEAR ALPHA SHOW 🔮

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AI Builder Assembly | What's in between AI and Crypto

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[WAX]$10 giveaway - CHATAFISHA

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Meta Pool Token Reset w/ NRC & Meta Pool

Join us for the first Staking Meetup in Buenos Aires, offering a full morning of networking and learning opportunities. During this event, we'll deep dive into the key trends of the PoS and Staking world, providing attendees with a unique chance to connect with key decision-makers and ecosystem players.We'll cover everything from understanding the particulatiries of the leading PoS protocols to exploring the latest advancements in staking, and we'll hear from key builders in the fintech world.Whether you're a crypto native or new to the field, you'll benefit from insightful talks and have the opportunity to engage in thoughtful discussions in a relaxed environment that encourages interaction between participants.

The Staking Meet Up | Buenos Aires

Join our 9th #NEAR Protocol Work Group Call to arrive to a decision on NEP-536 and NEP-540 AGENDA - Update on DevHub - Introductions - NEP Discussion: NEP-536 - NEP Discussion: NEP-540 - Community Q&amp;A

NEAR Protocol Work Group Call #9

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*_0gZRg2pxOL3CYlQ"></figure>The <a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol/near-protocol-hong-kong-web3-festival-2024-e28dee879f04">Hong Kong Web3 Festival</a>, co-hosted by Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and HashKey Group, concluded with resounding success. Over four exciting days, the festival brought together more than 50,000 attendees, featured 300 global speakers, showcased 100 exhibitors, and offered nearly 200 engaging side events. The event not only highlighted the dynamic growth of the Web3 industry but also positioned the fusion of Web3 and AI as the hottest topic of the year.
Chain Abstraction: Unlocking Mass Adoption’s Path to Success
NEAR’s presence at the festival was nothing short of remarkable, solidifying its position as more than just a layer 1 protocol. Amos Zhang, Founder of Metaweb and Early Contributor to NEAR Protocol, introduced NEAR and its visionary founders, Illia Polosukhin and Alexander Skidanov. He highlighted the importance of chain abstraction in simplifying the user experience and fostering industry-wide collaboration, setting the stage for a seamless and prosperous Web3 future.
Why AI Needs Web3
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*Cnl-o_QxkjOEhUFj"></figure>Illia Polosukhin, NEAR’s co-founder and CEO delivered a keynote presentation on “Why AI Needs Web3” at the Hong Kong Web3 Festival. He highlighted the powerful combination of Web3 and AI. Illia pointed out the existing challenges with closed-source AI models, including the lack of transparency in data generation methods. He recognized the need for open-source models but acknowledged obstacles such as data protection regulations and insufficient financial incentives. He proposed that AI language models should directly engage with users, leveraging cryptography and on-chain reputation systems to address these challenges and foster the development of competitive models within Web3.
For a recap of the keynote presentation, please read this blog post:
<a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol/near-protocol-co-founder-illia-polosukhin-delivers-keynote-at-2024-hong-kong-web3-festival-on-why-4b8b8241a96a">NEAR Protocol Co-Founder Illia Polosukhin Delivers Keynote at 2024 Hong Kong Web3 Festival on Why…</a>
Meeting the Vibrant NEAR Community
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*uAr6izx5XZjKTIZz"></figure>NEAR has a strong presence in the Chinese community. At the NEAR booth, attendees were immersed in an electrifying experience, where we presented an array of engaging activities including NFT and Swag giveaways supported by NEAR China, Black Dragon, LiNEAR Protocol, Shard Dog, and Sender Wallet.
The NEAR China team and ecosystem representatives captivated visitors with a comprehensive introduction to NEAR, exciting updates, and an unforgettable encounter that left everyone craving more.
NEAR’s Impact in the Hong Kong Web3 Landscape
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*yWkyrnqByosaJycp"></figure>During the Hong Kong Web3 Festival, NEAR and MetaWeb were invited to speak at various side events and panels hosted by renowned industry players such as AWS Cloud, Google Cloud, Hashkey, and Gate.io to share insightful possibilities of AI and Web3, as well as the trends of layer 1 blockchains. This participation reflects the growing momentum and enthusiasm surrounding NEAR, particularly in the field of web3 technologies and artificial intelligence.
NEAR’s presence at the Hong Kong Web3 festival was remarkable, emphasizing the importance of chain abstraction and the potential of Web3 and AI integration. NEAR’s impact in the Chinese community also showcased its influence in the Web3 landscape. The momentum will continue at Token2049. The future is NEAR.
For more information and updates on the event, follow <a href="https://twitter.com/NEAR_China">NEAR China</a> on Twitter and <a href="https://twitter.com/NEARProtocol">NEAR</a> social platforms.
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<a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol/near-hong-kong-web3-festival-wrap-up-nears-impact-in-web3-and-ai-09b64a337699">NEAR @ Hong Kong Web3 Festival Wrap Up: NEAR’s Impact in Web3 and AI</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol">NEAR Protocol</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

NEAR @ Hong Kong Web3 Festival Wrap Up: NEAR’s Impact in Web3 and AI

<h3>NEAR Protocol Co-Founder Illia Polosukhin Delivers Keynote at 2024 Hong Kong Web3 Festival on Why AI needs Web3</h3>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*NqaQmrChTq-9ibQu"></figure>Hong Kong, 2024 — At the recent Hong Kong Web3 Festival, Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, delivered a keynote on the role of Web3 in the evolution and democratization of AI. Drawing from his extensive background in AI and contributions to Google’s TensorFlow and the pioneering Transformers model, Illia shared insights into the origins of NEAR Protocol and its intrinsic connection to AI.
Illia recounted his journey from Google Research, where he specialized in natural language understanding, to the inception of NEAR Protocol. The protocol was born out of a necessity to find a scalable, low-cost, and accessible payment solution for a global workforce involved in data tagging for AI training, many of whom lacked traditional banking services. This challenge led to the exploration of blockchain technology as a viable solution, culminating in the development of the NEAR Protocol.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/904/0*9L6eryWH4gm2ii-L"></figure>Highlighting the evolution of language models since the 1950s, Illia emphasized the nature of word embeddings introduced in 2013. This innovation, he noted, significantly enhanced the capability of deep learning models by enabling the mathematical manipulation of textual data, thereby laying the groundwork for contemporary AI advancements.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/896/0*tgzZldtZK7pnrOo8"></figure>The keynote further delved into the limitations of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) and the subsequent development of the Transformers model to overcome these hurdles by leveraging computational parallelism. This approach, according to Illia, was instrumental in scaling AI models, leading to the creation of transformative tools like ChatGPT and Gemini.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/890/0*GtrrYmIDkN2rnKfS"></figure>Illia also touched upon the specialized infrastructure required for training sophisticated AI models, highlighting the immense computational power and connectivity of modern supercomputers. He raised concerns about the rise of closed AI models and the potential for manipulation and bias, underscoring the importance of transparency and decentralization in AI development.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/894/0*tR60jZT14qOd4vPp"></figure>Illia emphasized the importance of developing a comprehensive suite of AI tools across data, infrastructure, and application layers within the Web3 framework. He stressed that as language models gain the ability to interact directly with society, they hold the potential to manipulate information on a broad scale. However, Illia pointed out that the issue isn’t with AI itself — similar challenges have existed long before AI’s advent. The key, he argued, lies in leveraging cryptographic techniques and blockchain-based reputation systems to ensure authenticity and accountability, making the source and community consensus around information paramount.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/900/0*ERVRc4_zoGwTAM7G"></figure>Further elaborating on the diversity within AI applications, Illia differentiated between tools and autonomous agents, which can be either centralized, like ChatGPT, or decentralized, like open-source Llama models. He advocated for a future where decentralized models could run on user devices, ensuring full autonomy and alignment with user expectations without necessarily relying on blockchain technology. This, he suggested, could lead to a new era of AI governance, where models make crucial decisions based on verifiable criteria.
Illia also explored various specialization types within AI, from zero-shot learning and fine-tuning to retrieval augmentation, emphasizing that outputs need not be limited to text but could also include rich UI components and direct actions on the blockchain. He discussed the potential for models to be tools, autonomous planners, continuous jobs, or even engage in reinforcement learning optimization, pushing the boundaries of AI’s capabilities.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/892/0*E_DlDl2Jyl71SLGv"></figure>Addressing infrastructure, Illia highlighted the continuum from centralized systems, like those used by OpenAI, to decentralized inference mechanisms, pointing to an intriguing use case: the transition from programmable money to intelligent assets. These assets, defined and potentially acted upon through natural language, could interact with the real world and other digital entities in novel ways. However, he cautioned that current language models are susceptible to adversarial influences, underscoring the need for robustness in AI development.
As Illia concluded his keynote, he presented a stark choice between a closed AI world, prone to manipulation and control by a few large entities, and an open, decentralized future powered by Web3 and open-source principles. In this envisioned future, crypto-economic incentives could foster the creation of competitive open-source AI models, ensuring a more equitable and transparent digital landscape.
NEAR Protocol, as part of its ongoing mission, is dedicated to realizing this vision within the broader ecosystem. “AI is NEAR,” Illia remarked, inviting the community to engage with NEAR’s upcoming initiatives.
For more information and updates, follow <a href="https://twitter.com/ilblackdragon">Illia</a> on Twitter and <a href="https://twitter.com/NEARProtocol">NEAR</a> social platforms.
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<a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol/near-protocol-co-founder-illia-polosukhin-delivers-keynote-at-2024-hong-kong-web3-festival-on-why-4b8b8241a96a">NEAR Protocol Co-Founder Illia Polosukhin Delivers Keynote at 2024 Hong Kong Web3 Festival on Why…</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol">NEAR Protocol</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

NEAR Protocol Co-Founder Illia Polosukhin Delivers Keynote at 2024 Hong Kong Web3 Festival on Why…

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*KkNdbZuCxmHREX5c"></figure><a href="https://near.org/">NEAR</a> is coming back to Hong Kong as the Platinum Sponsor of the <a href="https://en.web3festival.org/">Hong Kong Web3 Festival </a>at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on April 6 to 9, 2024. This four-day event, hosted on five center stages across an area of about 9,000㎡, will see over 50,000 attendees, 300 distinguished industry speakers, about 100 Web3 projects, community partners and media partners worldwide congregate to network, share, and learn through high-level content and panel discussions.
The highly anticipated Hong Kong Web3 Festival 2024 will bring together the world’s brightest minds, top Web3 projects and leading venture capital firms presenting content-rich discussions and topics centered around Web3. Hong Kong regulatory representatives will also dive into and interpret the latest digital asset regulation policies. Top industry leaders such as Illia Polosukhin of NEAR Protocol, Cathie Wood of ARK Invest, Richard Tang of Binance, Dr. Xiao Feng of Wanxiang and Yat Siu of Animoca Brands are all expected to speak at the Festival.
From April 6 to 9, you can visit the NEAR booth (E11) during Hong Kong Web3 Festival and mingle with NEAR projects, community members, and other builders from the ecosystem.
Get your ticket to the 2024 Hong Kong Web3 Festival:
<a href="https://lu.ma/hkweb3festival2024">2024香港Web3嘉年華/ Hong Kong Web3 Festival 2024 · Luma</a>
For more information on the Hong Kong Web3 Festival, check out:
<a href="https://www.web3festival.org/">2024 Hong Kong Web3 Festival</a>
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<a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol/near-protocol-hong-kong-web3-festival-2024-e28dee879f04">NEAR Protocol &amp; Hong Kong Web3 Festival 2024</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol">NEAR Protocol</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

NEAR Protocol &amp; Hong Kong Web3 Festival 2024

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*AX7H8R-nRaUSBSIGUvYTVw.png"></figure>Today at BUIDL Asia in Seoul, Korea, NEAR Co-Founder and NEAR Foundation CEO Illia Polosukhin announced the launch of Chain Signatures on NEAR. Chain Signatures enable NEAR accounts, including smart contracts, to sign transactions for any blockchain. This is powered by a decentralized MPC network which uses NEAR staking and Eigenlayer ETH restakers for security. Chain Signatures currently supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cosmos chains, DogeCoin, and XRP Ledger and will soon support Solana, TON Network, Polkadot, and others.
How Chain Signatures Work
Chain signatures introduce threshold signatures for any blockchain, controlled by NEAR accounts &amp; smart contracts. A NEAR account, which can also be a smart contract thanks to the NEAR account model, can request that the NEAR validators or MPC nodes sign an arbitrary payload, which could be a transaction for some other blockchain, and get a signed payload back to then send to the destination chain.
This is made possible by building an account-based decentralized Multi-Party Computation (MPC) network, allowing NEAR accounts to control multiple addresses on various chains and ensuring that the users are the only ones who can request signatures for transactions. Chain Signatures uses an account-based pattern, as opposed to a deposit-based or bridge-based pattern, as most other MPC networks currently in production do. The Chain Signatures MPC network functions as a decentralized signer for NEAR accounts and smart contracts, managing requests to addresses on different blockchains while placing zero burden on the user to manage these.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*pu04PY_CdWxjdKsJ.png"></figure>The first of its kind, Chain Signatures is a major advancement in DeFi adoption by enhancing cross chain interoperability and unlocking a new variety of use cases for mainstream users and Web3 builders. Chain signatures makes it easier to build DeFi products for particular chains and assets (while utilizing assets from other chains e.g. USDC/T, SOL, etc). For example, users can use XRP as collateral to borrow USDC, or trade DOGE for SOL. The launch of Chain Signatures delivers an elevated user experience that simplifies the transaction process while increasing accessibility to liquidity on non-smart contract chains such as Bitcoin, DogeCoin, XRP Ledger, and more. This also means that Chain Signatures let app developers serve all ecosystems at once from one interface rather than having to commit to a single chain or pool of liquidity.
The Chain Signatures MPC network is launching with Eigenlayer as a key partner and will be secured by Eigenlayer ETH restakers and NEAR stakers. The initial operator set is a trust-minimized network of ten node providers, which includes some top Eigen AVS infrastructure providers, using a Proof of Authority security model at launch. The future state is a permissionless network of node operators based on staking requirements and slashing conditions, planned to roll out in the coming months.
Multichain Gas Relayer
Launching alongside Chain Signatures is the Multichain Gas Relayer, which removes the need to have the native gas token of another chain in order to transact. This is a big hurdle for users today, often requiring purchasing multiple tokens on exchanges and sending them to different accounts just to complete a single cross-chain action. Now, with the Multichain Gas Relayer, users can just use NEAR or NEP-141 tokens to cover gas on any chain, not just NEAR or EVM chains.
This unlocks true multichain account abstraction. Whereas cross-chain bridges vary significantly depending on which assets are bridging to which chains, chain signatures makes transacting on smart contract and non-smart contract chains possible from a single account or interface, while simultaneously unlocking liquidity that wouldn’t have been accessible before.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*nDfdykjAjFeKaqSl.png"></figure>For a longer technical deep dive on Chain Signatures and the Multichain Gas Relayer, see this <a href="https://pages.near.org/blog/unlocking-web3-usability-with-account-aggregation/">post from February 2024</a> about NEAR account aggregation technologies.
New Web3 Design Patterns with Chain Signatures
Chain Signatures unlocks a range of powerful new use cases for application builders and DeFi developers while also enabling much simpler user interfaces across different contexts. Smart contracts on NEAR will be able to custody assets on any chain (since they can sign transactions on any chain via chain signatures), and maintain user balances similar to how single chain lending protocols or DEXs do now. For example, a user will be able to atomically swap their BTC in a Bitcoin account for another user’s ETH in an Ethereum account. This works because they can first deposit into accounts on these respective chains that are fully controlled by a NEAR smart contract, which will then settle the trade and allow the user’s to withdraw their “new” assets post-trade.
<ul>
<li>
Bridgeless cross-chain DeFi: Since NEAR smart contracts can custody assets on any chain, users can build truly cross chain applications such as RFQs, orderbooks, AMMs, lending protocols, and more. It is also possible to build swaps and other apps without bridges and message passing layers, meaning that new chains and assets can be added at launch. Additionally, chain signatures can be used to build two-way bridges to non-smart contract chains, using NEAR as the intermediate chain.</li>
<li>
Multichain Account Abstraction: A single NEAR account can manage any number of accounts on any number of chains. This means users can get ERC 4337-like functionality (natively supported by NEAR) without deploying any new smart contracts (so they can use non-EVM and non-smart contract chains), or needing to update their accounts on each individual chain. Chain Signatures also enables users to pay for gas costs on various chains with USDC, including non-EVM chains.</li>
<li>
Instantly multichain apps at launch: Thanks to Chain Signatures and the Multichain Gas Relayer, app developers don’t need to commit to a single chain when they start building — now, they can make many chains accessible to their users immediately after launching and dramatically increase their addressable market of users.</li>
</ul>
Advancing the Chain Abstraction Vision
Chain Signatures advances the NEAR ecosystem’s <a href="https://near.org/blog/why-chain-abstraction-is-the-next-frontier-for-web3">vision of Chain Abstraction</a>, or the idea that Web3 hurdles should be abstracted away from user interfaces for the sake of simplicity and accessibility. Many of these hurdles arise with multichain use cases as users need to deal with long lists of accounts on different chains, manually move assets between them, and manage all the related security. Now, with Chain Signatures, users can simply create and secure one account and then start transacting on any network in Web3. Chain Signatures also help dapp developers deliver better multichain experiences to their users and get access to all available liquidity across blockchains.
As Illia noted, “Since day one, the NEAR ecosystem has focused on simplifying access to Web3 for developers and mainstream users. Chain Signatures is the next step in that journey, making it significantly easier to transact on any blockchain while also defragmenting liquidity across the ecosystem. This will enable the next generation of truly decentralized apps to deliver much more powerful experiences and address the entire market of Web3 users.”
Live Use Cases In the Ecosystem
Several projects in the NEAR ecosystem are already building with Chain Signatures to introduce new design patterns and experiences to users. More information on the node provider ecosystem as well as news about additional projects building with Chain Signatures across Web3 is coming in the next few weeks.
Start Building with Chain Signatures
Chain Signatures makes possible a range of new use cases for Web3 developers and users alike, opening up an exciting new design space and expanding the landscape of multichain apps and experiences utilizing Chain Abstraction.
Builders and developers interested in getting started with Chain Signatures can visit the <a href="https://bit.ly/what-are-chain-signatures">documentation</a> or <a href="https://bit.ly/create-a-chain-signature">explore code examples</a> and begin building today. Projects looking for support implementing Chain Signatures can register their interest <a href="https://form.jotform.com/240777569453167">here</a>.
Originally published at <a href="https://pages.near.org/blog/chain-signatures-launch-to-enable-transactions-on-any-blockchain-from-a-near-account/">https://pages.near.org</a> on March 27, 2024.
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<a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol/chain-signatures-launch-to-enable-transactions-on-any-blockchain-from-a-near-account-a9788db3bcd8">Chain Signatures Launch to Enable Transactions on Any Blockchain from a NEAR Account</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol">NEAR Protocol</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Chain Signatures Launch to Enable Transactions on Any Blockchain from a NEAR Account

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*y4frosVYhwx68AQnIV8cTA.jpeg"></figure><h3>If you’re big on Bitcoin, you know already that what Bitcoin needs the most is consumer apps to draw attention beyond its current use case. If you’re not, then you’ll wonder if that’s even possible. EAST Blue is the answer on both fronts.</h3>
<h4>TL;DR</h4>
<ul>
<li>Bitcoin’s limited functionality hinders its ability to attract wider user adoption through consumer apps.</li>
<li>EAST Blue aims to solve this by being a Layer-2 solution built on NEAR, offering simplified development, a $BTC super app ecosystem, and cheap transactions.</li>
<li>EAST Blue’s core technology is the Account Vault Model (AVM), allowing $BTC assets to be controlled by smart contracts on NEAR Protocol.</li>
<li>EAST Blue leverages NEAR’s <a href="https://medium.com/@ProximityFi/a-first-look-at-chain-signatures-cross-chain-without-bridges-81c8421d153c">Chain Signatures</a>, unique account model and capabilities for fast and affordable transactions, which creates novel and accessible use cases for $BTC.</li>
</ul>
Bitcoin has always done very well what it was designed to do. Both as a store of value and in enabling secure, decentralized and censorship-resistant peer-to-peer transactions. However, Ethereum happened, ushered in smart contracts and DeFi i.e consumer apps. Bitcoin held on, limited by design until now.
The Taproot upgrade in 2021 laid the foundation for what the recent influx of cash from Spot ETFs and the exponential rise of Ordinals have confirmed, Bitcoin is ready to evolve, consumer apps are on the way, and EAST Blue is poised to deliver the most viable path for them on the network.
<h4>WHAT IS EAST BLUE?</h4>
<a href="https://eastblue.io/">EAST Blue is a NEAR-powered application layer designed to scale the Bitcoin network</a> as a comprehensive super app, Layer-2 solution and abstraction layer.
Let’s break each of these down:
As a super app, East Blue not only enables simplified Bitcoin L1 and L2 transactions via a user-friendly interface, it also conveniently exposes users to a curated selection of DeFi and Ordinals projects around the Bitcoin network. And it provides real-time data and insights from bitcoin projects, making it easy for users to monitor their portfolios.
EAST Blue, as an abstraction layer, aggregates and integrates a host of Bitcoin dApps, L2s, Ordinals, and more, creating a central hub for the Bitcoin ecosystem for users and developers.
All of these tie nicely to East Blue’s L2 solution, which scales Bitcoin by leveraging NEAR’s account model and aggregation technology to deliver a unique Account Vault Model (AVM) which provides a robust infrastructure for consumer apps.
<h4>BITCOIN’S CONSUMER APP CHALLENGE</h4>
Bitcoin’s singular focus was on being a decentralized and robust store- and transfer-of-value, and for the longest time old-guard Bitcoin maxis were fine with that, after all one of Bitcoin’s strengths lies in the strict adherence to its core principles.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*oY5E7sThg0WCU2QDUy53Pw.jpeg"><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://makeameme.org/meme/if-it-aint-c495602d93">https://makeameme.org/meme/if-it-aint-c495602d93</a></figcaption></figure>Then there is the halving. Roughly, every four years, Bitcoin’s block emissions are halved. This does great for its monetary value but underlying the degen allure is the implications of the event. Halving means less emissions, which in turn means miners become even more dependent on transaction fees. This leads to two scenarios:
<ol>
<li>Transaction fees go up and users take their money to other chains.</li>
<li>Miner attrition because transaction fees are not incentive enough.</li>
</ol>
The first scenario means Bitcoin starts to fall like every great empire. The second scenario means less security for Bitcoin and increased vulnerability.
Both scenarios have a common solution; attract users to the network so that transaction fees revenue are diversified and increased. Enter the necessity of consumer apps.
But to build consumer apps, Bitcoin needs to attract developers, find a way to use smart contracts, and address already-spiking transaction fees on the network. That’s where the Bitcoin Layer-2 ecosystem becomes vital, as that is where the scaling will happen. Enter EAST Blue.
EAST Blue’s Layer-2 is a bridgeless, non-custodial solution addressing scalability on Bitcoin via its unique Account Vault Model which unlocks cheaper and faster transactions for Bitcoin. EAST Blue’s secret sauce is powered by <a href="https://pages.near.org/blog/unlocking-web3-usability-with-account-aggregation/">NEAR Protocol’s account aggregation.</a>
<h4>A CLOSER LOOK AT THE ACCOUNT VAULT MODEL (AVM)</h4>
The NEAR account model is recognized for its human-readable accounts, which are secured through multiple access keys and capable of hosting smart contracts. This is the foundational block of the Account Vault Model.
At the heart of AVM is the concept of transferring account ownership to a smart contract. By leveraging NEAR’s account model that allows an account to create sub-accounts (which can also host smart contracts), AVM transforms these sub-accounts into “vaults” for holding Bitcoin-based assets. For instance, a NEAR account establishes a sub-account to serve as the account vault, which then, through Account Aggregation (the ability to sign transactions/control multiple accounts on any chain from a NEAR account), acquires a derived Bitcoin address. This address can hold assets like BTC or Ordinals, with the smart contract managing ownership and transactions (sell, buy, stake, borrow, auction, etc)
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*zwCjBi8Y17B2MZlQ"><figcaption>Source: <a href="http://www.eastblue.io/">www.eastblue.io</a></figcaption></figure>While AVM is built on NEAR’s account model to enable hosting Bitcoin addresses as assets, it is <a href="https://medium.com/@ProximityFi/a-first-look-at-chain-signatures-cross-chain-without-bridges-81c8421d153c">Chain Signatures</a> that allow it to perform bridgeless cross-chain transactions with these hosted assets in account vaults: NEAR’s Chain Signatures uses Multi-Party Computation (MPC) to facilitate secure cross-chain interactions without traditional bridges.
EAST Blue’s Account Vault Model is packaged as the EAST SDK, a versatile and accessible toolkit standardizing and streamlining the development process of blockchain applications. The SDK provides:
<ul>
<li>
Unified Interface: Allowing for a consistent, user-friendly interface that enables developers to interact with various blockchain networks seamlessly. This uniformity reduces the learning curve and enables developers to focus on application logic rather than underlying blockchain complexities.</li>
<li>
Modular Design: Each module encapsulates specific functionalities that developers can easily integrate into their applications, regardless of the underlying blockchain. This modularity not only simplifies development but also ensures that applications can adapt to different blockchain environments with minimal changes.</li>
<li>
Cross-Chain Compatibility: Recognizing the diversity in blockchain platforms, EAST emphasizes cross-chain compatibility. By facilitating communication and interoperability between different blockchains, EAST ensures that applications built with its SDK can function across multiple networks, thus broadening their reach and usability.</li>
<li>
Focus on End-User Experience: Prioritizing end-user experience in its design philosophy, the EAST SDK is equipped with tools and components that help developers create intuitive and accessible user interfaces, making blockchain applications more approachable to the average user.</li>
<li>
Education and Support: Beyond technical solutions, EAST commits to educating and supporting its community. By providing comprehensive documentation, tutorials, and developer forums, EAST empowers users to understand and utilize blockchain technology effectively.</li>
</ul>
Through these strategies, EAST aims to democratize access to the benefits of blockchain technology. By abstracting away the technical complexities, EAST paves the way for a future where Bitcoin applications are as commonplace and user-friendly as today’s conventional web and mobile apps.
<h4>WHAT THIS MEANS FOR CONSUMER APPS ON BITCOIN</h4>
Simplified Development Building on NEAR’s infrastructure can streamline the development of these consumer apps, offering access to existing tooling and resources.
Bitcoin Assets with Flexibility AVM enables Bitcoin assets like BTC or Ordinals to be wrapped and housed within these vaults. They can then be traded, borrowed, staked, or auctioned — just like regular NFTs — on any ecosystem using NEAR chain abstraction.
Seamless User Experience, and cheap too This model opens up a range of applications impossible on the Bitcoin main-chain in its original form. Imagine NFT marketplaces designed for Bitcoin-based Ordinals or launchpads for new tokens that eventually exist natively on Bitcoin. The underlying technology of NEAR allows significantly faster transaction processing times and lower fees compared to the Bitcoin mainnet. This translates to a smoother and affordable user experience when interacting with applications.
EAST Blue represents a pivotal shift in Bitcoin’s evolution. By harnessing NEAR’s infrastructure and the innovative Account Vault Model only possible on NEAR, EAST Blue paves the way for the user-friendly, low-fee Bitcoin consumer applications that are set to become key for the survival of Bitcoin. While the future of Bitcoin is always uncertain, EAST Blue offers a compelling vision of where it could go– a future where the network’s robust foundation supports a thriving ecosystem of dApps, NFTs, and financial services accessible to all.
<h4>WANT TO GO EVEN DEEPER? GOTCHA!</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://medium.com/@ProximityFi/a-first-look-at-chain-signatures-cross-chain-without-bridges-81c8421d153c">Chain Signatures</a></li>
<li><a href="https://eastblue.io/blog/scaling-bitcoin-with-account-vault">Scaling Bitcoin with Account Vault Model (AVM)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://docs.near.org/concepts/basics/accounts/model">NEAR Account Model Docs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://pages.near.org/blog/unlocking-web3-usability-with-account-aggregation/">Account Aggregation Deep Dive</a></li>
<li><a href="https://pages.near.org/blog/why-chain-abstraction-is-the-next-frontier-for-web3/">Chain Abstraction Thesis</a></li>
<li><a href="https://eastblue.io/">EAST Blue</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>About NEARWEEK</h3>
NEARWEEK is the ultimate destination for all things related to NEAR. As the official NEAR Protocol newsletter and community platform, NEARWEEK goes beyond journalism in order to actively celebrate, participate in, and contribute to the NEAR ecosystem.
<a href="https://shard.dog/nearweek">NEAR Newsletter</a> | <a href="https://near.org/nearweekapp.near/widget/nearweek.com">Editorial (dapp)</a>| <a href="http://twitter.com/nearweek">Twitter</a>
<h3>About NEAR Protocol</h3>
NEAR is on a mission to onboard a billion users to the limitless possibilities of Web3 with chain abstraction. Leveraging its high-performance, carbon-neutral protocol, which is swift, secure, and scalable, NEAR offers a common layer for browsing and discovering the Open Web.
<a href="https://near.org/">NEAR Discovery</a> | <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZA80yKDFhKevEhcZzLDHtGrEXdeVqFifXzDIci1FKfc/edit#heading=h.5q7qa1li945w">What is Chain Abstraction?</a>| <a href="https://www.neardc.org/">NEAR NDC</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/NEARProtocol">Twitter</a>
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<a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol/east-blue-solving-the-consumer-app-challenge-on-bitcoin-b007c8ddc452">EAST BLUE: SOLVING THE CONSUMER APP CHALLENGE ON BITCOIN</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol">NEAR Protocol</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

EAST BLUE: SOLVING THE CONSUMER APP CHALLENGE ON BITCOIN

<h4>While there is a lot of excitement around zkEVMs and scaling Ethereum, little attention was paid to zkWASM during ETHDenver.</h4>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*1fj_NsqsEmrn28iO5h6W0Q.png"></figure>Maybe that’s just natural, considering that anything EVM is a perfect complement to the Ethereum ecosystem. In contrast, WASM is more closely associated with competing ecosystems like Cosmos (who even hosted an entire conference dedicated to CosmWASM).
But if we’ve learned anything from listening to Illia Polosukhin talk about his vision for the chain-abstracted future and from seeing Solana bro 0xMert shoutout NEAR, it’s this: tribalism is out. It doesn’t lead anywhere except for being labeled cringe.
Now, in the context of VMs, while it’s tempting to assume that the EVM will dominate, I think we’ve all seen sufficient attacks to start questioning that.
And anyway, if you’re reading this, chances are you’re closely aligned with the NEAR ecosystem, and you know that we’re powerful enough to run the entire EVM as a smart contract.
Nevertheless, if the EVM isn’t the one Virtual Machine to bring them all together, what could be?
NEAR and Polygon believe the answer is zkWASM.
<h4>What is zkWASM?</h4>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/500/0*ImPR9kjz8A8wiwm6"></figure>zkWASM is short for zero-knowledge Web assembly and describes a virtual environment that generates computational proof. With zkWASM, developers can execute code and then verify it without needing to re-run the entire computation.
As a zkVM, zkWASM guarantees secure and verifiable trustworthiness powered by Zero-Knowledge Proofs.
Zero-Knowledge-Proofs: interactive protocol between a prover and verifier, where the prover proves to the verifier that they are in possession of a secret without revealing the secret itself.
The VM takes the initial state, runs programs, and then computes it using the Witness to output a final state and proof. Verifiers then only have to process the proof to ensure that everything has been executed according to consensus rules. This drastically lowers computing requirements and is a main reason ZKPs have been hyped.
<h4>Why does zkWASM matter?</h4>
Why does anything matter at all? It’s a question only philosophers can answer, but if you remember that they still haven’t found a way to prove that we aren’t all just brains in a vat, maybe it’s best not to bet on them.
Fortunately, we’re more concerned with why things matter for the blockchain industry than with more profound questions about existence.
While the zk part in zkWASM is exciting as it combines off-chain computation with on-chain verification, the most significant benefit might be adding WASM as an environment to write programs in
<h4>WASM x Blockchain</h4>
WASM is one of the four web languages besides HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It’s supported by all web browsers and allows any programming languages compiling to it to run on the web. Consequently, developers who can write code that compiles to WASM greatly outnumber anyone capable of writing Solidity (and you do want senior devs on that, or else you have issues like the one below).
<figure><a href="https://x.com/moo9000/status/1765291081086689602?s=20"><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/886/0*kQEtT1TxQLW5euef"></a></figure>WASM unlocks Web3 for Web2 developers.
Not only is WASM widely adopted in Web2, but it’s also powering hundreds of millions of dollars in Web3. Cosmos considers CosmWASM the secure engine to build robust, secure dApps in its multichain ecosystem. Polkadot highlights WASM as the foundation of any decentralized system development, and Solana’s NEON EVM allows the deployment of WASM smart contracts along with native Solana contracts.
Beyond chains, Axelar and LayerZero both use WASM to facilitate cross-chain interoperability, using it to power efficient communication between chains.
zkWASM leverages the security, scalability, interoperability, and privacy benefits of zero-knowledge proofs while making them easily available to developers who have never dealt with zero-knowledge cryptography before.
NEAR and Polygon’s shared commitment to developing a zkWASM environment goes beyond tribalism in a belief that what will push the space forward is collaboration and not zero-sum thinking.
Through the collaboration with Polygon, the NEAR team’s expertise in building web experiences is coupled with Polygon’s cutting-edge zero-knowledge experts to bring us something bigger than the sum of its parts.
zkWASM might not sound like a gamechanger, but it is. We’re no believers in EVM supremacy, although there is no denying its initial network effects. What’s great about WASM is that it brings together all WASM-based chains, regardless of whether they are in the Solana, Cosmos, or Polygon ecosystem.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/697/0*70oAsYbCk-kStbLe"><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://hyperoracle.medium.com/zkwasm-the-next-chapter-of-zk-and-zkvm-471038b1fba6">zkWASM, The Next Chapter of ZK and zkVM</a></figcaption></figure>Once launched, zkWASM will be a new runtime that generates zk Proofs to verify correct execution and enhance the scalability and decentralization of NEAR and Polygon.
As such, zkWASM is deeply embedded in the broader NEAR vision of chain abstraction and making blockchains invisible. If there is a universal prover that various chains can leverage for their off-chain computation, providing a unified interface for users gets a whole lot easier.
In the end, this would benefit not only the teams directly involved in building the runtime but also the broader Web3 ecosystem.
Going from 0 to the first few ten thousand devs has worked all right with Solidity. But going to millions will require a new approach. NEAR has managed to abstract blockchain for thousands of its users.
Why not do similar for devs by enabling them to use cutting-edge technology with the languages they know?
That’s what zkWASM can do for Web3.
<h4>About NEARWEEK</h4>
NEARWEEK is the ultimate destination for all things related to NEAR. As the official NEAR Protocol newsletter and community platform, NEARWEEK goes beyond journalism in order to actively celebrate, participate in, and contribute to the NEAR ecosystem.
<a href="https://shard.dog/nearweek">NEAR Newsletter</a> | <a href="https://near.org/nearweekapp.near/widget/nearweek.com">Editorial (dapp)</a>| <a href="http://twitter.com/nearweek">Twitter</a>
<h4>About NEAR Protocol</h4>
NEAR is on a mission to onboard a billion users to the limitless possibilities of Web3 with chain abstraction. Leveraging its high-performance, carbon-neutral protocol, which is swift, secure, and scalable, NEAR offers a common layer for browsing and discovering the Open Web.
<a href="https://near.org/">NEAR Discovery</a> | <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZA80yKDFhKevEhcZzLDHtGrEXdeVqFifXzDIci1FKfc/edit#heading=h.5q7qa1li945w">What is Chain Abstraction?</a>| <a href="https://www.neardc.org/">NEAR NDC</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/NEARProtocol">Twitter</a>
<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSource=full_rss&amp;postId=050250b60824" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr>
<a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol/zkwasm-the-vm-to-rule-them-all-050250b60824">zkWASM: The VM to rule them all?</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol">NEAR Protocol</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

zkWASM: The VM to rule them all?

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*N4ywXAlHPqHIJ4sr"></figure>The recent release of Sora has sparked a new wave of excitement in AI, prompting well-known figures like Elon Musk expressing their concerns about the future of AI and its impact on humanity. Concurrently, the fusion of blockchain and AI has emerged as a groundbreaking narrative in the crypto world. Visionaries such as Vitalik Buterin and the co-founders of <a href="https://near.org/">NEAR Protocol</a> have shared their insights on the potential and progress of <a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol/will-near-blockchain-lead-the-breakthrough-of-ai-87d158991fdb">Blockchain + AI applications</a>. In this article, we delve into the integration of <a href="https://neatprotocol.ai/">NEAT</a> inscriptions with AI, exploring how it paves the way for an open and secure AI ecosystem.
Building a Foundation with NEAT Inscriptions
NEAT leverages the power of blockchain technology, specifically through inscriptions, to establish a solid foundation for an open AI ecosystem. By recording and storing crucial AI components, including AI data, parameters, algorithms, models and outputs, NEAT creates a comprehensive on-chain infrastructure. This closed loop encompasses the three fundamental pillars of AI: data, models, and computation.
Advantages of the NEAT and AI Integration
NEAT introduces the first inscription-based rollup network, which efficiently executes and interprets on-chain data. The indexers of NEAT can play a crucial role in organizing the vast amount of AI-related data stored on chain, providing a cost-effective solution for utilizing NEAR as a DA layer with full on-chain observability. This eliminates the need to deploy smart contracts on L1 and run validation logic, reducing transaction costs.
The integration of NEAT with AI offers numerous advantages. By immutably recording AI-related information on the blockchain, NEAT ensures transparency and traceability throughout the entire AI lifecycle. Furthermore, NEAT’s approach fosters collaboration and innovation by facilitating the sharing and exchange of AI components, thus accelerating advancements in the AI field.
<blockquote>“Inscriptions record transactions on top of existing L1, effectively getting sequencing and DA, and then execution is happening off-chain…. It can be useful for complex operations like order books, AI inference or anything else requiring complex off-chain calculations.” — Illia Polosukhin, Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol.</blockquote>
Envisioning Future Scenarios
NEAT’s integration with AI opens up exciting possibilities for various applications. For instance, it enables the creation of fully open-source AI intelligent gaming agents, where users actively participate in shaping the game’s storyline while preserving historical data and AI agent models on the blockchain. Additionally, NEAT allows for the development of meta-games and collaborative efforts with existing games like NEAR Land, enabling on-chain game editing and the creation of initial worlds for AI agents. The interactive AI agent training feature empowers users to train their AI characters through real-time interactions, resulting in personalized experiences. Moreover, NEAT facilitates the execution of AI agent programs for DAOs, enabling them to perform tasks such as deploying tokens or collecting data, all while ensuring transparency and accountability through inscribed records.
Conclusion
The fusion of NEAT inscriptions and AI represents a significant step towards building an open and secure AI ecosystem. By leveraging blockchain technology, NEAT ensures transparency, traceability, and user control throughout the AI lifecycle. Furthermore, NEAT’s decentralized governance approach safeguards against the concentration of power and encourages collaboration and innovation. As we embrace a future increasingly shaped by AI, NEAT’s pioneering efforts pave the way for a harmonious coexistence between humans and artificial intelligence. Stay tuned for further updates on NEAT’s progress and its transformative impact on the world of AI.
Stay Connected
<a href="https://twitter.com/inscriptionneat">Twitter</a> | <a href="https://t.me/neat_inscription">Telegram</a> | <a href="https://medium.com/@inscriptionneat">Medium</a>
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<a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol/exploring-the-fusion-of-neat-inscriptions-and-ai-for-an-open-and-secure-future-8d2b682a43aa">Exploring the Fusion of NEAT Inscriptions and AI for an Open and Secure Future</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol">NEAR Protocol</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Exploring the Fusion of NEAT Inscriptions and AI for an Open and Secure Future

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*4DY1uEoK7_ZkNsCHKdbeJg.png"></figure>Since the start, the focus for the NEAR ecosystem has been on advancing <a href="https://pages.near.org/blog/why-chain-abstraction-is-the-next-frontier-for-web3/">Chain Abstraction</a>, or hiding the elements of the blockchain (“abstracting away”) from users so they are not barriers to entry or participation in the decentralized Web. In Web3, the data and assets belong to the user, tied to their on-chain, noncustodial account. Currently every user has separate (usually many) accounts on each blockchain and also needs separate wallet software to manage those accounts. This requires users to manage the security for each account and wallet individually, deal with complex recovery processes if they make a mistake, and go through a thorny series of manual steps to move any assets into their wallets or across different wallets and chains.
The current world, where every wallet is managing accounts on many chains, is untenable as each account slowly falls out of sync with the others. In order to provide a consistent, abstracted experience for users across all chains, we need to aggregate accounts across all chains within a single interface — account abstraction alone is not enough. Enter Account Aggregation.
Account Aggregation — the ability to transact on any blockchain through a single account and interface — is a critical pillar of advancing Chain Abstraction, defragmenting Web3 for app users and increasing their ability to move across networks or between applications with ease. Developers should not be building apps on single chains anymore in order to reach some specific market or pool of liquidity. Now dApps can truly become decentralized applications, yet still feel like the unified experience of using an app.
To enable an effective user experience for using all blockchains, without users needing to think about underlying infrastructure or switch networks, it’s important to have a single account from which they can navigate all of Web3. This means no manual bridging, no managing long lists of addresses on different networks, no gas tokens, and no more switching between wallets and networks. In the true spirit of Web3, this single account should be non-custodial and non-dependent on a specific wallet software or any other single service provider.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*55VAwF7PHEPO4CxS"></figure>NEAR is enabling such an experience for all Web3 users with Account Aggregation, which consists of 3 core technologies.
<ul>
<li>
NEAR Account: account abstraction for smooth onboarding and recovery of accounts.</li>
<li>
Chain Signatures: enabling NEAR network to have MPC nodes that are jointly signing transactions and messages.</li>
<li>
Intent Relayers: parties in the ecosystem that are able to execute the intent of the user on different chains.</li>
</ul>
By adding Chain Signatures and Intent Relayers to the already robust NEAR account model, NEAR can become the home for multichain apps that abstract the pain points of switching networks and managing gas fees, bridging, and long lists of accounts away from end users.
This post details the 3 technical pillars of Account Aggregation and how they combine to deliver the next generation of usability for any decentralized application. Chain Signatures and Intent Relayers will be available on NEAR testnet by early March 2024.
<h3>NEAR Account</h3>
Account aggregation on NEAR begins with the innovative NEAR <a href="https://docs.near.org/concepts/basics/accounts/model">account model</a>. Incorporating native account abstraction since launch, NEAR’s account model offers a high degree of flexibility to developers and users alike. Ethereum introduced its version of account abstraction, EIP-4337, in March 2023.
Native account abstraction means that a given NEAR account maps to a human-readable account name instead of a public key hash, so accounts can have a large number of keys with different permissions for different functions. This means that NEAR account security is both stronger and easier to manage for users, while also allowing much broader functionality within a single account.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*J7izefeQt51B4vXf.png"></figure><a href="https://docs.near.org/tools/fastauth-sdk">FastAuth</a>, the industry-leading account creation experience NEAR launched in 2023, offers a Web2-like onboarding flow: users can sign up with just an email, and they don’t need to save a seed phrase or password. Instead, their FastAuth account and keys are secured using “Passkeys,” a new technology that replaces passwords with biometrics such as fingerprints or FaceID linked to a device. Users can also recover access to their account at any time by using their email through the MPC recovery service.
Now, with added multichain functionality on the horizon, the power of the NEAR account can extend across all of Web3 and offer easier onboarding and security management to users of any decentralized application. By having passkey integration, revocation, and recovery in one place rather than scattered across every chain, users will have a significantly streamlined experience for managing their Web3 accounts.
<h3>Chain Signatures</h3>
Chain signatures allow any NEAR account to have associated “remote” addresses on other chains and to sign transactions and messages from those addresses.
Traditionally a user would have different private keys in different wallet providers to facilitate multichain interactions and would need to manage them manually. With Chain Signatures, the NEAR MPC network is the signer for these remote addresses, meaning there is no explicit private key.
MPC (multi-party computation) signing allows a number of independent nodes to sign a message with key shares separately generated by non-trusting parties without needing to assemble them anywhere. The challenge with the standard MPC signing approach is that if nodes are changed, a new public key needs to be generated. The introduction of a novel threshold signature protocol which has a procedure of key resharing allows the MPC signer to maintain the same aggregate public key even as key shares and nodes constantly change.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*WpPGia0Tzy0DM8Uy"></figure>Chain Signatures is the NEAR approach to make this model programmable. Making MPC signer nodes that are also nodes in the NEAR network allows for a smart contract call to instantiate a signature procedure for a given account. By using different derivations constructed from a chain ID, a NEAR account ID, and a provided path, each account receives an infinite number of remote addresses on every chain.
This amplifies the power and flexibility of NEAR accounts by allowing them to operate on any chain. Any NEAR smart contract can sign transactions and messages targeted for other chains — introducing another novel account programming primitive and extending the NEAR account model across all of Web3.
The MPC signer network will start as a subset of validators and partners of NEAR. Over time it is expected to be added to all NEAR validators on the protocol level to continue increasing the security of the system.
<h3>Intent Relayers</h3>
We can’t expect app users to pay gas fees in various native tokens across different chains. We also should not require users to explicitly swap tokens on the destination chain in order to pay there. To achieve a smooth user experience, it should be easy for users to pay on the NEAR network and then be able to transact value on other chains, i.e. to relay their intent from NEAR to another chain.
With intent, a user can state what they want to achieve and leave out how it should be done. Users should be able to specify any action they want to take without having to navigate or understand the intricate complexities of multiple transactions on multiple chains they will be executed on, nor the swaps and funding required to achieve that action.
Although Chain Signatures is a generic technology that can be used in many ways for the first iteration of Account Aggregation, the relayer smart contract will control the remote account for users. This means that instead of the user’s account mapping to an address, the relayer.near will have a derivation for each user, allowing this smart contract to initiate signing and offer other services (like trading derivations).
Let’s look at an example of how the first iteration of intent relayer will abstract away cross-chain gas and payments for a NEAR user:
<ul>
<li>User has a root.near account that maps to the remote Ethereum address 0xabc via the relayer’s smart contract.</li>
<li>User initiates a transaction to buy a BAYC NFT on OpenSea using their NEAR account and pays in $NEAR by doing a transaction on the NEAR network to relayer smart contract with Ethereum transaction payload in arguments and attaching the required $NEAR amount.</li>
<li>The relayer smart contract will then forward the transaction bundle to the NEAR MPC signature contract. This bundle consists of (1) the transaction to fund the user’s 0xabc with $ETH required for gas and NFT payment and (2) user’s transaction to buy the BAYC NFT on OpenSea.</li>
<li>The Chain Signature contract will sign both transactions using different derivations respective to the relayer contract and originating user.</li>
<li>The relayer operator will observe the response from MPC service with signed transactions and submit them to the Ethereum network. This starts with initiating a fund transfer from a treasury paymaster account on Ethereum. This paymaster account will transfer ETH to the user’s 0xabc Ethereum address, equivalent to the NEAR that was originally sent by the user.</li>
<li>Then the relayer will submit the final transaction and the BAYC NFT will be purchased from the user’s 0xabc address using ETH to cover gas and payment.</li>
</ul>
The above example showcases how an intent relayer reduces complexity for a user to complete a cross-chain transaction. This is an intent-based architecture, and this is only a brief initial example of what will be possible in the future to provide a seamless user experience and abstract blockchains for users.
The intent relayers approach allows users to pay with any assets they own, not just $NEAR, opening up wallet and application developers to offer a variety of options: using application tokens for paying for multichain transactions, offering a subscription model by charging a flat fee, or offering extra discounts to incentivize specific behaviors.
<h3>Use Cases</h3>
One account for using apps on all chains unlocks a range of previously difficult use cases for founders and developers. Here are some examples for founders and developers to consider as the possibilities for excellent multichain user experiences expand with Account Aggregation.
Expanding user base for existing applications. Currently applications are only targeting the user base of the single chain they have launched on. With Account Aggregation, users can log into applications from every chain as an alternative wallet option. Application developers will simply need to add “Connect with NEAR” to their wallet selector.
Wallet developers can also leverage NEAR’s decentralized and composable interfaces together with Account Aggregation to surface applications across all chains directly within their wallet experience.
Bridgeless DeFi. The first example is bridgeless, cross-chain DeFi where a NEAR account can be a gateway to multiple chains through a unified app experience. This is especially useful for apps like <a href="https://dapdap.tech/">DapDap</a>, built on NEAR, which lets users discover DeFi apps and experiences from a range of L2s and start using them within a single interface.
Multichain DEX. One of the most desired but also complex-to-build use cases is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that works across most if not all chains. Currently users must default to centralized exchanges for such a multichain experience due to the complexity of bridging, gas, and handling separate wallets. With Account Aggregation, DEX smart contracts can live on NEAR while having deposit addresses across all chains. This means there is no need to bridge assets to a single chain to swap or for the user to bridge to the chain where assets have liquidity. Instead they can easily swap $BTC on the Bitcoin network for $OP on Optimism using such a NEAR smart contract.
Bridging Assets. Although the Account Aggregation approach really focuses on using canonical assets on where they are issued, sometimes there is value in having wrapped assets. For example, in cases like Bitcoin or Ethereum where the canonical assets are too expensive and slow to move, wrapping becomes quite useful. To build a specific token bridge using Account Aggregation is just to make a NEAR smart contract that keeps an account of deposits of a given token and issues that respective token balance.
Trading multichain asset bundles. Beyond simple trading, Account Aggregation allows users to make a NEAR account into a bundle of multichain assets. NEAR accounts themselves are tradeable (see <a href="https://namesky.app/">NEAR account marketplace NameSky</a>), which also allows the trading of everything that is deposited to such an account across all chains. For example, say the account xyz.near has 2 BTC, some BRC-20, a BAYC NFT on Ethereum, and some veCRV. By trading this entire account, there is no need to move each of the underlying assets on the other chains. Instead, the new owner comes into possession of the whole bundle when the keys are rotated to them on the account.
There is also an interesting potential approach to implement a multichain exchange of assets via a smart contract that internally maintains a mapping from an owner account to a given path derivation (which is what determines remote addresses on other chains). One can trade the derivation paths inside this smart contract, trading everything deposited on a remote account without trading the entire account. For example:
<ul>
<li>derivation=/0/0/1 → root.near</li>
<li>derivation=/0/0/2 → alice.near which maps to 0xabc on Ethereum</li>
<li>derivation=/0/0/1 → root.near</li>
<li>derivation=/0/0/2 → root.near</li>
</ul>
This approach means users can trade assets across all chains at the speed (1s block time) and cost (below $0.01) of using NEAR.
Delegated Smart Contract Permissions on NEAR. Another use case for Chain Signatures is the ability for a NEAR smart contract to execute something on behalf of other users — for example, to recover keys for an app user.
Let’s say there is a social_recovery.near contract that keeps track of a mapping of friends for a given account root.near. This root.near account at some point added a public key that the social_recovery.near account can sign via Chain Signatures. Friends can initiate a recovery flow, where they send a new public key given to them by the user to social_recovery.near. If enough friends do this, the social_recovery.near requests to sign a NEAR transaction that adds a new key on behalf of its own remote key with signer root.near. When executed, this transaction adds a new key to root.near, allowing the user to recover their account via a social recovery process they can set up in case they need it.
Similarly, smart contracts can execute rebalancing of pools on behalf of the user based on some condition and any other logic that the user decides to “install” on their account by adding a remote key from that account.
DeFi on Bitcoin (and other non-smart contract chains). Using chain signatures, smart contracts on NEAR can control externally-owned accounts on non-smart contract chains like Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ripple, Bittensor, Cosmos Hub, etc. This enables developers to use NEAR as a smart contract “layer” for chains that do not support this functionality natively.
For example, a developer can build a decentralized exchange for Bitcoin Ordinals, using a smart contract on NEAR to manage deposits (into Bitcoin addresses controlled by the contract) and to verify and execute swaps when two users agree to trade BTC for an Ordinal or BRC20 token.
<h3>Coming Soon to NEAR Testnet</h3>
Excited to build with Account Aggregation? Keep an eye on NEAR’s <a href="https://docs.near.org/">docs</a>: Chain Signatures and Intent Relayers are expected to be available on testnet by March 1, 2024. And join members of the NEAR ecosystem at the <a href="https://lu.ma/ChADay">Chain Abstraction Summit</a>, co-sponsored by NEAR Foundation during ETHDenver, to learn more about Account Aggregation and exciting innovations from all the projects contributing to Chain Abstraction.
-Illia Polosukhin, David Millar-Durrant, Gautham Ravi, Dio Ortega, Mally Anderson
Originally published at <a href="https://pages.near.org/blog/unlocking-web3-usability-with-account-aggregation/">https://pages.near.org</a> on February 15, 2024.
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<a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol/unlocking-web3-usability-with-account-aggregation-3182c945f8de">Unlocking Web3 Usability with Account Aggregation</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol">NEAR Protocol</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Unlocking Web3 Usability with Account Aggregation

<h3>The World’s First Blockchain Verified Carbon Credit is Live</h3>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*Yf-wKMGUTqbW4qvjaEcpjQ.png"></figure>TLDR:
Open Forest Protocol is an On-Chain Carbon, RWA (Real World Asset), and Institutional Crypto play launching blockchain-native carbon credits through its novel verification and asset issuance platform — A Consensus Layer for the On-Chain Carbon Market. After building for two years, its first credit was launched <a href="https://atlas.openforestprotocol.org/1671129683881">via the Carbon Development Project Celsia, based in Colombia</a>. This credit launch is the first of many planned for 2024, with a pipeline of over 70 projects and more than 6,000 Hectares On-Chain.
Bringing verifiable carbon credits on-chain
Open Forest Protocol is a three-year-old project built on NEAR Protocol with a mission of upgrading the transparency and quality of the existing voluntary carbon market (VCM). While many blockchain-based solutions have attempted to ‘bridge’ carbon credits from legacy verifiers in the past, Open Forest is charting a new approach to the future of carbon: natively verifying and issuing carbon credits, directly from the blockchain.
On January 23rd, this vision was realized, when Open Forest’s first carbon credit was issued by <a href="https://atlas.openforestprotocol.org/1671129683881">Celsia, a carbon development project based in Colombia.</a> This achievement marks a paradigm shift for both the Voluntary Carbon Market and the value proposition of blockchain-based systems.
For the first time, a fully ‘data-backed’ carbon credit has been issued, to the extent that an off-taker or third-party trader can easily verify on-chain the following details about their carbon credit:
<ul>
<li>Where it came from.</li>
<li>When the project started.</li>
<li>What data was collected to create the carbon credit.</li>
<li>When the data was uploaded.</li>
<li>Who verified the data.</li>
<li>How many counterparties verified the data.</li>
<li>What methodology was used to create and issue the credit.</li>
<li>Where the credit was issued.</li>
<li>When the credit was offset.</li>
</ul>
With Open Forest, every carbon credit is entirely visible from the inception of the carbon development project (<a href="https://atlas.openforestprotocol.org/">documented on a novel product known as Atlas</a>), to the upload, verification, issuance, and offset of the credit in question. All credits created are automatically distributed to the project’s wallet after verification and issuance with a portion of the credit going to a buffer pool, as well as to protocol token holders ($OPN). The credits themselves are documented as multi-tokens under the NEP-245 standard, allowing anyone to view the quantity and Project ID of the credit in question.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/864/0*CFTtxBscQCBWpcNy"><figcaption>The OFP Wallet</figcaption></figure>Jumpstarting the On-Chain Carbon Market:
With institutional interest in crypto reaching <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/crypto-option-interest-hits-20-billion-historic-highs-with-institutional-surge">all time highs</a>, Open Forest is a unique protocol built on NEAR that holds the promise of bringing On-Chain carbon to the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) at scale. This means that both institutions, carbon traders, and crypto-protocols, can easily access some of the highest quality carbon credits in the world, with confidence towards its integrity and longevity.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*JoaGF3O7D-cd5h7u"><figcaption>The Project and Credit Amounts: <a href="https://atlas.openforestprotocol.org/1671129683881">https://atlas.openforestprotocol.org/1671129683881</a></figcaption></figure>While Open Forest Protocol currently has over 80 projects on the network representative of more than 5,000 Hectares, its upcoming pipeline is indicative of a much larger role in the future VCM:
<ul>
<li>More than 65 projects are planned to onboard in 2024, representing over 50,000 Hectares.</li>
<li>An ongoing agreement with Ivory Coast for a 3,500 HA agroforestry project.</li>
<li>One of 10 companies selected by the World Economic Forum Uplink Trillion Tree’s Challenge (<a href="https://uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/uplink-issue/a002o000019HLisAAG/trillion-trees-restoration-at-scale">link</a>).</li>
<li>Planning a Token Sale in Q3 — Q4 of 2024 to jumpstart long-term growth and development.</li>
</ul>
At a time when the Voluntary Carbon Market is facing a crossroads, Open Forest’s launch of the world’s first blockchain-based carbon credit is a significant milestone for improving the overall quality and standards of this nascent asset class. As many consultants and corporations have attested, the VCM currently doing $2.5 billion per year in volume is expected to get much, much larger in the future:
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*dLurB987FBDiQciU"><figcaption>Sources: <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/sustainability/our-insights/a-blueprint-for-scaling-voluntary-carbon-markets-to-meet-the-climate-challenge">Mckinsey</a> &amp; <a href="https://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/articles/nature-can-get-us-37-percent-way-paris-climate-target/">Ecosystem Marketplace</a></figcaption></figure><h3>About NEARWEEK</h3>
NEARWEEK is the ultimate destination for all things related to NEAR. As the official NEAR Protocol newsletter and community platform, NEARWEEK goes beyond journalism in order to actively celebrate, participate in, and contribute to the NEAR ecosystem.
<a href="https://shard.dog/nearweek">NEAR Newsletter</a> | <a href="https://near.org/near/widget/ProfilePage?accountId=nearweek.near">NEAR Social</a> | <a href="https://near.org/achildhoodhero.near/widget/nearweek.editorial.bos">Editorial (dApp)</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/nearweek">Twitter</a>
<h3>About NEAR Protocol</h3>
NEAR is on a mission to onboard a billion users to the limitless possibilities of Web3 with the Blockchain Operating System (BOS). Leveraging its high-performance, carbon-neutral protocol, which is swift, secure, and scalable, NEAR offers a common layer for browsing and discovering the Open Web.
<a href="https://near.org/">NEAR Discovery</a> | <a href="https://www.proximity.dev/BOS">What is BOS?</a> | <a href="https://www.neardc.org/">NEAR NDC</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/NEARProtocol">Twitter</a>
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<a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol/the-worlds-first-blockchain-verified-carbon-credit-on-open-forest-protocol-a7b80f9d14c0">The World’s First Blockchain Verified Carbon Credit on Open Forest Protocol</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nearprotocol">NEAR Protocol</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The World’s First Blockchain Verified Carbon Credit on Open Forest Protocol

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A weekly update on everything that moves NEAR Protocol&nbsp;Nº&nbsp;156 · Tue 16 Apr, 2024&nbsp;GM NEAR community (⋈), &nbsp;Last week was all about Funding The Commons&nbsp;in San Francisco, where NEAR co-founder <a href="https://nearweek.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed13caf5cf7d37689d81ef60b&amp;id=0fd0db9534&amp;e=f3d1450b9b">Alex Skidanov delivered a rousing keynote</a> on the leverage of AI in powering the internet of tomorrow. Full details of the keynote will be published as soon as available.&nbsp; In the meantime, for all builders interested in AI, and leveraging it in blockchain and Web3, NEAR Foundation is funding an AI Public Goods pot on Potlock. Applications close in 7 days. - <a href="https://nearweek.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed13caf5cf7d37689d81ef60b&amp;id=4b270cca28&amp;e=f3d1450b9b">Apply here</a>. In this week's issue, we also spotlight major developments and strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing NEAR Protocol's&nbsp;infrastructure and performance. Discover the launch of NF's&nbsp;new Infrastructure Committee and all the good stuff FAST NEAR been cooking lately.&nbsp;LFG! Stay NEAR, Mr. News Pssst&nbsp;don't&nbsp;miss all&nbsp;the alpha from our <a href="https://nearweek.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed13caf5cf7d37689d81ef60b&amp;id=74d4faa92c&amp;e=f3d1450b9b">weekly alpha thread.</a>

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A weekly update on everything that moves NEAR Protocol &nbsp;Nº 155&nbsp;· &nbsp;MON &nbsp;Apr 8, 2024&nbsp;&nbsp;GM NEAR community (⋈), &nbsp;We open this week's issue&nbsp;with a celebratory voice, joining&nbsp;the ecosystem in cheering a massive milestone as the Protocol just hit <a href="https://pikespeak.ai/near-world/overview">1 billion total transactions on mainnet</a>! This milestone underscores the rapid growth of NEAR Protocol, including a recent output of 11m daily transactions by +2m daily active users.&nbsp;This significant number is laying the marker&nbsp;for the next big milestones for the Protocol and the ecosystem. Leading up to this achievement, we spotlight <a href="https://x.com/ilblackdragon/status/1776474659191763214">a&nbsp;hearty appreciation post from&nbsp;NEAR co-founder, Illia Polosukhin</a>,&nbsp;to everyone working on NEAR, with a special mention to Head of Protocol, Bowen Wang and the protocol team. The post highlights the committee effort of the NEAR One team, led by Bowen, to achieve some of the Protocol's recent significant milestones, including: - Dynamic resharding ensured a smooth addition of 2 shards on mainnet. - The successful launch of Chain Signatures. - Stateless validation incoming&nbsp;in Q2. Let's keep on celebrating our wins, encouraging and helping each other out on&nbsp;our journey&nbsp;towards a unified open web. This ecosystem is all&nbsp;of us.&nbsp;&nbsp;Stay NEAR, Mr. News&nbsp;

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A weekly update on everything that moves NEAR Protocol &nbsp;Nº 154&nbsp;· &nbsp;MON &nbsp;Apr 1, 2024&nbsp;&nbsp;GM NEAR community (⋈), &nbsp;Imagine using a single&nbsp;account to seamlessly sign transactions on any blockchain, from Bitcoin to Ethereum and beyond, similar to how you would use a universal remote control for multiple devices.&nbsp;This future-forward&nbsp;functionality is now a reality with the launch of Chain Signatures on the NEAR Protocol. &nbsp;In a defining announcement at BUIDL Asia&nbsp;Illia Polosukhin&nbsp;unveiled Chain Signatures, a revolutionary feature for Web3 only possible with NEAR Protocol. This cutting-edge technology leverages a decentralized Multi-Party Computation (MPC) network, secured via NEAR staking and EigenLayer ETH restakers, to&nbsp;enable&nbsp;NEAR accounts, including smart contracts, to sign transactions across any blockchain. --&gt; Dive into the&nbsp;Chain Signatures announcement <a href="https://pages.near.org/blog/chain-signatures-launch-to-enable-transactions-on-any-blockchain-from-a-near-account/">here</a> Chain Signatures currently supports transactions on major blockchains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cosmos, DogeCoin, XRP Ledger, and soon, Solana, TON Network, Polkadot, among others. Chain Signatures is&nbsp;enabling&nbsp;NEAR's&nbsp;Chain Abstracted vision for Web3: A&nbsp;viable and interconnected&nbsp;multichain&nbsp;ecosystem without&nbsp;boundaries. --&gt; Dive into NEAR's Chain Abstraction vision <a href="https://near.org/blog/why-chain-abstraction-is-the-next-frontier-for-web3">here</a> &nbsp;Chain Signatures&nbsp;enhances DeFi&nbsp;adoption by broadening the scope of use cases and simplifying transactions across non-smart contract chains. Accompanying this is the launch of the Multichain Gas Relayer, which eliminates&nbsp;the need for native gas tokens on other chains for transactions. --&gt; Dive into&nbsp;into Multichain Gas Relayer <a href="https://pages.near.org/blog/unlocking-web3-usability-with-account-aggregation/">here</a> --&gt; Dive into&nbsp;Chain Signatures for DeFi&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/proximityfi/status/1767429574177239276?s=20">here</a> This recent NEAR development opens up unprecedented opportunities for app developers and Web3 builders to create accessible, inclusive, and interconnected digital asset experiences. LFG! &nbsp;------------------------------------------------------------- &nbsp;Want to be a CHAD (Chain Abstraction Developer)?&nbsp; Get started with these resources: <a href="https://docs.near.org/concepts/abstraction/chain-signatures">Documentation</a> - <a href="https://docs.near.org/abstraction/chain-signatures">Code samples</a>&nbsp;- <a href="https://near.org/devhub.near/widget/app?page=community&amp;handle=chain-abstraction&amp;tab=introduction">Explainer videos</a> Projects interested in&nbsp;implementing&nbsp;the technology, or that require support to do so,&nbsp;can take their first steps - <a href="https://docs.near.org/abstraction/chain-signatures">here</a> To discuss, stay up-to-date, always&nbsp;in the know, and have Chain Abstraction on the go, join the <a href="https://t.me/+RXYjlPob_XM5N2Ex">Chain Abstraction Telegram chat</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;Stay NEAR, Mr. News&nbsp;

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A weekly update on everything that moves NEAR Protocol &nbsp;Nº 153&nbsp;· &nbsp;MON &nbsp;Mar 25, 2024&nbsp;&nbsp;An-nyeong&nbsp;NEAR community (⋈), &nbsp;Get ready for Korea BUIDL Week&nbsp;2024! Packed with opportunities to learn, build, and connect: &nbsp;<ul><li>March 26:&nbsp;Join us for Chain Abstraction Day, where you'll explore the future of seamless cross-chain development on NEAR. -&nbsp;<a href="https://lu.ma/ChADay_BUIDLAsia24">Apply to attend Chain Abstraction Day</a> &nbsp;</li><li>March 27-28:&nbsp;Don't miss Illia Polosukhin's keynote and a major surprise announcement at BUIDL Asia 2024. Plus, catch an exclusive fireside chat between Illia and Vitalik Buterin, on AI Facts vs Fiction -&nbsp;<a href="https://www.buidl.asia/">Buidl Asia 2024</a> &nbsp;</li><li>March 29-31:&nbsp;Compete in two NEAR-sponsored hackathons during ETH Seoul for massive bounty prizes. -&nbsp;<a href="https://ethseoul2024.devfolio.co/">Hackathon details and registration</a> &nbsp;</li><li>April 2:&nbsp;NEAR proudly supports SheFi Summit Seoul, empowering women in Web3 - <a href="https://lu.ma/shefisummmitseoul">SheFi Summit</a> Don't miss out!</li></ul> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stay NEAR, Mr. News&nbsp;

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Edition #157

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[BUIDL Asia 2024 Fireside Chat] AI/Crypto Fact vs Fiction

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