NEAR Protocol, a first-tier blockchain application platform, has unveiled an ambitious Roadmap for 2024 to strengthen its position as the leading platform for decentralized applications (dApps).
Briefly and succinctly, we outline the main stages for the coming year in the NEAR ecosystem.
2023 Results
In 2023, NEAR underwent six protocol upgrades, introducing several new features. At the start of the year, meta-transactions were implemented to enable gasless transactions, allowing users to interact with NEAR and its applications without needing to pay transaction fees in NEAR directly. Zero-balance accounts were also introduced, allowing users to create accounts without holding NEAR for storage fees, facilitating easier onboarding for new users.
To enhance performance, NEAR introduced flat storage in Q2, improving state reads and network stability. Cold storage was also implemented to separate hot and cold storage for nodes, reducing costs for archival nodes by storing historical data more efficiently. Additionally, the tier 1 network was introduced to decrease latency between validator nodes, and state sync was optimized to reduce synchronization time.
Efforts to improve contract runtime stability and maintainability included initiatives like finite wasm and limited replayability. Moving forward, major initiatives such as stateless validation, congestion control, and transaction priority are in progress and expected to be completed in the coming year. These developments aim to further enhance NEAR’s functionality and performance.
2024 Plans
In the upcoming year, NEAR Protocol aims to enhance usability, scalability, and decentralization through several key projects:
Stateless Validation. This initiative, underway for several months, refines the Nightshade sharding design to boost shard performance by storing state in memory. Expected to roll out in Q2 2024, it marks the completion of Phase 2 of sharding, significantly enhancing shard throughput.
Congestion Control and Transaction Priority. Ensuring a smooth user experience during network congestion is crucial. NEAR plans to localize congestion and enable users to prioritize transactions based on willingness to pay higher fees.
Support for Account Aggregation. NEAR will introduce account aggregation, enabling users to manage accounts across different chains with one NEAR account. This necessitates chain signatures, requiring a new runtime API.
zkWASM. Collaborating with the Polygon team, NEAR aims to develop a prover for WebAssembly smart contracts. This initiative enhances NEAR’s state transition verification using zero-knowledge proofs and offers wasm as an alternative to EVM for Layer 2 solutions.
Data Availability Improvements. NEAR plans to enhance NEAR Data Availability by implementing KZG commitment to prevent data availability fraud proofs and enabling real-time bridging for Ethereum data verification.
Ethereum Wallet Support. Introducing native support for wallets like MetaMask on NEAR aligns with Ethereum standards and expands NEAR’s user base. This requires protocol changes to support Ethereum addresses and process RLP serialized Ethereum transactions.
Research into the Future of Sharding. NEAR will explore synchronous sharding for smart contract execution and ZK-centric sharding leveraging zero-knowledge proofs. Additionally, the research will focus on dynamically adjusting shard counts based on usage.
The roadmap, split into Experience and Core sections, details user and developer experiences and major scalability and decentralization efforts.
The Experience section includes features essential for user and developer experiences. For instance, synchronous execution addresses the challenges developers encounter with cross-contract calls.
The Core section focuses on enhancing scalability and decentralization of the protocol. This involves initiatives like stateless validation, zkWASM, improving data availability, and more.
The protocol team anticipates significant advancements in 2024, aiming to fulfill NEAR’s vision of mainstream adoption of an Open Web. Stay tuned for updates on Phase 2 advancements and timelines during the NEAR Protocol X Spaces event on January 16.
NEAR Protocol 34% Market Growth Forecast
According to Binance predictions, the NEAR Protocol (NEAR) market is showing a bullish trend.
Factors contributing to growth:
- DeFi popularity growth. NEAR Protocol is positioned as a platform for decentralized finance (DeFi). The growing popularity of DeFi can lead to an increase in demand for NEAR.
- NEAR ecosystem development. NEAR Protocol is actively developing its ecosystem, attracting new partners and developers. This can lead to an increase in the number of dApps running on NEAR, and, consequently, to an increase in demand for NEAR.
- NEAR Protocol investments. NEAR Protocol has attracted significant investments from leading cryptocurrency funds. This indicates investor confidence in the NEAR Protocol and its long-term prospects.
The Binance Team has calculated that the price will grow by approximately 34% from 2024 to 2030. It is worth noting that Binance predictions are not a guarantee of future NEAR Protocol growth. You should do your research before deciding to invest in the NEAR Protocol.
Conclusion
In light of NEAR Protocol’s ambitious plans for 2024, it becomes clear that the project is not simply following trends but setting high standards for blockchain technology development. The expanded version of the roadmap reflects NEAR’s commitment to innovation and continuous improvement, making it a key player in the world of decentralized applications.
Scalability, user convenience, security, and additional goals each aspect of NEAR Protocol’s development is aimed at improving the user experience, stimulating the development of decentralized applications, and creating a favorable environment for community growth.
With a focus on technical excellence, transparency, and community involvement, NEAR demonstrates its commitment to creating innovative solutions that not only meet current needs but also lay the groundwork for the future development of the blockchain industry.
Thus, the NEAR Protocol continues to remain at the forefront of the blockchain community, unlocking new possibilities and perspectives for the development of decentralized ecosystems worldwide.
