The State of the NEAR Ecosystem - Corey Pigott

uh hey everybody um so my name is corey pigott um i'm the strategic funding manager for nir foundation i'm really focused on capital deployment and funding for the purpose of growing the ecosystem for projects that are building on near so today i really want to kind of touch upon uh briefly introducing what near is for folks who may not know about it as well as providing an overview of the new ecosystem funding um and then providing maybe some avenues for um for folks to really further engage within the uh within the near ecosystem so for anyone who's uh who's not that familiar with nir nir is a layer one blockchain platform that enables creators communities and financial markets to really drive a more open and uh and consumer-empowered world and so really to uh to accomplish this mission of an open web world uh we first had to build a best-in-class platform uh one that provides simplicity not only for developers to build but really for also consumers and users to really utilize and uh utilize the network while kind of providing an experience very very familiar to web 2. two and so we additionally have a goal at the foundation to onboard uh one billion users to web three and so that really requires a secure and scalable blockchain so for scalability uh nir really utilizes a uh sharding to help satisfy the demand for transactions um and for more and more users to be onboarded um too near and so when we launched mainnet in uh in october of 2020 near started with one shard to really kind of allow us to test out the uh the sharding capabilities and a year later october of last year we were able to launch four shards with the ability to um to increase those shards via governance every 12 hours and so we like to kind of use this slide as a way to kind of show kind of how we're looking to build out the ecosystem and so near is really supported through what we like to call call our creator triangle featuring creators open finance and communities and really these pillars kind of work together in tandem to really build out this ecosystem and with i think with more liquidity comes more creators more creators comes greater communities which in turn they could create dows and and be able to um to have used their treasuries to again further support the ecosystem um through d5 nfts and gaming um so i don't want to touch upon this uh too much but this is just kind of an overview of of kind of the ecosystem of snapshot of where we're at currently with kind of all the products that are building right now and so we have the near ecosystem as well as the aurora ecosystem which aurora is near evm compatible layer 2 which launched late last year and so kind of to put that this ecosystem growth into into perspective here are just kind of a few figures that we have to really reiterate kind of where we're at now with uh with 92 million transactions uh over four million accounts a handful of projects dows um tbl of over 575 million uh and i think as of today um nft volume just uh close to uh seven million from a 30-day average and so i think as the ecosystem uh as the ecosystem matures we uh we saw kind of a huge need for funding within the ecosystem to really be able to fund across different buckets and so uh here are just a few of them that we've that we've kind of been implementing last year and earlier this year i think d5 through proximity labs our our own nf funding through our own grants and and direct investments equity investments um and then as well as uh additional funding through regional hubs and ecosystem funds and so each each bucket has their own allocation of near to uh to fund their initiatives and we're looking um kind of in the near future to be able to uh to build out those channels and platforms for for ecosystem funding in the coming months and years and so from uh from a foundation standpoint we really work to provide a clear and efficient access to uh to funding support for projects that are looking to build on near and and we look to kind of achieve that through supporting that creator triangle that we that i spoke to earlier so that those pillars can really have a thriving ecosystem to grow and and we kind of provide that through like access to funding where whether it's nf direct or or through some of our external funding channels we also support our community through funding many of their ideas and initiatives that they have as well and then finally through making sure i think through um through some of that funding that incentives are aligned between the foundation and the ecosystem projects and partners and we usually try to do that through milestone milestone-based incentives so how do we operationalize this i think in taking this vision into practical use and really building out a scalable model we like to think of the foundation as a decentralized fun fund of funds where we're able to really deploy capital uh to really closely align external partners um who are able to really manage the capital deployment within the ecosystem and so this is just kind of a sample of kind of our vision that we have where we have kind of direct grants that we that we put out we have grant pools educational grants direct investments lp investments kind of a thriving vc network dow investments and all that so um many of these are currently being implemented and we're looking to kind of build build on top of that and add more uh as we grow and so really taking a look at kind of what we have currently um currently nf uh deploys capital directly through our grants program and direct investment so our grants program we have a little over 250 million for grants program and then nf direct we have about 100 million to make direct equity investments into projects additionally we have a grant grant pool and investment funds that are currently being deployed by kind of closely aligned partners like proximity labs are a d5 incubator aurora are our layer two um human guild which is a guild kind of focused on creators and then also regional funds and regional hubs such as uh near ukraine accelerator um also we have a few ecosystem funds so meta web owc and move capital are kind of our current ecosystem funds that we're lp's in and they were really are critical in in helping kind of build out the ecosystem and further deploy capital that that the nf um is unable to do so they're really uh critical as well and we're looking to add more ecosystem funds as we continue to grow and then finally we're currently working with over 275 uh different vcs angels mentors to really help uh externally fund and accelerate the growth of the ecosystem as well and i think quickly looking back at kind of what we've done over the course of last year i mean nf deployed about 104 million uh in assets to uh 271 grant recipients um we've also we also invested about 1.6 million dollars in early stage vc deals um from the crowdfunding side of things we've uh there's been about 70 million that's been raised from projects like skyward aurora refinance and then also from external vc funding we've had about 77 million raised in rounds for aurora flux octopus network and many more so i'm looking to kind of continue that on and we have a lot more that are that have been uh raised over the past few months um and then also from the community side we were able to deploy uh 2 million to various scales in community-driven projects so so we talked about how ecosystem how the ecosystem is funded but and kind of the role of the nf and our ecosystem partners and how we play a role in that so next i really wanted to kind of quickly talk about different ways that builders and investors can really participate within the ecosystem and really engage with uh with not only nf but some of our partners so regional hubs is a big is a big piece of that um and it's a big initiative for the foundation um i think it was clear for us um as the ecosystem was growing that the foundation itself can't manage um that growth solely on its own and so we really needed to rely on on local community members to lead within those various regions and so many of our current regional hubs have actually organically developed and grown um just based off of organic ecosystem growth including ukraine and china and so now now i think our focus is really better operationalizing the teams the capital uh the local communities and their resources to really formalize our existing hubs and expand into some more that we that we have shown here we're working on that one as well um so as i touched upon a little previously uh proximity is also a big project of ours that's focused on on d5 ecosystem growth on near and so proximity is a project studio um an an incubator for defy on near they've been pretty instrumental in accelerating the the growth of near's d5 presidents with work on projects like ref finance and and bro cash um and in addition to that they're um to building d5 building blocks they also have a a 40 million near grant style that's aimed to bring in more top d5 builders to uh to the ecosystem so if you want to learn more about uh proximity kendall leads the proximity team and he's a great resource and his entire team is a great resource for d5 being developed on near and integrated via aurora as well pagoda is a new it's a new project that it formerly was near inc and it's the first first ever web 3 startup platform to fully support the near ecosystem from a developer front and so i think that is providing protocol rd uh dev tools dev console and more just really to support the uh those who are building on near and so many of uh i think many of the pagoda team members are are here in attendance at east denver so i would uh i think it'd be great for for people to kind of introduce yourselves and have them kind of walk through what they're what they're building because then what they're building is really great um and i touched on it a little bit before but ecosystem funds i think are really critical to um to what we're building out so we have metaweb and and amos owc and mimi and then uh move capital and roon and them in their teams i think i mean they're distinct in separate funds without with their own lp capital and um i think they're really great at providing additional capital support and guidance to some of these early stage ecosystem projects and so uh and i think these funds kind of act as a as an extension of the of the existing funding channels that we have and like i said before we're looking to kind of add to that as well so um if you have any if there are any um funds that are looking to get more involved with nir we'd be we'd be interested in talking to you so really to highlight um i think there's there are a lot of ways that both investors and builders are really able to engage further within the near ecosystem and i think touching upon investors first i think engaging further with the nf funding team for deal flow sharing i lead strategic funding for the foundation i'm happy to connect anyone to any projects that are building any of our ecosystem funds or or other partners that we have we also have a monthly newsletter for investors that we like to just keep people aware of what's happening within the ecosystem so happy to include you in that as well also i think ecosystem funds are a great way to get involved um and feel free i have to reach out to amos mimi or roon i've listed their contact information here but i'm also happy to uh to make any intros as well and i think they have really some great insight into a lot of the ecosystem projects um and they're also raising lp capital so if you are looking to be an lp they also have opportunities there and then finally like i said uh further if you're looking to further engage within the dfi ecosystem uh kendall is a great resource and then i think looking at for builders there's also a lot of ways to further engage with an ecosystem from engaging with the nf funding team for non-equity funding we have our own grants program and and i encourage anyone to apply for a grant if you're considered considering building on air and happy to kind of walk through and we have someone on our team nicole who i think is talking a little later today who will be going over kind of how to apply for a grant additionally um we provide equity funding either internally or externally with some of our partners so um like i said i i help lead that so happy to talk to anybody who's uh who's raising capital um and on near within your ecosystem happy to chat through that as well um and then i think outside of nf's grant funding there's also a lot of other grant pools that are currently available including proximity aurora near university which is like educational grants as well as human guild and we're looking to have more uh more included as we as we kind of further develop here and then i think finally from kind of just an ecosystem and community engagement perspective um there's also a lot of ways to further engage um pagoda i think it's a great one also our education and community pages um to really help people kind of learn more about near and and kind of figure out how to gauge that way i think is great as well as for those who are looking to deploy dows asher dao has some great resources and can really help spin up spin up dials easily so get connected with them and happy to make any interest there as well and then i think just for us at the nf we also are looking for individuals to join our team so um i listed our our career page here if anybody's interested to uh to join or look through that um that's also another opportunity um so i think that's pretty much it i mean thank you for taking the time and uh i encourage everybody to engage further within the ecosystem and happy to uh to reach out and and talk through anything that you have any questions you may have so thanks