What is NEAR Protocol and what is it used for?

NEAR Protocol is a public blockchain designed to make apps easier to build and use. It is a layer 1 network secured by proof of stake, and it divides its workload into shards that run side by side. Its native coin is also called NEAR.

What blockchain is NEAR Protocol on?

NEAR is not on another blockchain. It runs its own chain and was designed as an alternative to Ethereum and other layer 1 networks, unlike a layer 2, which settles back to a base chain.

The project was founded by Illia Polosukhin and Alexander Skidanov, and its mainnet launched in April 2020, at first in a restricted mode. Its sharding design is described in a white paper called Nightshade.

Some confusion comes from Aurora, a separate network that runs an Ethereum-compatible environment using NEAR's infrastructure, so Ethereum-style apps and wallets such as MetaMask can be used there. Aurora also offers bridges to Ethereum.

What is NEAR Protocol used for?

NEAR is used to run decentralized apps and smart contracts. A few features aim it at everyday users:

• Named accounts. Accounts can have readable names such as alice.near instead of long strings of characters.
• Access keys. An account can hold several keys with different permissions, which NEAR says makes apps safer and simpler to use.
• Chain Signatures. A NEAR account, including a smart contract, can control addresses on other chains such as Bitcoin, Solana and Ethereum. A group of independent nodes signs jointly, and none can sign alone.
• NEAR Intents. The project describes this as a way to carry out trades and transfers across many chains from one account.

As of October 2026, NEAR's website also pitches the network as infrastructure for AI agents, a focus tied to co-founder Polosukhin's background as a co-author of the Transformer research behind modern AI models.

How does the NEAR coin work?

The NEAR coin has three main roles in the protocol:

• Gas. Each transaction pays a small fee in NEAR, deducted upfront. Part of the fee is burned, and a contract receives 30% of the gas burned while it runs, which rewards developers. Unused gas is refunded.
• Storage. Contracts must lock NEAR in proportion to the data they keep on chain. The docs set the price at 1 NEAR per 100 KB.
• Staking. Holders delegate NEAR to validators to secure the network and earn rewards. Unstaked tokens go through an unbonding period of several epochs before they can be withdrawn.

Is NEAR Protocol crypto fast and cheap?

NEAR says blocks are produced about every 600 milliseconds and transactions become final in roughly 1.2 to 1.3 seconds, with typical fees under one cent. A simple transfer costs about 0.000045 NEAR at the minimum gas price. The gas price adjusts each block with demand, so costs can rise when the network is busy. These are the project's own figures and can change with upgrades.