# NEAR

<figure><img src="/files/wzzPjUJ9J5u33AiYWBPg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

NEAR Protocol was founded in 2018 by Alexander Skidanov and Illia Polosukhin.  It is backed by Notation Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Pantera, A16z and was a participant in Y-Combinator’s accelerator.&#x20;

The project incorporates a number of features to enhance scalability, boost speed and reduce costs, including:&#x20;

* **DPoS**:  NEAR uses a delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus model to reduce the time to validate a block
* **Immediate Consensus Mechanism**:  Unlike most smart contract platforms, which require multiple confirmations to reach consensus, NEAR has pioneered a novel system called DoomSlug which allows the system to finalize a block after one round of communication
* **Sharding**:  NEAR was one of the early pioneers of sharding with its Nightshade protocol

These innovations allow the protocol to theoretically process over 100,000 transactions per second with near instant finality (and fees that are a fraction of a cent).&#x20;

Notable dApps in the NEAR ecosystem include:

&#x20;                                                                      **NEAR Ecosystem Overview**

<figure><img src="/files/xuRFeApwnV4MOXOeqLKx" alt=""><figcaption><p>Source: Coin98 Analytics</p></figcaption></figure>

While still relatively small, the project has been growing steadily since launch, increasing its share of TVL from 0.07% in February 2022 to 0.5% in August.&#x20;

Some of the more common praises and criticisms of NEAR are listed below:

<figure><img src="/files/uTWV00bQ7a9NWQ2V9sP1" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

While NEAR has a strong team, very interesting technology and good traction to date, it has yet to achieve critical mass as its TVL market share remains below 1%.  As I’m a firm believer that the market is the ultimate judge of a projects usefulness, I’d be hesitant to be too bullish until it starts to cross a tipping point.  &#x20;

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