Chain Signatures Go Live on NEAR Protocol, Expand Cross-Chain Possibilities
Veronika Rinecker is based in Germany, studied international journalism and media management. She specializes in politics and regulation, energy, blockchain, and fintech. Since 2017, she has been...
The NEAR Foundation, the non-profit organization supporting the Layer 1 NEAR Protocol, launched chain signatures on its mainnet on August 8.
According to an official announcement, these chain signatures allow users to sign transactions on different blockchains directly from their NEAR accounts, eliminating the need for traditional cross-chain bridges.
The 2 Types of Users
Crypto natives and the average person.
Crypto natives want a seamless experience across chains, while regular users just want to solve problems or have fun without caring about the tech behind it.
Chain Signatures enables developers to create experiences… pic.twitter.com/WuFHqsvoNV
— NEAR Protocol (@NEARProtocol) August 9, 2024
Currently, NEAR’s chain signatures support Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), including EVM-compatible chains, Dogecoin (DOGE), Ripple (XRP), Cosmos (ATOM), and Polkadot (DOT), among others, with plans to extend compatibility to Solana (SOL) and other chains in the future.
Chain signatures offer a novel approach to cross-chain interactions. They link NEAR account addresses to other blockchains using a method called additive key derivation. This process generates multiple subkeys from a single master key, allowing for the management of different blockchain accounts.
When a user initiates a cross-chain transaction, a smart contract on the NEAR blockchain requests a signature for the transaction on the target blockchain. This request is fulfilled by a multi-party computation (MPC) service.
This service, initially secured by eight validators
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