What is the Near Protocol, and how does it work?

cointelegraph.com:

Near Protocol is a decentralized application (DApp) platform that focuses on usability among developers and users. As a competitor of Ethereum, NearProtocol is also smart-contract capable and a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain.

Near uses sharding technology to achieve scalability, a core aspect discussed later. The native token, NEAR, is used for transaction fees and storage on the Near crypto platform. Tokens can also be used for staking by NEAR tokenholders who wish to become transaction validators and help achieve network consensus.

Near was built by the NeaCollective and conceptualized as a community-run cloud computing platform designed to host decentralized applications. It was also built to be both developer and user-friendly, hence having features such as account names that are human-readable (instead of cryptographic wallet addresses).

Decentralized applications have boomed in the crypto community, with DApps that run the gamut from games to financial services. However, it has also become apparent that scalability remains a problem in most blockchains.

The issue of scalability is common among blockchains, especially among older ones such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The challenges are mainly brought about by blockchains' difficulty in handling large numbers of transactions at fast speeds and manageable costs.

Projects such as Near seek to address this issue by building an entirely new blockchain using a different architecture. Near’s solution to the problem was implementing sharding.

By using the sharding strategy, Near is able to break up the blockchain into smaller more manageable segments. This reduces the burden on the network by reducing computational load, resulting in an increased throughput of transactions.

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