NEAR Announces Blockchain Operating System
NEAR today announced that it will be the Blockchain Operating System (BOS). The blockchain operating system introduces an industry-first category: a common layer for browsing and discovering open web experiences, compatible with all blockchains – making NEAR the entry point to the open web for users and developers alike.
Today’s Web2 and Web3 are fragmented: Web2 because every account and experience is centralized and controlled by one company, Web3 because every blockchain network is a silo. BOS solves this for both by providing a way to discover and consume experiences with common services, including a single identity, user-owned assets, and user-controlled data. Developers get full composition of interfaces and users have full portability of data and assets.
The blockchain operating system works with any blockchain or Web2 backend and provides seamless access to a wide range of gateways. For end users, BOS will be one seamless experience, similar to the ease of using a single app, even when users flow between experiences built by different developers or on different chains. For developers, decentralized and composable interfaces offer a way to build and launch better apps, faster: Distributing existing parts and components, leveraging built-in elements like profiles, payments, notifications and search without having to host anything yourself.
“NEAR is more than just a layer-one blockchain, it’s an operating system that will make Web3 usable,” said NEAR Co-Founder and Pagoda CEO Illia Polosukhin, who shared the announcement and vision for BOS at NEAR Denver, an event during the ETHDenver conference and hackathon. “The goal of NEAR has always been to make Web3 simple. Now we have all the components to deliver on this vision. We already have live examples from the ETH and NEAR ecosystems we share at ETHDenver.”
The launch of the Blockchain Operating System also features the debut of alpha.near.org, the first preview of a gateway for developers to build on the Blockchain Operating System, and FastAuth, a breakthrough solution for rapid onboarding to BOS via online login. Alpha.near.org is the first truly composable, easy-to-use multi-chain interface for developers, with over 1800 components already active. These are the first key facets of the Blockchain operating system and will empower developers to deliver better experiences to users. Alpha.near.org and FastAuth were built by Pagoda, the product and engineering company that contributes core technology to the NEAR ecosystem.
FastAuth improves usability and accessibility for a variety of end users and is easy to manage for developers. It’s mobile-friendly, Pass Key-enabled, and doesn’t require a crypto wallet to activate, while enabling decentralized ownership—using human-readable account names that also keep power in the hands of users. FastAuth makes onboarding easier and faster than any Web3 solution today, and even most Web2 onboarding experiences. All of this is possible without ever needing a seed phrase or password, and it only needs to be done once: a single, secure, streamlined login for the entire web.
BOS is a truly decentralized, community-driven effort with contributions from many teams across the NEAR ecosystem. Pagoda, the NEAR Foundation and other teams from the NEAR ecosystem will build BOS through 2023. Today’s announcement launches key developer products to power the future of building experiences on the open web. With BOS, NEAR becomes a gateway to Web3 for the entire spectrum of software developers, whether they are from mobile web, Web2, Ethereum, Polygon, or any other blockchain ecosystem.
“We are pleased that the Blockchain operating system is accelerating mainstream adoption and showcasing the technical excellence of NEAR,” said Marieke Flament, CEO of the NEAR Foundation. “By providing solutions to make the entire Web3 more accessible to everyone, we can achieve a truly multi-chain future that brings real value to people.”
