NEAR

NEAR Protocol

A sharded, account-abstraction-native L1 — distinct from EVM ecosystem but with an Aurora EVM compatibility layer.

NEAR runs nightshade-sharded consensus and supports Rust + AssemblyScript natively. The Aurora EVM (deployed on NEAR) provides Solidity contract compatibility. Smaller stablecoin float; ecosystem leans into account-abstraction-first apps.

Related terms

L1 (Layer-1)A base-layer blockchain that settles its own state and provides its own security — Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain.