NEAR Protocol (NEAR): how it works, supply and reviews
In short
- Type
- Sharded layer-1 blockchain; accounts are distributed across shards
- Initial supply
- About 1 billion NEAR at genesis (24 decimal places)
- Risks and caveats
- NEAR has no fixed maximum supply: about 2.5% of total supply is issued each year as rewards, offset only by fee burns.
- Checked
- 31 October 2026
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Key facts
- Ticker
- NEAR
- Official site
- near.org
Key facts checked on 31 October 2026 against official sources.
What is NEAR Protocol
NEAR Protocol is a sharded proof-of-stake blockchain for smart-contract applications, in which accounts are spread across parallel shards. NEAR is its native token, used for transaction fees, on-chain storage and staking.
Network and consensus
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Type | Sharded layer-1 blockchain; accounts are distributed across shards |
| Consensus | Proof of stake; each block needs approvals from block producers holding over two thirds of their stake |
| Block time | About 0.6 seconds; epochs of 43,200 blocks (about 7.2 hours) |
| Validators | 500 validator seats; the top 100 produce blocks and chunks, the rest validate chunks |
| Smart contracts | Yes; contracts are deployed to accounts and written with Rust or JavaScript/TypeScript SDKs |
| Launched | Current mainnet genesis on 21 July 2020 |
Supply and issuance
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Initial supply | About 1 billion NEAR at genesis (24 decimal places) |
| Issuance | Yearly reward budget of 2.5% of total supply; 10% of it goes to the protocol treasury |
| Inflation change | Maximum inflation was cut from 5% to 2.5% by a protocol upgrade backed in October 2025 |
| Fee burn | Transaction fees collected in each epoch are burned |
| Unlocks | NEAR states that its token supply is fully unlocked |
What NEAR is used for
- Paying gas for transactions
- Covering on-chain storage through storage staking
- Staking and delegating to validators to secure the network
Who develops and governs NEAR Protocol
- Founders
- Illia Polosukhin and Alexander Skidanov, in 2018
- Governance
- House of Stake coordinates protocol upgrades, economic parameters and treasury decisions
- Foundation
- NEAR Foundation supports community proposals with research and communications
- Protocol upgrades
- Upgrades take effect only once 80% of block-producer stake adopts them
- Open source
- nearcore is the reference implementation of NEAR Protocol on GitHub
History
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Illia Polosukhin and Alexander Skidanov found NEAR Protocol. |
| 21 July 2020 | Genesis of the current NEAR mainnet, with about 1 billion NEAR. |
| 2021 | Rainbow Bridge to Ethereum and the Aurora EVM environment launch; the ecosystem reaches one million accounts. |
| November 2023 | NEAR DA launches for rollup data availability. |
| 2024 | Chain Signatures ship to mainnet; NEAR Intents follows in beta in November. |
| 21 October 2025 | NEAR Foundation backs the halving upgrade cutting maximum inflation from 5% to 2.5%. |
Security and audits
- An attacker would need validators holding more than two thirds of block-producer stake to produce blocks alone.
- NEAR does not slash staked tokens; underperforming validators lose rewards and can be removed from the set.
Security incidents
Further incidents are reported by third parties (press, incident databases) but are not confirmed in the company’s own channels, so they are not listed here.
Risks and caveats
- NEAR has no fixed maximum supply: about 2.5% of total supply is issued each year as rewards, offset only by fee burns.
- If block producers holding one third or more of stake stop approving, the chain stops producing blocks.
- Tokenomics can change through protocol upgrades adopted by validators, as with the 2025 inflation cut.
Official links
- Website: www.near.org
- Docs: docs.near.org
- Whitepaper: www.near.org/near-white-paper
- Source code: github.com/near/nearcore
- Blog: www.near.org/blog
Questions and answers
What is NEAR Protocol?
NEAR is a sharded proof-of-stake blockchain for smart-contract applications. Its native token NEAR pays for gas, storage and staking.
Who created NEAR?
Illia Polosukhin and Alexander Skidanov founded NEAR Protocol in 2018.
What is the supply of NEAR?
There is no fixed cap. Genesis supply was about 1 billion NEAR; the mainnet RPC reported about 1.31 billion NEAR on 31 October 2026.
What is NEAR's inflation?
The yearly reward budget is 2.5% of total supply, after an upgrade backed in October 2025 halved maximum inflation from 5%.
Does NEAR slash staked tokens?
No. Validators that are offline or underperform lose rewards and can be removed from the validator set.
Sources
- NEAR Docs — Architecture
- NEAR Docs — Tokens
- NEAR Docs — Validators
- NEAR Docs — Epoch
- NEAR Docs — Gas
- NEAR — Roadmap history
- NEAR blog — What is NEAR Protocol
- NEAR blog — Evolving NEAR tokenomics
- NEAR blog — Halving inflation proposals
- nearcore README (GitHub)
- NEAR mainnet RPC — genesis config and latest block
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