What is NEAR Protocol crypto?
The NEAR Protocol is an application blockchain that aims to be the quickest, cheapest, and most scalable blockchain for developers and users alike. At its core, NEAR Protocol is a layer-1 blockchain similar to, and compatible with, Ethereum. Yet unlike Ethereum, which can only manage double-digit transactions per second, NEAR can process around 100,000 TPS, making it one of the fastest blockchains online.
The key to NEAR Protocol’s speed and scalability comes from sharding. Sharding is the technique of breaking the blockchain into sections to be worked independently and then added back to the main blockchain ledger once the transactions are verified, which reduces congestion.
Who created the NEAR Protocol coin?
The NEAR Protocol coin was created by the NEAR Foundation, a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, that was founded by Alexander Skidanov and Illia Polosukhin back in 2017. Previous to NEAR, Alexander Skidanov was a software developer at Microsoft, while Illia Polosukhin was an engineering manager at Google.
NEAR Protocol vs Ethereum
The NEAR Protocol is a decentralized application platform that is similar to Ethereum and compatible with Ethereum, thanks to its Rainbow Bridge. Both platforms allow developers to build and deploy dApps. However, to summarise, the NEAR Protocol is designed to be more scalable, faster, and easier to use than Ethereum. The NEAR Protocol is often cited as having the more developer-friendly programming language and tools for building dApps when compared with Ethereum.
NEAR Protocol vs Solana
Both the NEAR Protocol and Solana are decentralized application platforms that specialize in dApps. While similar, the main difference between them seems to be in how they select validators. Both platforms use proof-of-stake consensus algorithms, which are intended to be more energy-efficient than proof-of-work algorithms.
However, the difference with Solana really comes down to its validators running servers at a loss. This is due to the high start-up costs required by Solana to become a validator compared to NEAR Protocol. Until addressed, NEAR Protocol is likely a better choice for users and developers as the blockchain it runs on has more incentives for users to host its servers.
Where to buy NEAR Protocol?
To buy NEAR Protocol, the easiest place would be to use the trading feature on Binance or Coinbase. However, should you not like those platforms, NEAR is well distributed, and the available exchanges to purchase NEAR Protocol from currently are nearly endless. For example, you can also buy NEAR Protocol on exchanges such as Gemini, OKX, Kraken, Gate.io, KuCoin, and many more.
How to buy NEAR Protocol
The easiest way to buy NEAR Protocol is on Coinbase.
Step 1
go to Coinbase.com and create an account.
Coinbase is the most well-known of the “compliant exchanges” and a publicly traded business operating under the scrutiny of US regulators; Coinbase has benefited as the cryptocurrency market has developed and regulators have become more involved.
Step 2
add some bank card details so you can pay with your debit or credit card.
Step 3
go to the Buy & Sell tab in the top right of the webpage.
Step 4
click Buy, Sell, and Convert.
Step 5
select Buy and enter the amount you want to purchase.
Step 6
next to the smaller “Buy” tab, you will see Bitcoin selected as the default. Click the arrow on the right of Bitcoin and select NEAR Protocol from the menu.
By default, it will be set to ‘one-time purchase, but this can be changed to automated purchasing if you would like to purchase NEAR Protocol every day, week, fortnight, or month.
Step 7
select the card details you entered during registration earlier in the “Pay with” box.
Step 8
lastly, in the blue button at the bottom, select “Buy NEAR Protocol” to complete your transaction.
How to add NEAR Protocol to Metamask?
- To add NEAR Protocol to Metamask, you must first connect to the Binance Smart Chain.
- Second, on Metamask, go to Settings, then Networks.
- Next, Add Network in the top-right to begin adding a network manually.
- In the Network Name box, enter Smart Chain.
- In the New RPC URL column, enter: https://bsc-dataseed.binance.org/
- For ChainID, enter: 56
- The Symbol is: BNB
- And finally, in the Block Explorer URL, enter: https://bscscan.com
- Now that we have added the Binance Smart Chain select it from the top of Metamask.
- Now click Assets near the bottom left and Import Tokens under that.
- In the Token contract address, enter: 0x1fa4a73a3f0133f0025378af00236f3abdee5d63
- This should populate the Token symbol and Token decimal boxes automatically.
How to stake NEAR Protocol
Staking NEAR Protocol couldn’t be simpler. The easiest way is by using the official NEAR wallet.
- First, go to https://wallet.near.org/ and create your account.
- Second, send over some NEAR tokens you purchased earlier to your new wallet address.
- Next, go to the Staking tab and choose a validator.
- Enter an amount and hit “Stake My Tokens.”
Although simple, choosing a validator with a good track record is important, as this will ensure you the most return in the long run. This means you should research who are the more reliable validators at the time you are going to stake.
How to bridge NEAR Protocol
The Rainbow Bridge allows for assets to be exchanged between NEAR Protocol and Ethereum networks, giving users the possibility to bridge any ERC20 they require. This includes being able to stake ETH on the NEAR DAO without making a transaction on Ethereum itself.
- To start the bridging process, go to https://rainbowbridge.app/transfer and select bridge or send.
- To bridge, connect your Ethereum wallet and your NEAR wallet.
- Finally, select begin new transfer to complete the bridging.
Is NEAR Protocol a Good Investment?
Like all cryptocurrencies, it is hard to say for certain which projects are a good investment. So to answer if NEAR Protocol is a good investment, you must first ask yourself a few questions. Do you believe in the long-term viability of this project? What is it about the NEAR Protocol that you believe makes it a better project than competitors like Ethereum and Solana?
If you answered ‘yes’ and have thought about why you feel NEAR Protocol will surpass Ethereum, Solana, and all other layer-1 competitors like Cardano, Algorand, Polkadot, etc., then maybe the NEAR Protocol is a good investment for you.
Though, like with all investments, consulting with your financial advisor is always recommended, as is studying the price history to spot when a good buy-in opportunity may present itself to you.
Price Prediction
NEAR Protocol price predictions, currently, look like the market has entered a bull market, and it is predicted to remain that way until 2024. While this presents possible cheap buy-in opportunities for investors, it also doesn’t look great on a price prediction chart.
However, looking forward to 2025 and into 2030, the trend is still looking strong overall. If historical patterns repeat, we are likely to see the bear market end sometime in 2024, with a new bull run occurring in 2025 and maybe extending into as far as 2026.
Again, using historical patterns, altcoins such as NEAR Protocol have historically been reduced to 10% of their bull run high. As the all-time high for NEAR Protocol is just over $20, we should expect to see NEAR Protocol fall around $2 at its bear market low. Additionally, if the pattern of exponential price rallies continues with each bull run, we may see NEAR Protocol blast through $40 by 2026, and maybe as high as $80 by 2030.
Why is NEAR Protocol going up?
While nothing is guaranteed in crypto, there are some reasons why the NEAR Protocol price may continue to go up, mostly due to their tokenomics. The NEAR Protocol issues new NEAR tokens each day until all 1 billion NEAR Protocol tokens have been released. However, depending on how many transactions the network has completed each day dictates how much NEAR is created.
After a certain number of transactions per day, the NEAR Protocol stops creating new NEAR tokens and starts burning them instead. Theoretically, this means if the NEAR Protocol becomes large enough, it could become a deflationary asset. If the network becomes large enough to become deflationary, it stands to reason it has become successful. In this case, the supply of NEAR tokens decreases while the demand for them goes up, which should see the price also increase.
Why is NEAR Protocol down?
This leads to the following question, why might the NEAR Protocol go down? Simply put, if the network does not reach a specific size, the NEAR Protocol will continue to create new NEAR tokens until all 1 billion NEAR tokens have been distributed. If there is not enough network demand and tokens continue to be issued, the price for NEAR tokens will likely decrease until all 1 billion NEAR tokens have been released.
Is NEAR Protocol safe?
To answer if NEAR Protocol is safe, we must first understand that all blockchains must dance around the blockchain trilemma. The trilemma states that a blockchain cannot be decentralized, secure, and scalable without compromising one of the three.
In the case of NEAR Protocol, it has given up decentralization to be more scalable while remaining secure. To be clear, there are still 100 validators and thousands of delegators on the NEAR Protocol. Still, to achieve the highest transaction times, the number of validators has to be lower to ensure a faster consensus on transactions. So, is the NEAR Protocol safe? Yes, however, it’s not the most decentralized blockchain available.
We Coin-Labs.com provides only objective information about NEAR Protocol.
Therefore, we are not responsible for the investment decision in NEAR Protocol and the resulting loss.
NEAR Protocol Basics
Here are some factors that investors should consider before investing in NEAR Protocol.
| Cryptocurrency Features | NEAR Protocol (NEAR) |
|---|---|
| Publisher or Developers | NEAR Foundation |
| Headquarters (Registration Number) | Switzerland |
| Symbol | NEAR |
| Platform | |
| Published Date (CMC Registration) | 2024-11-01 |
| Max Supply | No limit |
Reliability Score of NEAR Protocol in 2024
These are indexes mesuring the investment reliability of NEAR Protocol conducted by Coin-Labs.com.
| Investment Reliability Rating Items | Scores and Current Status |
|---|---|
| Company Activation Rate | 3.2 / 10.0 CAR |
| Communication Rate | 4.9 / 10.0 CR |
| Technology Transparency Rate | 4.1 / 10.0 TTR |
| Development Participation Rate | 6.2 / 10.0 DPR |
| Listing Status on the World's Top 10 Exchanges | Listed on 8 Exchanges |
| Number of Available Pairs Worldwide | 461 Pairs |
| Market Cap of the Cryptocurrency | 2,952,591,451 USD (Rank #30) |
The table above shows the result of investment suitability evaluation for NEAR Protocol.
Check out how we evaluate cryptocurrencies on the crypto rating description page.
NEAR Protocol Price
Here are the price and recent trading volume of NEAR Protocol. (Data of 2024-11-02 00:37:00)
| Price Items | Price and Trading Volume of NEAR Protocol |
|---|---|
| NEAR Protocol Price | 4.036 USD |
| Price Change 24h | -2.71% |
| Price Change 7d | -11.35% |
| Trading Volume 24h | 240,390,171 USD |
| Trading Volume Change 24h | 14.61% |
Cryptocurrency Metadata
You can check the development status and social media information of NEAR Protocol through the links in the table below.
| Metadata Source | URL |
|---|---|
| 🌎 Official Website | https://near.org/ |
| 📖 White Paper | https://near.org/papers/the-official-near-white-paper |
| 🛰️ Source Code (GitHub) | https://github.com/nearprotocol/nearcore |
| https://twitter.com/NEARProtocol | |
| 🎺 Message Board | https://near.org/blog/ |
Where to Buy NEAR Protocol
Here are the top ten world crypto exchanges where traders can buy NEAR Protocol in 2024.
| Top10 Exchanges | Listed Status | Page URL |
|---|---|---|
| Binance | Listed | https://www.binance.com/en/trade/NEAR_BTC?theme=dark&type=spot |
| Coinbase | Listed | https://pro.coinbase.com/trade/NEAR-USD |
| Kraken | Listed | https://trade.kraken.com/charts/KRAKEN:NEAR-EUR |
| KuCoin | Listed | https://www.kucoin.com/trade/NEAR-USDT |
| Bitfinex | Listed | https://trading.bitfinex.com/t/NEAR:USD |
| OKX | Not listed | |
| Huobi | Listed | https://www.huobi.com/en-us/exchange/near_usdt |
| Bitstamp | Listed | https://www.bitstamp.net/markets/near/usd/ |
| Bybit | Not listed | |
| Gate.io | Listed | https://www.gate.io/trade/NEAR_USDT |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the current price of NEAR Protocol?
NEAR Protocol price today is 4.036 USD. Furthermore, the price of NEAR Protocol has fluctuated by -2.71% from 24 hours ago, and by -11.35% from a week ago.
Where is NEAR Protocol listed?
Currently, it is listed on a total of 8 among the world top 10 exchanges.
What is the market cap of NEAR Protocol now?
Currently, NEAR Protocol has a market cap of 2,952,591,451 USD, which is ranking 30 among cryptocurrencies worldwide.
How much is the trade volume of NEAR Protocol?
Currently, 1,217,541,148 NEAR coins are circulating through 461 market pairs. As a result, in the last 24 hours, 240,390,171 USD of NEAR coins were traded in the market.
