Hassan Maishera
On Monday, the NEAR Protocol announced via X that Quantum-safe signing is now live on the NEAR mainnet. The launch makes NEAR one of the first blockchains with a NIST-approved post-quantum signature scheme in production.
The upgrade also launches dynamic resharding, so NEAR Protocol can scale itself automatically. NEAR is also working with hardware and software wallet builders to bring quantum security to the wider market, including Ledger, who have already added a quantum-safe signing option to their SDK.
The 2.13 upgrade also brings dynamic resharding to mainnet. When a shard fills with state, it splits automatically. No vote, no validator coordination, no protocol upgrade. NEAR's capacity is now a property of the network, not a governance decision.
NEAR Protocol is a decentralized application platform designed to make apps similarly usable to those on today’s web. The network runs on a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism called Nightshade, which aims to provide dynamic scalability and stabilize fees.
NEAR combines three core elements: User-Owned AI, which ensures agents act in users’ best interests; Intents and Chain Abstraction, which eliminate blockchain complexity for seamless, goal-driven transactions across chains; and a sharded blockchain architecture that delivers the scalability, speed, and low-cost execution needed for real-world AI and Web3 use.
NEAR Protocol is unique because it was purpose-built for AI from day one—not retrofitted after the fact. Founded by AI researchers, its architecture was designed to support intelligent systems at scale. With Nightshade sharding, NEAR can handle billions of transactions without congestion or rising fees. Developers can build using familiar languages like JavaScript and Rust, onboard users without wallets, and tap into other blockchains without bridges through Chain Signatures and NEAR Intents. Its progressive security model, low-predictable fees, and native support for AI agents make NEAR the most practical blockchain for building the next generation of autonomous applications.
NEAR is trading at $1.99, up 3.5% in the last 24 hours.
