NEAR Dev NEWS

8 min readMay 7, 2024

NEAR Dev NEWS

Milestone edition [Bounty Boost Program]

Welcome to the milestone 10th edition of NEAR Dev NEWS! 🎉 To celebrate this , they’ve got something special in store for motivated web2 and web3 developers. Introducing their Bounty Boost Program, designed to reward the developers who win hackathons using NEAR tools. Keep reading for all the details.

In this edition, they’ll explore the latest updates, highlight weekly activities, and developer opportunities with NEAR.

FEATURED RELEASES & PR's 🤩

🚀 near.cli.rs has new releases 0.9.0 and 0.9.1 Enjoy even more help from CLI selecting the functions to interact if the contract supports NEAR ABI!

near-jsonrpc-client-rs Version 0.9.0 has been released:

A new release of near-jsonrpc-client-rs version 0.9.0 was announced. This release includes improvements to the RPC server in nearcore. The update was credited to a specific contributor and was accompanied by gratitude for testing and final tweaks before release.

near-api-js Version 4.0.1 has been released:

This includes support for the new send_tx function. The update allows all transaction sending functions to utilize the new function, providing improved functionality for developers!

near-rust-sdk version 5.1.0 has been released. The highlights of the release can be found .

Wallet Selector Version 8.9.6 has been released:

👉 Github --> https://github.com/near/wallet-selector/tree/v8.9.6 👉 NPM --> https://www.npmjs.com/package/@near-wallet-selector/core

Discover more in releases and merged pull requests in their changelog.

DEVELOPER UPDATES 🛠

SDK 5.1 Migration Issues:

Developers encountered challenges migrating from #[near_bindgen] to the #[near] macro in SDK 5.1. An error occurred during ABI extraction, citing a lack of NEAR ABI symbols in the dylib. The issue was reported along with the relevant console command for reproduction. A GitHub branch was created for further investigation. 👉 GitHub Issue

Serialization of u64/u128 in SDK 5.1:

Questions arose regarding the automatic serialization of u64 and u128 as strings for input/output in SDK 5.1. Developers observed discrepancies in return values between using primitive types and their corresponding U64 and U128 wrapper types. Community members discussed implications for contract interoperability with near-api-js and potential solutions to maintain consistent data representation.

Proposal for Privacy and Encryption SDK:

A proposal was submitted to DevHub for the development of a privacy and encryption SDK for NEAR. The proposal aims to enhance privacy features and data security on the NEAR platform. Community members were invited to review the proposal and provide feedback. The proposal includes details on the team involved and the objectives of the SDK.

near-cli-rs Enhancement :

We're improving near-cli-rs to display transaction fees in NEAR tokens and USD after each transaction. This enhancement offers users greater transparency and clarity regarding transaction costs. The proposed changes will involve modifying the print_transaction_status function in the common.rs file. This function will now include information about transaction fees, specifically the gas amount in the ExecutionOutcomeView::gas_burnt field.

Ui is NEAR Project Updates:

Progress updates were provided for the Ui is NEAR project, highlighting the completion of 15 components along with their respective functionality tests. The project aims to enhance the user interface experience for NEAR-based applications. The proposal link was shared for further information on the project's scope and objectives. 👉 DevHub Proposal

Integration of NEAR Data on LangChainAI via Mintbase API:

NEAR Protocol data is now accessible on LangChainAI through the Mintbase API. Community members were encouraged to explore the integration, which provides access to on-chain data for analysis and development purposes. A link to the documentation detailing the integration process was shared for reference.

NEP-536 and NEP-540 Approval Voting in Protocol Work Group Call #9:

In the recent Protocol Work Group call #9, NEP-536, which suggests adjustments to gas refunds, received positive feedback from all four working group members, leaning towards approval. However, NEP-540, focusing on storage staking adjustments, was unanimously rejected due to concerns regarding potential risks and limitations.

API Updates for NEAR Transactions and Account Information:

Developers can now access transaction counts and account information via NEAR's API services. API3.NearBlocks.io provides endpoints for fetching transaction counts for specific accounts, while PikesPeak.ai offers similar functionality with authorization requirements. 👉 API3 NearBlocks | PikesPeak.ai

Protocol Update for Implicit Account Functionality:

The NEAR protocol update addresses issues with hex names and implicit accounts, ensuring compatibility and security by requiring non-0-9-a-f characters as the last character in account names. This prevents potential vulnerabilities related to implicit wallet transactions.

Intermediate Level Course Proposal on Promises and Asynchronous Smart Contracts:

Community members proposed a new course idea focusing on Promises and their runtime interaction, tailored for an intermediate level audience. The course aims to delve into topics such as atomicity and designing asynchronous smart contracts effectively. Roman discussed the challenges of implementing a token swap scenario involving two fungible token contracts on NEAR's asynchronous platform.

DEX Intermediaries for Token Swapping:

Doc contributors suggested the use of intermediaries in decentralized exchanges (DEX) to facilitate token swapping, mitigating the risk of state changes in case of transaction failure. This approach involves a DEX acting as an intermediary to handle token swaps and ensure transaction atomicity.

Testing Best Practices and Documentation Improvement:

The documentation maintainer highlighted the importance of testing smart contracts thoroughly before deployment and suggested updating documentation to emphasize testing using workspaces over direct deployment to the network. He proposed a shift towards encouraging users to write tests that verify the expected behavior of functions.

Enhancement Proposal for Account Creation Documentation:

Documentation contributors raised a proposal to improve documentation regarding account creation, suggesting the inclusion of instructions for creating accounts through plain contract calls in addition to CLI and sub-accounts. The aim is to provide comprehensive guidance on account creation methods.

Cypherock Cover Announcement:

Cypherock Cover has been introduced as the industry’s first multi-chain, non-custodial, and non-KYC inheritance-style recovery service for cryptocurrencies. The service offers early access to users and an additional year of service for early adopters.

Hot Wallet App Testing:

Community members were urged to test hot wallet applications via a provided link. Additionally, discussions revolved around account on-ramping and integration with other platforms like PotLock.

Discussion on RPC Selection in Apps:

Developers engaged in a detailed discussion about the integration of RPC (Remote Procedure Call) selection within applications for better user experience. Various ideas were exchanged, including load balancing, automatic selection of less loaded RPCs, and considerations for free vs. paid RPC services. Links to relevant RPC providers were shared for reference.

Waitlist for NEAR Support on Coinbase Wallet:

A community member shared their involvement in the waitlist for NEAR support on Coinbase Wallet, emphasizing the importance of NEAR compatibility in the evolving multichain landscape.

Nodies for RPC Access:

Nodies, a platform offering both pruned and archival data, was suggested for RPC access consideration. Performance benchmarks and documentation links were provided for further exploration.

Issues with Testnet Support in Wallets:

Concerns were raised regarding the lack of testnet support in Here Wallet and Meteor Wallet. Community members requested assistance from the respective development teams to address the issue.

Technical Debt in MyNearWallet:

A developer from the Meteor Wallet team acknowledged the technical debt in MyNearWallet, explaining the high number of RPC requests per account due to tight coupling with the Wallet class. Plans to refactor and decouple code were discussed to mitigate this issue.

Pagoda :

Improved QueryAPI logging system and DB connection pooling resulting in ~2-10 times better indexing performance.

KitWallet has been migrated to use QueryAPI for Access Keys indexer, making it more reliable for wallets that still use KitWallet.

QueryAPI hit all-time-high of 1.05M requests on April 26th, peaking at 400 req/second with ~250ms 95th percentile and ~15ms median GraphQL response time.

NEAR's Instant Resharding with Nightshade v2's Stateless Validation : Check what NEAR's Cofounder illia has to say about Instant resharding with Nightshade v2's Stateless Validation. Click 👉 here

THIS WEEKS TIPS 💡

Tip: Contract Deployment Issue Troubleshooting: Developers encountering issues with contract deployment to temporary dev accounts after running yarn deploy are advised to ensure the correct syntax and configuration are used. Double-checking the account existence and ensuring proper contract compilation are recommended steps.

Tip: Client-Side Result Retrieval Challenge: Developers facing challenges with obtaining contract call results on the client side, particularly when using callbacks via NearPromise.then(), are encouraged to verify contract method execution, inspect client-side code for promise handling, and debug with logging.

Tip: New to NEAR? 👨‍💻 : Whether you’re familiar with Rust , JS, or simply eager to contribute to NEAR tooling, begin your journey with comprehensive NEAR docs and

Join the Community: Have questions? Join the lively discussions in neardev Telegram group.

Office Hours: Get personalized assistance during our DevHub Office Hours.

DEVELOPER OPPORTUNITIES

🏆 NEAR Bounty Booster Program Announcement: 🏆 The NEAR Bounty Booster initiative has been launched to support hackers who use the NEAR stack in non-sponsored hackathons. By matching winnings up to $5,000, the program. The program is applicable to both Web2 and Web3 Hackathons ⭐️

Feature your project in their weekly newsletter by checking out this page https://near.social/devhub.near/widget/app?page=community&handle=neardevnews&tab=how-to-get-featured

NEAR Horizon 2 Cohort invites developers like you to step into scaling decentralized applications.

They’ve initiated alpha testing the BOS web engine for creating decentralized front end components on NEAR.

Written by NEAR Positive Vibes