8. The Open Web is NEAR: How BOS, NDC, and DAOs are Creating a Decentralized Web - Paris 2023

what I'd like to do today is give you an update on on near uh where we're at what we do I think like many of you we are here because we believe in the open web and actually building a better web uh which again seems very fitting and in the context of History where we're here uh seems definitely the right the right place to do that so by the way thank you so much for the organizers for having near as a partner we're are very proud to be uh also participating to the effort of funding the commons um for those of you who who know or might not know but new actually has an interesting history and I think especially in technology and the speed at which things go it's always interesting to take a step back and think about history and where things come from and why they were set up and so the history near is actually rooted in AI uh and Elia and Alex who are the co-founders of near first started one with the name near because Singularity is near is what inspired the naming of the project but to thinking that imagine if you could have a program to which you could ask to actually create any program or any website that you actually wanted and needed that was the original idea and to do that they had actually Freelancers uh across the world to help them on that mission and the idea was to pay those Freelancers with the technology that they had heard about uh which was blockchain uh but in doing so what they realized was actually that it was not as fast as it could be not as usable as it could be and not that cheap as it could be and so they pivoted and they pivoted into what is mostly near known for which is uh a layer one uh proof of stake uh and so they created that with at the core and the Heart of everything that was done thinking through Simplicity uh because ultimately to get to mainstream or mass adoption however you want to call it Simplicity is what is first and foremost needed so that open access can truly be uh created and so Simplicity has always been the thing has been that has been prioritized forer from Simplicity for developers on how to actually build but also Simplicity for end users to actually start participating of course security scalability fundamental parameters uh in building any layer one uh and sustainability also a core value that has been set from thinking through of course the impact like of what uh the technology consumes but also thinking through when things are done can they be done in a self- sustainable manner so that actually this is for long term and this is for actually uh sustainable um sustainable changes so started as AI moved into a layer one and recently we've continued our Evolution which in a way feels like a full circle but because of the different components actually that near and the near ecosystem have been building over the last few years we are now entering uh what we call a blockchain operating system and so more than ever this actually further gathers different ecosystems and it's not just about you know near and such ecosystem versus other ecosystem this is much more about actually being together able to actually contribute to create the open web that we all are envisioning and so what does this open web uh means through a blockchain operating system um so there is different components that can be actually accessed and chosen uh but the way we actually uh structure it or like picture it it thinking through uh underneath it any blockchain can actually sit and there for this multi-chain ability and functionality uh you have middleware and then you have front end uh fast us is something that we've actually been talking about a lot recently which is like the easiest on boarding probably in web two full stop but actually obviously also for for web 3 back again to this core principle of Simplicity and and usability so the open web is really what guides our vision and our mission and this is actually obviously a bigger than you know just a sub ecosystem and it is the mission for which uh each and every one of us at near are thriving for the way we do that is thinking through well what actually are the different use cases that need to be brought through uh and what is it actually that we can contribute to in working with different partners whether they actually commercial Partners or whether they actually you know smaller uh smaller sub projects um recently part of that Journey what we've done and I encourage uh those of you in particular who I would say are are developers uh to go on n.org we''ve actually taken the BET to change our website from a very you know Layman website into uh something that is completely on chain where developers can actually participate and Fork WID Jets and basically start playing with this unique ability to be together building uh the open web now when it come to decentralization uh and and here again I think to a crowd of people who are probably convinced but when it comes to decentralization it is much more than a tool it is actually a fundamental belief that openness inclusiveness participation but also censorship resistance come from the ability to be decentralized from the GetGo uh the near ecosystem has been uh very decentralized uh which at time can be chaotic to to navigate when you're coming uh fresh at it but actually we deeply believe that this is the the way forward and so the next few uh minutes what I I wanted to share with you is more like when we think of decentralized web what are the things that actually are front of mind for us right now in further decentralizing actually the near ecosystem uh and and where things go and there are three core things that we are really uh hammering on in particular at the moment to continue on our on our journey on that uh a first pillar is through research and development and while at the beginning of the creation of an ecosystem obviously R&D is very often a sub group of of people that know each other really well but also have like the same common language over time opening that up becomes absolutely parment but not only that it's not about only R&D but it's also about opening up contribution for entrepreneurs and creators uh who might also want to be actually creating the next project using different building blocks and the last bit is community and governance uh which actually takes also a very important place so those are the three necessary components but also the three pillars that we uh that we think collectively uh at near of of funding goods and therefore things that are fundamental to help uh decentralizing uh further the ecosystem so R&D uh one core example here and I think uh some of the team members will be here and we'll talk uh later today so highly encourage you to go and and and meet them but a Dev Hub uh is actually our Collective effort uh to have more openness into how as a developer you can contribute uh to building for the near uh for the near ecosystem um it's been so it's only it's fully built on actually new.org which has a mentioned is fully on chain um and has basically a lot of different working groups which are very active in taking different paths and ways to further help uh the ecosystem um so education building further the protocol continuing to upgrade uh contract standards but also uh zero knowledge proof are things that are front mine for uh for that group the amount of actually uh transparency but also collaboration and visibility in building that is absolutely phenomenal I think one e also that I think is extremely important here has been uh I would say a shift from from what we've really seen all of us in in the bull market it's rather than having actually to incentivize people to in the hope that it will contribute to something but focusing on actually High engagement high quality and basically rewarding for for great output but not necessarily High having to pay for uh for for attracting people and so the ethos of that is really to build a super strong very engaged high quality community of Builders uh focused on on R&D and developing core components so R&D first pillar in term of Entrepreneurship and contribution one thing and that's a learning that's been a learning for the near ecosystem and I think it's been the same for a lot of ecosystems through uh again the bull market there is a concept of of Grants and yes you can you can do milestones but actually success is very far away from just providing Capital success is actually in hand handholding success is actually in enabling people to have the right access to the right knowledge and to be able to actually U move forward and so what we've actually uh starting creating is what we call near Horizon uh which is first and foremost a tool so it's a product that helps actually gather Founders contributors and backers that can come all together again on chain and in a very visible and open manner to find the right resources that they need so if you're a Founder actually what you might need is to hire ecosystem experts or e or just experts but you might not need them full-time and so we're starting to enter more and more fractional work which I think also in I would think of decentralization uh is a very important uh important Trend you might want to actually either test your product product test it or have security audits reviewed you might need actually to find your first adopters you might need to actually have some first backers review you might want to participate in an accelerator uh and so we participate with a lot of backers and accelerators to basically help through that process as contributors uh you can also put yourself forward and basically be a fractional CFO or legal person or marketeer or whatever uh whatever that is and of course for backers the value proposition here in actually seeing firsthand very early project very important that we have found and we continue finding that opening up that and again not just necessarily to a specific ecosystem but opening that up is something that is very powerful to create more decentralization actually better collaboration here again lots of different um you know resources that can be found uh but in particular openness to access to not just technical documentation but like you know teaching and and skill sets that can be learned uh very uh very important so yeah if you're a founder Creator encourage you to to check that out and the last part is uh community and governance it's been actually uh heartwarming to see a year ago uh actually uh Ilia put forward a proposal for how a an ecosystem could be further decentralized and figure out like human governance but on chain and that was an idea and actually that idea has been taken on by the community and evolved as it's actually starting continually fostering but basically a group of community members got together and set themselves to to actually set up the largest human web three Collective uh to basically build decentralized uh governance on the blockchain operating system to help support this decentralization and this continuous uh sustainability through it and so today it's actually a lot of different like nodes and groups uh but again setting back into I think the historical context we are in of course there is a constitution that has been written uh there are core principles and there are values that are written and there is actually a thought process of what does it mean to actually nominate yourself be elected what does it mean to actually allocate capital and so on and so forth um so tremendous progress have been made but uh by that group coming together um and the idea here is uh right now there is actually a trust and a quite substantial uh treasury that has been set that is fully owned by the community that is voted upon that actually then can be fostered either for developers or for marketing initiatives or for creative initiatives um the group is uh has also started to set what is soulbound token and so this idea of like you have to be a human to be basically able to vote uh and you have to be you know participating and contributing and having like basically the right uh you know the right motivations from wanting to be nominated in one of the committee are also things that are driving uh the NDC so that's again things that uh in at least the near ecosystem were not necessarily fully coded but the direction and I think you can see that from the theme of what I've been mentioning but the direction of that we are taking is collectively what are actually the tools that we can leverage to make things uh transparent on fully on chain and actually open uh and accessible to all and I will close with um maybe some further thoughts uh just again on like how we approach more philosophically or more like from a from a Nita's perspective thinking about diversity and inclusion but the idea of Simplicity is absolutely fundamental if collectively we believe that we want to bring millions and billions of users actually in the open web which let's face it is the only way they will succeed making things simples but also open and accessible enabling people to participate from whatever region they are from whatever actually background they have becomes absolutely fundamental and so being able to do that having tools such as for example Dev hubs having tools such as Horizon and having an open participation so that the near digital Collective We Believe are the things that actually can contribute to help create the open web and the decentralized web and with that thank you very [Music] much