Announcing NEAR YEAR: 1st Annual On-Chain NEAR Awards 🏆

NEARWEEK
NEAR Protocol
Published in
6 min readJan 13, 2025

[This was originally published on PotLock by PlugRel on Jan 10.]

NEAR YEAR: first annual onchain awards. Blackdragon, Sharddog, NEAR Foundation, POTLOCK

We’re thrilled to announce the inaugural NEAR YEAR Annual Awards, celebrating outstanding achievements and contributions within the NEAR ecosystem throughout 2024! This groundbreaking initiative features over 40 award categories, recognizing individual achievements, project milestones, notable features, and 2025 predictions. From the most anticipated NEAR token launch to the biggest Degen on NEAR, this exciting event will determine who holds the 2024 on-chain bragging rights.

Powered by POTLOCK’s new voting contracts and Sharddog Human Voter NFTs, this initiative is immutable & community-driven. We are proud to work with NEAR Foundation, Sharddog, NEAR Catalog, NEARWEEK, & Blackdragon to make this happen!

Go to NEARYEAR.com, the official portal for seeing the nominees, which nominees have made it to the on-chain list, and the voting portal once the voting period is live in a few weeks. Want to improve the dashboard? Check out our github.

Timeline

ANNOUNCEMENT — JAN 10

  • Launch of official nominations, announcement article, and NEAR Year website

SUBMISSIONS — JAN 10–17

  • Community members submit nomination lists
  • Special founder debates (details coming soon)

VOTING JAN 17–25

  • Open voting period (requires Sharddog I AM HUMAN Voter NFT)
  • Awards ceremony at the end of January showcasing winners

How to Participate

Here’s your guide to participating in the NEAR YEAR Awards:

Nomination Process

For Projects:

To Suggest Nominees:

  • Duplicate the list on POTLOCK while maintaining the original name (go to nearyear.com/nomination and click copy button to be taken to a page to duplicate the list to make your own nominee list for that category
  • Include project account names (searchable on near.social using the People widget). If a project doesnt exist you need to get that project onboard to a POTLOCK Profile
  • Share your list on Twitter, tagging @POTLOCK_ @nearweek @nearprotocol @nearcatalog

Selection Criteria:

  • Top 5 nominees will be chosen based on:
  • Number of authentic user nominations
  • Alignment with category-specific criteria

Voting System

nearyear.com/vote

To ensure fair voting:

  • Voters must hold a Sharddog “I Voted” NFT for verification part of the voting flow when live
  • List creators receive 2x voting power

To self-nominate, create a POTLOCK profile, apply to list entry (if open), and notify plugrel on Twitter.

As your curator-in-chief, Plug, I’ve crafted some pretty lit categories and made a shortlist since I’m super tapped into the NEAR streets. I even put myself on the list — because I’m corrupt on-chain! But these aren’t the final lists. Learn how you can apply for a category or use on-chain lists to nominate your favorite projects and people of 2024.

Award Categories

Here are all the categories for the 2024 NEAR Annual Awards:

Overall Concepts

Overall Categories that promote concepts over people and projects.

  • MOST EXCITING THING ON NEAR for 2025: Exploring groundbreaking developments on NEAR for 2025, including Chain Abstraction, AI, and Apps.
  • BEST EVENT for NEAR in 2024: Key events that shaped NEAR in 2024, including Eth Denver, Consensys, Token2049, and Eth CC.
  • Best Tech Innovation: Notable technological advancements on NEAR, including Chain Signatures, NEAR DA, NEAR Intents, and Nightshade 2.0.
  • BEST JOKE in NEAR: Memorable humorous moments in the NEAR community, including Jensen touching Illia and the NEAR is a Doge L2 meme.

Projects

Awards highlighting the achievements of projects on NEAR.

Downbad

Notable setbacks in the ecosystem, transparently recorded on the blockchain.

Future Look in 2025

Predictions for project performance in web3.

  • MOST Likely to generate the most DeFI Revenue: Projects positioned for significant DeFi revenue generation.
  • Most Likely App to Get A Billion Users First: Apps with highest potential for mass user adoption.

People

Awards celebrating individual NEARIANs shaping our ecosystem.

Well, that’s all folks. For support, join the POTLOCK community channel. Let the best NEARIANs win.

About NEARWEEK

NEARWEEK is the ultimate destination for all things related to NEAR.
As the official NEAR Protocol newsletter and community platform, NEARWEEK is the one-stop media for everything happening in the NEAR ecosystem.

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About NEAR Protocol

NEAR is on a mission to onboard a billion users to the limitless possibilities of Web3 with chain abstraction. Leveraging its high-performance, carbon-neutral protocol, which is swift, secure, and scalable, NEAR offers a common layer for browsing and discovering the Open Web.

NEAR Discovery | What is Chain Abstraction? | Twitter

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