While some cryptocurrencies are hyped up out of thin air, others have plenty of use cases and are valuable sought-after assets. The NEAR Protocol token, a.k.a. NEAR, belongs to the second group. It serves as fuel for the NEAR ecosystem, enabling its holders to enjoy the full range of opportunities offered by over 800 projects within the system. Find out where to get NEAR and how to use it in this post.
What Is the NEAR Protocol and Why Get it?
The NEAR Protocol is a layer-1 blockchain hosting numerous DApps and smart contracts. This promising network has every chance of becoming a strong rival to Ethereum thanks to its scalability, security, and ardent support within its vast community. What is also important, NEAR’s fees are more competitive compared to Etherium. The network’s native token is NEAR. Primarily, it is used for staking by validators who achieve consensus about the network’s state through the Proof-of-Stake mechanism. Users of DApps running on this blockchain need NEAR in order to pay transaction fees, so it is a must-have token for everyone. Among other use cases, NEAR serves as a means of payment when buying NFTs on marketplaces such as Fayyr or Few and Far. The following are five convenient ways to get NEAR.
Buy or Swap NEAR on a Crypto Exchange
An obvious and most widely used method of getting NEAR is simply buying it. This token is available on most major crypto exchanges including Binance, KuCoin, CoinBase, Kraken, Huobi, and others.
The procedure for buying the token is basically the same on all exchanges. Getting NEAR starts by registering an account (or skipping this part – depending on which exchange you choose), verifying it (if necessary), and depositing the supported fiat currency or crypto. After carrying out the transaction, you get the token to your crypto wallet.
Speaking of wallets, to store NEAR or other tokens and collectibles, you can get yourself MyNearWallet. The wallet is also a safe and convenient tool for staking NEAR tokens.
Exchanging NEAR is done in a similar way to buying it. The only difference is that you are supposed to already have a crypto wallet with some tokens in it. Choosing which of the numerous platforms that support NEAR is the first step to swapping your crypto. Once that is done, select the pair to be exchanged, specify your wallet address, and initiate the transaction. Most of the time, there is no need to register.
Buy NEAR through NearPay
NearPay is a crypto finance protocol providing comprehensive crypto on-ramp and off-ramp solutions to businesses and individuals. The latter can get NEAR and other 35+ coins with over 25 supported fiat currencies. An iOS, Android, or web-based NearPay wallet enables instant fiat purchases and crypto exchanges. NEAR tokens can also be purchased with any of 30 supported fiat currencies via a widget on the NearPay website.
Contribute to the Network Development and Get NEAR for it
NEAR is an open-source blockchain, so anybody is welcome to contribute to its development and get some NEAR as a reward. For example, if you happen to find any bug, let the community know about it by submitting an issue. If you have a more elaborated suggestion on how to improve the network operation, you can submit a NEAR enhancement proposal (NEP).
What are the other ways to contribute? Well, the scope of work is quite broad, so you can pitch in with anything you are good at. NEAR has plenty of open issues and posts bounties regularly. Some of the relevant tasks involve improving documentation, creating tutorials, writing tests, finding security vulnerabilities, and more.
Win NEAR in Hackathons
The word “hackathon” is derived from “hack” and “marathon”, so it refers to a marathon for hackers or, more generally, any specialists in coding and programming. The purpose of hackathons is for programmers to show off their coding skills and solve particular problems or build fully-featured products. Enthusiasm couped with a competitive spirit enable the brightest minds to come up with efficient solutions and put forward innovations.
NEAR regularly holds hackathons aiming to improve the way its community works via collaboration between experts. Winners are awarded generous rewards in NEAR or other cryptocurrencies depending on terms. One of the recent NEAR’s hackathons took place on the sidelines of NEARCON 2022.
Learn and Earn NEAR
One of NEAR’s missions is to bring forward mass adoption of Web3, so it has launched a project to encourage people to learn more about the ecosystem and its tokenomics. In collaboration with CoinBase, NEAR runs a learn and earn program intended for all those who want to broaden their horizon with some useful knowledge and get material rewards for it. Anyone who registers an account with CoinBase and takes the course can get up to $3 in NEAR.
Bottom Line
NEAR is a fast-developing network that is just gaining traction. The number of its projects and users grows exponentially, with increasingly more developers opting for this blockchain to build their DApps on. Amid such popularity, getting NEAR is an essential task. The best ways to get this token described above simplify this task.
Useful links:
NEAR’s current bounties https://gitcoin.co/near/active
NEAR’s hackathons https://gitcoin.co/hackathon/open-defi-2?org=near
Learn & Earn program in collaboration with CoinBase https://www.coinbase.com/learning-rewards
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