NEAR protocol releases blockchain operating system for Web3
The decentralized application (DApp) NEAR protocol is launching a new blockchain operating system, focusing on improving the user experience on Web3 through a common layer for browsing and discovering open web resources, the company revealed at the Web3 and innovation festival ETHDenver 2023.
In an interview with Cointelegraph’s Turner Wright during the event, NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin talked about how the ecosystem is moving closer to user needs and the release of the Blockchain Operating System (BOS).
According to NEAR’s team, the system works with any blockchain or Web2 backend, allowing users to have the experience of using a single app, even when switching between applications or chains. For developers, the solutions promise to deliver decentralized and composable front ends, enabling the fork of parts and components, and embedded elements such as payments, profiles and notifications without any hosting involved.
Polosukhin noted about the blockchain operating system:
“iOS gives developers a place to show their app in front of billions of users and it gives them all the services and infrastructure to build, so you just plug in here. That’s what we’re trying to do, trying to provide the distribution here, provide the platform below and let developers build.”
The protocol, which is a competitor to Ethereum that offers smart contracts and a proof-of-stake blockchain, sought a 10x growth in key figures last year, including the number of transactions, active monthly wallets, projects on board, developers and money invested within the ecosystem, the co-founder claimed .
Related: Smart Contracts to Run Your Daily Web3 Business
“Many projects have just migrated over to NEAR,” Polosukhin noted of last year’s growth, coupled with an effort to search for existing applications with a user base:
“They came to us, some of them because they saw that you can write in JavaScript smart contracts. It’s three times cheaper to hire developers. This is just more applicable not only for users, but for developers as well.”
Unchain Fund
Polosukhin is also one of the developers behind the Unchain Fund, a fundraising effort created last year to help Ukrainians affected by the war. As of early 2023, the fund had collected over $9 million in donations, almost entirely in crypto assets.
According to him, the funds raised were crucial to support the people of Ukraine in the first weeks of the war, while international aid was still ongoing at a slower pace:
“The Red Cross, UNICEF, they spend months spinning up all their systems when something happens, that’s just the way they are. They’re slow […] but when they get there, they have the procedure, and they set it up, they build the supply chain, logistics, and then they can start delivering. So, in a way, crypto funds covered in the beginning, as spin-up time for a similar government support.”
Part of the funds raised was used for a program dedicated to women with children who run away from home, providing weekly payments of 25 euros to approximately 6,000 Ukrainian women. The funds were also used to buy ambulances through the global initiative United24.
