Near Protocol Ecosystem

NEAR is a sharded, developer-friendly, proof-of-stake public blockchain. It is designed to compete with Ethereum by providing a similar experience with decentralized applications and smart contracts, but with lower fees and higher throughput. The blockchain’s native token, NEAR, is used to pay for transactions and storing data on the blockchain. Smart contract developers receive a portion of the transaction fees generated by their contracts, while the remainder is burnt. This creates deflationary pressure on NEAR, making it more valuable as more transactions are performed.