NEAR is a user-friendly and carbon-neutral blockchain, built to be fast, secure, and able to grow without limits.
NEAR is the blockchain for everyone.
What do these Technical Terms mean?
In technical terms, NEAR is a [layer-one](https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/glossary/layer-1-blockchain), [sharded](https://near.org/blog/near-launches-nightshade-sharding-paving-the-way-for-mass-adoption), [proof-of-stake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_of_stake) blockchain built with usability in mind.
[Layer-1](https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/glossary/layer-1-blockchain) means NEAR is the foundation that supports everything else built on it. It keeps all the transaction records safe and unchangeable which keeps the network secure and trustworthy.
[Sharded](https://near.org/blog/near-launches-nightshade-sharding-paving-the-way-for-mass-adoption) means the network is broken into pieces that work in parallel. This helps NEAR process transactions quickly and efficiently.
[Proof-of-stake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_of_stake) uses less electricity compared with other blockchains which use proof-of-work. Users show they own NEAR tokens to help run the network. This makes it cheaper and lets more people use it.
Why Choose NEAR?
NEAR is a technical marvel, offering built-in features such as named accounts and account abstraction. For developers, NEAR offers everything needed for their applications, from smart contracts to indexers. All while being interoperable with other chains.
â Simple to Use
- Use named accounts like
alice.near
- Simple sign-up: make an account using email or telegram
- Transactions are fast (~1.3s transactions) and cheap (< 1¢ in fees)
- You don’t need to buy crypto thanks to built-in account abstraction
- Access Keys make it safe and easy to use.
- Control accounts on other chains thanks to chain signatures
ðŸ›¡ï¸ Battle-Tested
- 4 years of 100% uptime with more than 800M transactions processed
- NEAR has sustained peaks of >13M transactions in a day
- In March 2024, the top three monthly dApps, based on unique active wallets, were built on NEAR:
🧑â€ðŸ’» Great Developer Experience
- Build smart contracts with Javascript or Rust
- Simple onboarding, thanks to its complete documentation and examples
- Get answers and learn at NEAR DevRel office hours, where anybody can participate
- Earn from your contract’s gas fees
- EVM compatible with Project Aurora (Deploy your Solidity contracts with ease)
â™»ï¸ Environmentally Friendly
- NEAR is certified carbon-neutral
- NEAR consumes in a year the same energy bitcoin consumes in 3 minutes