Topic: [ANN] Near Protocol: NEAR Launches Nightshade Sharding, Paving the Way for Mass (Read 664 times)

Hackathon by NEAR UA
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You're just a couple of simple steps away from joining this incredible event

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https://eventornado.com/event/near-hackathon-for-ukraine#participate

Near Protocol continues to develop at a rapid pace.
This new DAO team could join the SailGP starting line-up for Season 4 in 2023. SailGP and NEAR will partner on a number of exciting new projects to inspire Web3 developers building on the blockchain, as well as collaborate on NFT and gaming, events ticketing, mobile app integration, and more.

NEAR in March: Unchain Fund, SailGP, and DAOs
https://near.org/blog/near-in-march-unchain-fund-sailgp-and-daos/

Larry Ellison’s SailGP and Near Protocol to Create a DAO for Sports Team Ownership
Global sailing league SailGP – founded by Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison – and the Near Protocol are creating a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to enable fans to be owners of sports teams, according to a statement on Thursday.

Participate in the Reddit AMA with NEAR Foundation CEO mariekeflament about our latest Town Hall for a chance to win one of 3 nearnauts!

What would you like to know about DAO’s on NEAR, or NEAR Foundation's funding efforts?

Ask your questions https://www.reddit.com/r/nearprotocol/comments/tt0pou/march_town_hall_ama_with_near_foundation_ceo/

I heard that Near protocol will be integrating to the Rubic Exchange platform. This is really good news as Rubic is fast becoming the leader in the cross-chain (multichain) space that will provide advantages to Near. Will Near be providing liquidity events once integrated?

How is DePocket’s collaboration with NEAR historical?

Introduction:
The NEAR ecosystem has partnered up with DePocket — the project has received a grant from them. Our app aims to combine as many as dApps on the NEAR system as possible. DePocket is an indispensable bridge to all of the NEAR ecosystem. It is our belief that NEAR and DePocket can grow together, and we’re excited about what this partnership means for both companies in the future.

The goal of this project is simple: To provide easy access capabilities for people who want to use more than one dApp on the network without having to switch between accounts or apps constantly — which would be inconvenient for users, not practical for developers, and make it difficult for the whole community.
How is DePocket’s collaboration with NEAR historical?

NEAR has already established itself as a premier blockchain platform, and their funding validates their commitment to building a world-class ecosystem.

What does this mean for DePocket?
What does growth look like for us?
How exactly will NEAR support DePocket?
https://depocket.medium.com/how-is-depockets-collaboration-with-near-historical-af4d0052ad14

NatWest digital business bank CEO leaves for blockchain group NEAR

LONDON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Marieke Flament, chief executive of NatWest's digital bank for businesses, is leaving after two and a half years to join Swiss-based blockchain foundation NEAR as CEO, she told Reuters.

The non-profit NEAR oversees the governance and development of its blockchain of the same name, which it says makes it easier for entrepreneurs and developers to build financial products, non fungible tokens (NFTs) and other products.

There is exploding global interest in digital assets, with NFT artworks selling for millions of dollars, but also rising scepticism about the sustainability of the boom and practical use cases for the underlying blockchain technology.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/natwest-digital-business-bank-ceo-leaves-blockchain-group-near-2021-12-16/

Listing of PARAS token on MEXC Global on December 20

MEXC Global will kick off a Kickstarter session, a pre-launch listing campaign initiated by the project team on MEXC, where users can vote with MX tokens to achieve a specific goal.
Once the target is met, the listing process will be launched and free token giveaways will be organized for participating users prior to listing.
Details: https://bit.ly/3GVDZeM

Presenting the new Kickstarter session with PARAS
Vote with MX to get PARAS listed and share 160,000 PARAS
Period: 02:30 - 10:50 Dec 20 (UTC)
Estimated trading: 15:00 Dec 20 (UTC)

Paras announced an airdrop for early adopters of the NFT marketplace

The airdrop depends on the transaction volume of your account in the Paras NFT marketplace within the approved limit.
The airdrop will be credited to you within 3 months thanks to the streaming payment service - http://roke.to

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uLgZDBSgR1KyNonSU8VfZu17zA2lNmiJMSpiksG-G8s/edit#gid=761074378
https://twitter.com/ParasHQ/status/1471850258728890369

NEAR MetaBUILD Hackathon

From December 22 to February 10, the NEAR MetaBUIDL global hackathon will take place with a $ 1 million prize fund in the form of prizes and funding.

Write, test and deploy scalable decentralized applications in minutes on the most developer-friendly blockchain.

NEAR is here to help reimagine your world and empower users to have full control and responsibility over their data. Use languages you already know to build DeFi, Web3, Gaming, Digital Art/Collectibles, infrastructure app and tools, or migrate an existing EVM app to NEAR.

Join the NEAR MetaBUILD 2 Hackathon and start coding.

Event sponsors (who will present their challenges): 7x Ventures, Damo Labs, Fluence, Akash, Aurora, Brave, Crust, Dodo, Filecoin, Flux, HAPI, Mintbase, Octopus Network, OIN Finance, Paras, Ref Finance, Spin, The Graph.
https://metabuild.devpost.com/

NEAR Launches Nightshade Sharding, Paving the Way for Mass Adoption



Today is a momentous day for the NEAR blockchain and the NEAR ecosystem: The launch of Simple Nightshade, the first step toward a fully sharded and secure blockchain.
Since NEAR released the design for the protocol back in 2019, it was always meant to be a sharded blockchain. However, when preparing for the launch in early 2020, we realized that there was no need to launch a completely sharded network.

Sharding is a very complex piece of technology — which we’ll be explaining in detail over the coming weeks on our Medium blog — and the network was brand new. It didn’t need to be capable of handling hundreds of millions of transactions at launch.

Since then, the average number of daily transactions has risen to more than 300k. With the emergence of more and more projects building on NEAR, the number of transactions is only going to increase in the coming months.

While the network is still currently using only 13% of the total capacity, we wanted to start the transition to sharding now to avoid any unpleasant surprises and ensure we can support all the applications on NEAR. Today is the start of that transition.

more info there - https://medium.com/nearprotocol/near-launches-nightshade-sharding-paving-the-way-for-mass-adoption-b17066fbc330

EMPYREAN has decided to award the airdrop to early Aurora users, especially TriSolaris users.

2.5 thousand $ EMPYR tokens (approximately 2%) of the initial offer will go to those who traded on TriSolaris before December 5 (the question is still being decided about changing the number to 10).

The project aims to create an algorithmic decentralized reserve currency responsible for issuing and managing a fully collateralized, algorithmic, income generating, free floating stable asset - EMPYR.

The project will be powered by Aurora EVM.

https://twitter.com/empyreanfi/status/1469754212401647617?s=20
https://t.me/near_ru/757

New project - Energyfi plans to launch on green blockchains (Energy Web Chain, Avalanche, BSC and NEAR)

The project will be an all-in-one platform: a launchpad, a decentralized exchanger, savings and lending protocols.
They also plan to launch Green Metaverse - their version of the "green metaverse".
https://twitter.com/Energyfi_io/status/1465421998914519044

NEAR Launches 1,000 Teacher Education Program

As part of NEAR Foundation, the NEAR Education team is building a vast and vibrant ecosystem with the mission of making the open web accessible to everyone, regardless of experience, age, background, or native tongue.

From lightweight, minute-long tutorials to the fully-fledged certification programs offered by NEAR University, a diverse range of expanding, community-led educational content illuminates the wonders of decentralization in a way that has never been more accessible.

To help make mass adoption of Web3 a reality, the NEAR Education team is launching a unique and exciting initiative to onboard 1,000 teachers from all backgrounds and disciplines. Through both self-paced and instructor-led online courses, workshops, and fellowships, this army of educators will learn the ins and outs of blockchain technology and will, in turn, pass that knowledge on to others.

If we can train 1,000 teachers—not just teachers, but those who simply enjoy learning and sharing—on all things NEAR, we can reach our moonshot goal of onboarding 1 million developers and, ultimately, 1 billion users.

It’s that simple: 1,000 teachers → 1 million developers → 1 billion users.

Ambitious? Yes. Doable? Let’s roll up our sleeves and find out.

Interested in learning and teaching with us? Be sure to head over to NEAR University for more information.

Why Create an Ecosystem of Teachers?

It’s great that Web3 developers and other crypto-natives can grasp blockchain’s technology and potential—that’s what brought crypto to the edge of this major paradigm-shifting moment.

https://near.org/blog/near-education-1000-teachers-program/

Flux, World’s First Fully Decentralized Oracle and Oracle Aggregator Launches on NEAR



About Flux
Flux is a cross-chain oracle and oracle aggregator that provides smart contracts with access to economically secure data feeds on anything. Flux brings this data on-chain using a sophisticated validation and dispute mechanism that relies on economic principles to keep validators honest. FLX is the native Utility Token used for staking within Flux Protocol by Validators. It is also used for governance of the protocol via the Flux DAO. Flux is live on NEAR Protocol and is deploying on major EVM chains in the following weeks.

NEAR is thrilled to announce that Flux, the first cross-chain oracle for economically secured data feeds, is now live on the NEAR mainnet!

With its cross-chain oracle platform, which features support for other networks like Aurora, Flux brings secured data feeds to any and all high-throughput data apps — like trading platforms that need access to lots of reliable data — on the NEAR blockchain. To facilitate their mainnet launch, the Flux team is also releasing the $FLX token, which will be vital in helping to power its oracles.

“We were one of the first teams from Ethereum to make the jump to a new layer-one, NEAR, back in January 2019,” said Peter Mitchell, co-founder of Flux. “Jasper De Gooijer, co-founder of Flux, and I started building on NEAR before testnet was live and have worked closely with the team to design a best in class oracle to make NEAR the go-to layer one for economically secured DeFi.”

Earlier this year, Flux raised $10.3m in seed round funding from leading investors like Distributed Global, Coinbase Ventures, Coinfund, Figment Ventures, and Reciprocal Ventures.

https://medium.com/nearprotocol/flux-worlds-first-fully-decentralized-oracle-and-oracle-aggregator-launches-on-near-68a9003ac241

NEAR Partners With Wharton School’s Cypher Accelerator for Blockchain Growth

NEAR Foundation is pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania’s Cypher Accelerator. Through this newly launched blockchain accelerator, decentralized app founders and developers will have access to world-class mentors, leading investors, premiere education and workshops, networking opportunities, as well as Penn’s vast talent pool, and more.

Cypher Accelerator’s mission aligns with NEAR’s own. It’s committed to blockchain growth by supporting decentralized app companies from launch to branding and beyond.

About Wharton
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Cypher Accelerator Details
The first cohort of Wharton’s Cypher Accelerator runs from February to May 2022. The accelerator will be virtual and open to international applications. Some of the world’s leading investors are supporting Cypher, including Mark Cuban, Tim Draper, a16z, Pantera Capital, and others.

https://medium.com/nearprotocol/near-partners-with-wharton-schools-cypher-accelerator-for-blockchain-growth-9f49ccb80023

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NEAR Foundation and WOO Network Complete $5 Million Token Swap To Create a Strategic Partnership Between Ecosystems

NEAR Foundation and WOO Network are announcing the completion of a $5 million swap of native NEAR and WOO tokens. This comes as part of an agreement for WOO Network to become a key builder in the NEAR Protocol ecosystem, leveraging its strengths as a leading liquidity network. The tokens have a five year vesting period in which the two platforms will collaborate and create shared value for their respective token economies.

NEAR is a development platform built on a sharded, proof-of-stake, layer-one blockchain that offers drastically lower transaction fees while maintaining high throughputs. NEAR made headlines earlier this year when it announced a $800 million fund to accelerate building on their ecosystem.

WOO Network has a proven track record of delivering value in DeFi, both as a liquidity source for dYdX’s top designated market maker Kronos Research, and as a recipient of Binance Smart Chain’s (BSC) Most Valuable Builder program. Last month, WOO Network deployed WOOFi Swap on BSC, a decentralized exchange that simulates WOO Network’s CeFi liquidity on chain. WOO Network also provides liquidity used in ParaSwap’s private pools, supporting market-maker Kronos Research.

https://medium.com/nearprotocol/near-foundation-and-woo-network-complete-5-million-token-swap-to-create-a-strategic-partnership-439c041bc987

Qortal: The Future of Blockchain Platforms

Press Release - December 1st, 2021

   Qortal (QORT) is infrastructure for a censorship-free Internet, alternative ISP, suite of P2P
solutions, and alternative to Ethereum. It is a self-empowering operating system that is free of
any regulation other than the 100% open source codebase itself. This is only possible with true
decentralization and that is exactly what Qortal can accomplish. Literally no man has the power
to censor or sanction others within Qortal’s infrastructure, other than group admins of their
subcommunities. Individuals are in complete control over their accounts, wallets, trades, and
messaging with no middle man.
   Qortal launched on June 29th 2020 in the most ethical fashion with no pre-mine, no ICO/IEO,
and no airdrop. Realizing the unfairness with existing PoW and PoS systems, and with a desire
to create an egalitarian system for all, Qortal implemented ‘minting’ where every minting account
that participates in processing blocks earns a portion of the block reward. In other words, there
is no competition to sign blocks and there is no way to buy power over the network as seen with
PoW and PoS systems. QORT coin is more than another cryptocurrency to mine as it powers
on-chain functionality with transactions and is the base pair for trading within Qortal’s true
peer-to-peer Trade Portal. QORT can also be a form of digital payment within the Qortal
Network where free web hosting allows e-commerce and job markets to thrive!

   As you can see, there is a lot to Qortal. Below are key highlights:

● Stand-alone infrastructure with a focus on individual sovereignty
● 100% open source codebase that is built from scratch (no clones)
● Egalitarian minting where everyone earns QORT for supporting the network
● Local wallets that the individual has complete and sole control over
● True peer-to-peer (P2P) cross-chain trading
● Free web hosting and public data storage where freedom speech and trade of
information can thrive unhindered
● Social media safe haven where only admins of their self-created groups can censor and
have control over
● Encrypted peer-to-peer text, voice, and video communications
● Infrastructure for ethical third-party projects to build securely
● Auto-updates that require 60% approval by DevTeam (decentralized solution)

   What Qortal has now:

● Network stability with over 3,000 nodes
● Secure accounts and local wallets for QORT, BTC, LTC, and DOGE
● Sponsorship and minting system where anyone can join to help support the network
● Working P2P Trade Portal with QORT, LTC, and DOGE (BTC is not live now)
● ‘Sleeping’ trade ATs to improve Trade Portal performance and scalability
● Database trimming to prevent chain bloating and improve scalability
● Auto-bootstrapping to sync nodes faster (Top-Only nodes are also an option now)
● Encrypted P2P messaging on Q-Chat
● Q-Chat Groups (public and private)
● Name Registration (can be used instead of address; can also be used as a domain)
● 100% open source custom kernels for Raspberry Pi boards built specifically for Qortal
What to expect next:
● Core version 3.0 to go live later this month with web hosting and public data storage
● App Store for add-on applications (everyone can create applications for users to opt into)
● Voting system so we all can help influence the project’s direction
● More coins added to the Trade Portal and wallets (BTC, ARRR, etc.)
● Sponsorship and minting system modification to improve integrity
● Encrypted private group messaging
● Mesh networking when the node base is large enough (end of year 2022 possibly)

   Qortal is also being built to provide ethical projects with a viable alternative to platforms like
Ethereum. So many projects claim to be decentralized and are not. They often fall short of
ethical standards or are outright scams. Qortal will not be a place for such things.
With the launch of version 3.0, Qortal will begin to rebuild the Internet as well as blockchain
space in an unhackable and ethical fashion. It’s time for change without hindrance! This is a
moment a lot of Qortians have been waiting for in the virtual land of Qortia! With this emerging
technology, mankind can unify, educate, and grow together while regaining control over our
digital lives. Qortal’s community believes in restoring balance to the people of the world. This is
not about anarch per se, but are certainly building an anarchistic platform free from any
regulation. Qortians are building infrastructure for a new system. One that cannot be hacked or
compromised, as it is truly decentralized and self-empowering! Join Qortal in this revolutionary
venture! You can find all of the official links and more information about the Qortal Project at
wiki.qortal.org  https://qortal.org/

Aurora partners with ConsenSys, Bringing MetaMask, Infura and more Ethereum Tools to NEAR

Aurora, the Ethereum scaling solution that allows projects built on Ethereum to utilize the cutting-edge technology of the NEAR Protocol, is partnering with ConsenSys, the enterprise blockchain company to provide access to its suite of developer tools.

The partnership aims to empower both the NEAR and Ethereum ecosystems by improving developer facilities - through the availability of the product suite - with the goal of increasing cross-chain interoperability.

The product suite features projects including MetaMask, Infura, ConsenSys Quorum, Truffle, Codefi, and Diligence. MetaMask is the primary way a global user base of over 21 million monthly active users interact with applications on Web3. Over 350,000 developers use Infura to access Ethereum, IPFS and Layer 2 networks. In addition, 4.7 million developers create and deploy smart contracts using Truffle and ConsenSys Diligence has secured more than $25 billion in smart contracts with its hands-on dapp audits and testing tools.

https://aurora.dev/blog/aurora-partners-with-consensys