jakiro
Original Author: Grapefruit, Chaincatcher
In two days, Near officially announced two controversial actions. First, the Foundation announced 40%of the layoffs, and then released the 2024 update roadmap.
On January 11, the Near Foundation announced that it would reduce team members by 40%. The main impact was marketing, business development and community teams, involving a total of 35 employees.The layoffs will reduce the NEAR Foundation team from the initial 90 to about 55.
The next day, Near released the roadmap in 2024 to introduce stateless verification, development of ZKWASM, improved data availability, etc., to improve the availability, scalability and decentralization of the Near protocol.
Today’s encrypted market is in the critical period of bear -turning bulls. Most Web3 projects are recruiting soldiers to buy horses to expand the team’s scale to welcome the next round of bull market. However, the Near Foundation is the opposite of the mainstream expectations.
Why does near announce a large number of layoffs at a critical moment at the critical moment of the cycle of the encryption market?Is this the long -rumored “team in the team” or “self -rescue behavior”?
Foundation layoff 40%
At present, the user and the market think of the NAR Foundation’s layoffs: more favorable than the empty air.Most community users believe that the layoffs are NEAR founders Illia Polosukhin (referred to as Illia, Chinese translated as “one dragon”) after returning to the foundation to rectify the team, which not only streamlined expenses, saves costs, but also clears unnecessary personnel.This is great for Near’s future development.
The reason why this conclusion is because the two key information was released in the NEAR layoff announcement. One is to improve the work efficiency of the foundation and the results of its activities after the activities; the other is to disclose the financial situation of the foundation.The assets hold more than 1.3 billion US dollars.
Yilong said in the layoff announcement that the Near Foundation and its council (NFC) thoroughly reviewed the foundation of the foundation. In the process, there was feedback that the foundation was not always so effective. Sometimes the action was too slow and the actions were too slow and the actions were too slow and the actions were too slow and the actions were too slow and the actions were too slow and the actions were too slow and the actions were too slow and the actions were too slow and the actions were too slow and the actions were too slow and the actions were too slow and the actions were too slow and the actions were too slow and the actions were too slow and the actions were too slow.Try to do too many things at the same time.After this review, the team decided to significantly integrate the core foundation team to reduce the scope of work and focus on more influential activities.
It said that as part of this reorganization, the Near Foundation will reduce a team of about 40%, affecting 35 colleagues, mainly marketing, business development and community teams
The layoff announcement stated that the financial situation of the Near Foundation is still stable and good, with more than $ 285 million legal currency, 305 million Near token (value of more than 1 billion US dollars), and $ 70 million investment and loans.
After the NAR layoff announcement was issued, some community users said that they were optimistic about NEAR’s layoffs, streamlined personnel, improved efficiency while reducing expenses, and solved the long -term complaints of users.The problem, and the steady financial data also indirectly clarifies the rumors of the rumored “NEAR Foundation” for a long time.
In this regard, a community user commented that Near finally began to pay attention to the foundation of the foundation. As an important organization that promotes the ecological development of the blockchain project, the foundation not only controls the huge treasury funds that determine the future of the project, but also needThe development of its own tone, marketing strategy, and support for high -quality early ecological projects, and today’s Near Foundation publicly stated that the crypto assets in charge of more than 1.3 billion US dollars, and this part of the funds will mostly be used to support the development of ecosystems, or vigorously support the ecology of the ecologyProject, which is great for Near’s future ecological growth.
On the day of the announcement of layoffs, the price of Near token rushed from $ 3.19 to $ 3.69, an increase of more than 15%within the day.On January 22, Near’s price fell to $ 2.9.
In 2 months, change the “first leader”
Behind the appearance of the NAR Foundation’s layoffs, the user also hides an important reason: whether the layoffs are related to the founder Yilong Return to the Foundation.
Since September 2023, the senior executives of the Near Foundation have experienced three major blood changes.
Last September, Marieke Flament, the CEO of the Near Foundation since the first quarter of 2022, announced his resignation.
Subsequently, the Foundation was led by Legal Consultant Chris Donovan.
On November 7, the founder of Near, Yilong, announced that he returned to the Foundation as the CEO. He was responsible for leading the Near ecosystem to enter the next stage of building an open network. Chris Donova was transferred to the chief operating officer.
In January 2022, after the Near Foundation announced the appointment of the former executive of Circle and Mettle, Marieke Flament as CEO, Yilong withdrew from the foundation.
In less than two months, the CEO of the Near Foundation has experienced three personnel changes.The causes of frequent personnel changes in the foundation of the Foundation have been speaking, and the rumors of the teams have continued.
What really tears the Near Foundation problem is the “Wintermute USN exchange controversy” storm.
On November 8, 2023, the founder of Wintermute, EvGeny Gaevoy, publicly posted on social media bombarding the Near Foundation and Aurora Labs (NEAR’s EVM Chain Aurora Developer, Creation Members from the Near), saying that he did not comply with the contract, and he did not comply with the contract.Refuse to fulfill the commitment agreement with a redeem of $ 11.2 million.
In short, Aurora previously told Wintermute that he could return any amount of USN to USDT without providing a source of funds.Under this promise guarantee, Wintermute purchased USN stabilizer worth $ 11.2 million from FTX assets, but when Wintermute redeemed USN exchange USDT, Near and Aurora rejected it.
In response to this, Illia and Foundation responded to explaining that after USN was closed due to insufficient mortgage, the USN Protection Plan (USNPP) was established and operated by Aurora Labs to protect the affected individuals.Wintermute refuses the request because of the existence or use of the USN purchased from FTX, which will bring losses to ecological users.
However, the incident once again pointed the finger at the USN of the Near Foundation and the stabilized currency project of the half -road abortion, and questioning the relationship between them continued.
Some users left a message saying: “Near Foundation is darker than hackers. The original promised USN can be exchanged for USDT, but now it does not support it. It has swallowed tens of millions of dollars.”However, the operation of the Near Foundation seems to be unusual with USN, like an official incubation project, which is really chaotic. “The rumor of “Near Foundation has no money” also flows from here.
According to public information, the stable currency USN is a project issued by Decentral Bank on NEAR in 2022. Although Decentral Bank claims that it is an independent community operation project, there is no direct financial assistance from the Near Foundation.However, because the stable currency is mainly generated by the Near token mortgage and received the public support from the Near Foundation in the early stage of launch, this causes a USN to be an illusion of the official operation of the Near Foundation.
In October 2022, after the USN announced its closure due to insufficient mortgage, the Near Foundation immediately set up a $ 40 million fund to support USN’s conversion of USDT.This exchange support operation has made users suspect that the USN and Near Foundation officials have an unspeakable relationship.
As of January 22, the dispute between Wintermute and the Near Foundation has not yet had a clear conclusion. The founder of Wintermute has not stopped complaining about it. He said that if the Near Foundation will continue, he will take legal channels.
Disposal storms with Wintermute revealed issues such as the unknown boundaries between the Near Foundation team and the boundaries between ecological related parties.
Yilong’s return on this festival is also considered to rectify the chaotic problem of the NAR Foundation team. After returning to the Foundation, he announced that he made 40%of the layoffs after two months, which was to clear the team.
NEAR development dilemma: TVL growth is stagnant, and the application on the chain is barren
Since Yilong announced the return of the foundation, Near has also announced a series of new actions in terms of products.
First, the Near Foundation announced that it cooperated with Polygon Labs to develop zero -knowledge to prove ZKWasm ZKWASM; secondly, the new project Near DA data available layer was launched to enter the field of modular blockchain; then, cooperated with EIGEN LABS to build it for Ethereum Layer.2 The fast terminal of 2, shortening the transaction time and cost can be reduced by one -four thousandths.
With the overall recovery of the encrypted market, the price of Near currency rose along the way, from $ 1.5 on November 8 to a maximum of US $ 4.6 on December 6, a cumulative increase of more than 200%, falling to US $ 2.9 on January 22.
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However, from the perspective of chain operation data, this series of actions did not bring any transfer to Near’s ecological development, and the number of applications on the chain was stopped and TVL did not have a new growth.
According to the DEFILLAMA data platform, since April 2023, the TVL on the Near chain has been hovering at 30 million US dollars for a long time. It did not improve until the end of December.TVL ranks 31 among many public chains, and there are only 22 applications on the chain.
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For a series of actions carried out after Yilong returning to the fund, community users Moli regarded it as Near’s self -rescue behavior.At present, the development of Near has been in trouble, and the ecology on the chain has long been stagnant for a long time. It has neither new applications, and the user’s activity is not high. It needs to inject new vitality into it.
He explained that, compared with the same chains of the same period, the same period of the same period, the gap between the development of Solana, Polygon, and Avlaanche has become more and more slow.In the last round of EVM network speculation boom, Near launched the latest, and the EVM network Aurora was launched until the end of the bull market. Now, Solana has completely out of the haze of the FTX collapse with ecological wealth; Polygon has successfully grasped Layer 2 narrative successful narrative.The transformation was transformed into a Layer 2 -headed project and attracted a group of developers; although Avlaanche had not fully recovered, the local dog hype was not stopped.
Corresponding to the state presented by the Near network, it is always unstable, and there are basically no new applications on the chain. There are only a few old -name DEX, borrowing, and liquidity pledge agreement for participation.
During the public chain inscription speculation in November last year, the Near chain also launched the inscription project NEAT, and obtained a dragon and most of the NEAR ecological KOL transfer support, which attracted a large number of users to participate, and even led to Binance and OKX for the time being temporarily temporarily temporarily temporarily temporarily temporarily temporarily.Stop the bill of bill.The number of transactions on the chain on November 30 exceeded 10 million, setting a record history of the single -day transaction, and the number of new wallets on the chain exceeded 170,000.
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Although the appearance of the inscription Neat inscription, the appearance of Near ecology has brought a huge amount of heat and attention in a short time, ecological applications cannot be undertaken. Users can not find a more fun application except for the prices of inscriptions.
As the inscription heat was cold, the price of NEAT currency began to decline all the way. In the past 14 days, it has fallen by more than 50%. The current price is 0.1 US dollars. At the same time, the transaction data on the Near chain has begun to decline.
On January 17, CHAINCATCHER News, the Near Ecological Re -Package Platform Linear announced that it would regulate the token LNR to the community users.Once again, NEAR attracted a wave of traffic. The interactive Near ecological application once became a new topic of an encrypted community. However, after entering the ecology, users found that there were very few applications on the Near chain.
In this regard, the community user KAI said that although Near has innovated in the fragmentation technology architecture, the current public chain competition has entered the stage of fierceness, and it is no longer an early technology competition, but the application ecology and project party operations on the chainCompetition of abilities, including users, developers and communities.
He proposed that Near is now the most important thing is to focus on developing the ecosystem, especially the DEFI categories. Do not wait until the traffic is not applied, and the ecological prosperity is not a cluster. The official is a developer for developers.The community continues to provide resource support and empowerment.
Focusing on the web2 chain reform, Near is trying to “save self”?
Regarding the stagnation of TVL data on the chain, Near’s long -term holder Nick said that the level of TVL data can not truly reflect NAR’s chain activity, which is mainly related to the ecological development strategy used by NEAR.Basic web2 application cooperation helps them to rebuild their business model with the help of blockchain technology.
The “Chain Reform Actively Supporting Web2 Application” strategy can be confirmed from Yilong in January’s Defiant interview.
Regarding the development of Near ecological applications, Yilong said that Near currently hopes to help those web2 applications that already have user groups, and find their own business monetization model with the help of blockchain instead of paying attention to whether the project can bring TVL.
He gave an example. At present, SWEATCOIN, an active project on the Near chain, was originally a web2 movement. It successfully transformed into a web3 to earn coins by cooperating with NEAR.It can also be used to buy products of cooperative brands, such as yoga classes, daily necessities, etc.
In September 2023, the Kaikai application, which led to surge in transaction data on the Near chain, is not a native encryption project on the Near network. It is the “chain modification” shopping platform under the consumer shopping data analysis platform COSMOSE AI.The stable coin KAI-Ching, which is linked to the US dollar, users can earn additional KAI-Ching tokens using Kaikai App to shop, play or write product reviews.
According to the ecological data statistics from Near Daily, Kaikai and SWEATCOIN have become the project with the largest number of NEAR ecological active users in the past 30 days. The number of active users of Kaikai exceeds 2 million, and the number of Sweatcoin users exceeds 1 million.
Although these applications have not directly brought TVL growth to Near, their arrival also brings their existing users into the NEAR ecosystem, but the web3 technology is used by more circles of external users. The number of interactions on the chain and the number of wallets on the chainThey are also growing.
Perhaps by becoming a chain reform tool for web2 applications, the traffic dividend brought by it with it.At present, the NEAR development strategy is also concentrated on providing developers and users with a high -performance and experienced underlying network, which has realized the vision of the NEAR network being adopted by the mainstream.
It can also be seen from the work results of 2023 released by Near and the Q4 update roadmap.
The NEAR network in 2023 has greatly reduced the threshold for use and entering Near’s ecological land.Among them, the meta -trading function can be added to support GAS transactions, that is, users do not need to use NEAR tokens to pay GAS fees when using applications on the Near chain; in addition, zero account accounts are added.Tokens can create wallet accounts, which solves the problem that the creation wallet account that has been voiced in the past needs to hold the tokens above 0.1 NEAR, so that new users can easily use applications.
In the roadmap in 2024, in terms of product performance, NEAR introduced a stateless verification function, which not only improves the security of the network, avoids the implementation of fraud, but also improves the throughput and performance of each piece;The ZKWASM developed by Polygon can be used as an EVM execution environment for the L2 network, and the available data can help developers easier to build L2 networks.
In terms of user experience, the account aggregation function proposed will allow users to use a NEAR account to control the accounts on different chains, which is also an important step in the NEAR chain abstraction vision plan.In addition, the problem that the Ethereum wallet such as Metamask, which has a headache, cannot support the Near network.
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At present, NEAR DA launched by NEAR has been integrated with developers such as Polygon CDK, Arbitrum Orbit, and developers can use it to build their own L2 or L3 networks.
However, for the updated roadmap, some community users have commented, which is in line with Near’s consistent “imitation” style, and the roadmap is modified every quarter.First copy the Ethereum shard, and then this year FET and other AI heat turned to AI. Now after the modular TIA and Layer 2, the DA layer is copied. I hope that from now on, this imitation strategy of Near has ended, Be able to get out of a different path by yourself.
