NEAR’s Blockchain Operating System (BOS) debuted in 2023 as a “universal app layer” where on-chain user interfaces and social data could live side by side, giving Web3 a Web2-like user experience.
By mid-2024, core development stopped: the BOS web engine struggled with common JavaScript libraries, security hardening proved costly, and the NEAR team formally marked the project deprecated. Existing portals remain in read-only mode, but no new features are planned.
Builders are now shipping front-ends with familiar frameworks and hosting them on decentralized storage such as IPFS or Arweave, or experimenting with NEAR’s newer Web4 pattern. In practice, BOS has become a historical proof-of-concept, while active innovation has moved on to more flexible and well-supported tooling.
Updated: June 19, 2025
