Near Protocol (NEAR), one of the relatively undervalued altcoins, is making its presence felt in the cryptocurrency market. Despite this, it showed significant potential with an impressive 370% rise last year. This upward trend, as noted by many experts, is particularly due to its impressive technological advantages and connections with artificial intelligence technology, attracting the attention of high-level investors currently making substantial investments in NEAR.
Near Protocol and Technological Developments
Launched by the Near Foundation in 2020, Near Protocol aims to simplify the development process for Blockchain applications. Its standout features include superior transaction speed and lower fees compared to Ethereum and Solana. Near Protocol achieves this with a sharding technology called Nightshade, which allows it to perform thousands of transactions per second. It also has two major components: EVM-compatible Aurora and Near Shard. Near’s architecture supports human-readable account names, making it user-friendly for developers.
According to experts, Near Protocol’s technological superiority lies in its use of Nightshade for scalability and a Blockchain architecture similar to Solana’s WASM. This technology allows Near Protocol to support the same smart contracts and applications as Ethereum but with better scalability. Human-readable account names further simplify interactions on the platform, unlike Ethereum’s cryptographic wallet addresses.
Near Protocol ranks among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market value, showcasing its solid foundations. The ecosystem includes approximately 750 active projects and 125 DAOs, but it still needs more high-performing applications to better compete with its rivals. Furthermore, Near Protocol has succeeded in increasing its potential and visibility by establishing significant partnerships with both Web2 and Web3 companies such as Google, Alibaba, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Eigen Labs.
Artificial Intelligence Integration
Near Protocol is seen more as an artificial intelligence project than an Ethereum competitor due to its extensive use of AI and machine learning for various operations such as security monitoring, smart contract deployment, and network optimization. The altcoin project’s co-founder, Illia Polosukhin, recently emphasized Near Protocol’s commitment to AI in a speech at Nvidia’s AI conference. Near Protocol’s AI-powered feature, Near Tasks, creates a marketplace where users can earn NEAR coins by completing tasks, leveraging the gig economy platform.
Moreover, Near Protocol plans to focus heavily on artificial intelligence technology throughout 2024, aiming to create a fully sovereign AI assistant optimized for user needs and privacy. The launch of Near Tasks, a marketplace for tasks that reward users with NEAR coins, represents a significant step in Near Protocol’s AI goals. This platform aims to create earning opportunities by using AI to enhance user experience and transparency through on-chain identities, rather than replacing human jobs.
