The Bustling DeFi Universe: Exploring far and NEAR

DeFi is a bustling, lively universe. Just as humans are builders on Earth, developers forge the future of this digital realm. There are countless thriving and lively planets erupting into existence. Every planet functions slightly differently, its own macrocosm of cities, cultures, and customs. To fully comprehend and understand what this DeFi-verse truly has to offer, you must explore far and wide.  But let\’s begin with somewhere NEAR.

Exploration leads to opportunity

Don’t you ever gaze up, wondering what could be out there? After all, we humans are explorers by nature. The Universe is a vast, bountiful place if you are willing to look. Similarly, DeFi is not limited to just one ecosystem, it is a rich and diverse realm with multiple other planets. Why limit yourself to concealed knowledge of just one place when there is so much yet to discover?

Exploration is never easy, DeFi can be a dangerous place. Assessments and checks must be made before you voyage out.  First, you need to ensure the planet is accommodating and welcoming. Are its foundations strong? Can it sustain life? The danger of the DeFi verse is not physical but we all understand the unprecedented financial peril it can bring.

The planet is NEAR

Allow me to be your space guide, jump on board and discover what one promising planet has to offer. We are NEAR-ly there. First off, before we touchdown, an overview of the foundations is critical. Just as a surveyor will analyze the lay of the land, we must analyze the foundations on which the planet Is built. Funding, backing, and developers are all key metrics when analyzing the foundation of an ecosystem. Let’s dig into NEAR\’s. 

Survey the foundations

Funding is one of the most important metrics for the initial construction on these planets, plans meet dead ends if the capital isn’t there to back them. How does Near fare? Quite simply, NEAR has one of the most impressive backings. The planet has seen interest from some of the richest explorers there are, with a monumental $800 million allocated to its construction. A grant with a value of $100 million will be used directly for new start-ups to enter the enter voyage to the planet and begin to build.

Near has backing from all over the DeFi verse: a16z, Coinbase Ventures, Jump, and Dragonfly capital… Pretty much most Venture Capitalists are involved with the ecosystem. In fact, NEAR has the most VC funding out of any Layer 1 project. Venture capitalists can sometimes leave a sour taste in people’s mouths, but there is no denying, that this kind of backing opens a world of possibility and allows for a profound acceleration of growth.

Back in 2018, the city was founded by former Microsoft developer, Alex Skidanov and former Google engineer, Illia Polosukhin. These are the two lead developers today, operating with a team of over 50, that includes several ex-MemSQL engineers and five ex-Googlers. Even in the turbulent market we find ourselves in the team continues to hire and expand, there are over 89 job postings within the ecosystem. On initial overview, NEARs foundations seem to be as secure as can be. Let’s venture in.

Climb aboard the transportation

NEAR is a megalopolis, a bustling, growing lively ecosystem with so much to explore. The planet is vast, to fully immerse ourselves and discover what it has to offer, we must ride on the rails of passage. So how do you explore in NEAR? Is it via a cheap bullet train or an expensive broken-down bus? Do we step into the future or are we held back in the past?

Transport on NEAR is FAST, real fast. NEAR operates transactions via a piece of technology known as “Dynamic Sharding”. Ethereum currently processes less than 20 transactions per second, resulting in high gas prices and drawn-out transaction times. This is due to the network\’s low throughput. Every single node on the network must process every single transaction. Sharding is an approach that splits the work up among all the participating nodes, separating the data into several pieces. This is the technology that Ethereum plans to utilize. NEAR already has it.

Zoom into the future

Sharding results in a fluent, fast, cheap, and infinitely scalable ecosystem. This also leads to NEAR being the world’s first certified, climate-neutral blockchain. Currently NEAR has around 700,000 transactions per day, however, when Sharding is fully utilized, it is estimated that NEAR could hit 100,000 transactions per second! It also allows the possibility for other industries to utilize the Dynamic Sharding technology, enabling enterprises such as hospitals to create private shards, ensuring that their data is more secure.

Ethereum will be looking to utilize this technology and is currently scaling via L2s, however one issue that is raised is the ecosystem will end up divided amongst multiple-layer 2s. If NEAR manages to fully utilize this technology seamlessly in one ecosystem, who knows what could happen…

Finding our way

Exploring the planet Is a fluent journey. Near is a user-friendly experience that focuses on usability. Everything is laid out seamlessly, so you won’t get lost. This is fortified by the fact that NEAR has placed Education at the forefront of the platform, there\’s even a whole city dedicated to education with a University at the center. With over 5000 students and $1.74 million in ecosystem grants, the University has a plethora of material to excel your blockchain knowledge.

Furthermore, NEAR has emphasized onboarding new developers to the ecosystem. Near operates via common computer languages such as Rust and AssemblyScript, but it also allows for EVM contracts to run via its layer 2: Aurora. This allows all EVM-compatible applications to run on-chain. Developers also receive 30% of the fees that their contracts generate, culminated with the huge funding and grants NEAR offers, it\’s a warm and welcoming city for developers to settle down.

What’s next?

NEAR is a green, fast, and fluid planet of big funders, learners, and developers. It’s an ecosystem that fosters growth, granting a glimpse into the future of the blockchain. But, what does NEAR truly have to offer? The fast, secure, and scalable alternative to Ethereum is a story as old as day. What else is there? In the second part of the tour, we will break down the cities, buildings, and protocols that are being built on NEAR. We will learn about the planet\’s currency, USN, and finally, we’ll look for any pitfalls that may reside on the planet.

This journey was brought to you by contributor DeFi Naly. Show him some love on Twitter! Show us what you learned on Discord!