NEAR Protocol Surges After Launching Chain Signatures for DeFi and Bitcoin

• NEAR Protocol’s new Chain Signatures technology allows smart contracts to sign transactions across blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
• This feature eliminates the need for multiple wallets and manual bridging, simplifies DeFi access and reduces dependency on separate gas fees.
• Co-founder Illia Polosukhin heralds this as a major step toward expanding and diversifying the Web3 user base, aiming for a user-owned internet.

NEAR Protocol has just announced its “Chain Signatures Mainnet Launch”. This new technology ditches cross-chain bridges and lets users utilise smart contracts to “sign transactions on any blockchain”, Near Protocol said on X.

So, while they say “any blockchain”, in reality it looks like the feature will be rolled out to different chains over time. For now, Chain Signatures allow users to interact across multiple blockchains like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and others, with plans to include Solana and TON by year’s end.

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This feature supports Omnichain DeFi and the creation of tokens that exist on multiple chains without – we mentioned it – needing bridges.

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The new feature uses a threshold signature protocol where NEAR’s MPC nodes sign transactions, simplifying the user experience by eliminating the need for separate accounts and managing multiple tokens for gas fees.

NEAR Protocol hopes this enhancement will improve DeFi access and asset utility across blockchains, even enabling activities on chains like Bitcoin, which were not originally designed for smart contracts.

Co-Founder Illia Polosukhin Highlights Revolutionary Approach

NEAR Protocol Co-founder Illia Polosukhin commented on the Chain Signatures going live, saying it is a “huge step toward Chain Abstraction”:

There is no more need for dozens of wallets and addresses, manual bridging, and paying gas fees in every token. Instead, all of DeFi is accessible from wherever users already are. It’s all possible because smart contracts can now sign transactions for any blockchain, even Bitcoin.

Illia Polosukhin, NEAR Co-founder

Polosukhin added the development moves beyond the limitations of layer-one-centric thinking, aiming to expand and diversify the user base in Web3.

To achieve a User-Owned Internet, we need to welcome a lot more users into Web3 and defragment liquidity and experiences across all chains. Let’s go!

Illia Polosukhin, NEAR Co-founder

NEAR Up, But Not Near All-Time Highs Yet

Unsurprisingly, the price of NEAR reacted to the development with a strong increase of 13% in the past 24 hours. This comes after the price dipped with the market crash earlier this week and only just began its recovery rally.

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At the time of writing NEAR trades hands for US$4.08 (AU$6.19), and has quite a way to go to reach the previous high of US$20.42 (AU$31.00) it made in January 2022.

Near Protocol (NEAR), 7-day graph (source: CoinMarketCap)