What is NEAR?

NEAR is a blockchain: a shared computer that nobody owns, run by hundreds of independent validators around the world. It keeps track of who owns what and runs small programs called smart contracts.

It was built to be fast (a transaction settles in about a second), cheap (fees are a tiny fraction of a cent) and easy (accounts have readable names instead of long codes).

NEAR grows by splitting the work across many parallel lanes called shards, so it can add capacity as more people use it.