Solaire – an exciting web3 retail platform that merges physical and digital assets – is revolutionizing the way consumers interact with fashion brands. By harnessing the power of web3 and the NEAR blockchain, Solaire is building out key protocol infrastructure and APIs that will expand decentralized retail and unlock new opportunities for both shoppers and fashion brands alike.
Solaire is pioneering phygital use cases and brands will be able to leverage the NEAR blockchain in tandem with Solair’s powerful APIs to engage with their audience in novel ways. Solaire’s suite of APIs seamlessly integrates with a brand’s existing retail channels. This enables new revenue channels and richer data.
Solaire’s entire backend is fully on-chain and facilitates an easy-to-use web2 interface, with no wallet or crypto needed from shoppers. The NEAR blockchain helps Solaire provide these benefits for brands, as well as unique integrations with NEAR. This includes Solaire integration with the NEAR Mainnet, native NEAR wallet support, and the NEAR token as a payment option.
How Solaire is Changing Fashion with Phygital
Solaire establishes a 1:1 connection between a physical object and its digital twin. Brands can then leverage Solaire’s infrastructure and suite of APIs to engage customers with NFTs and phygital experiences in a seamless, user-friendly way, removing some of the typical web3 friction points.
“We aim to do all the hard work on the backend so that brands and consumers can enjoy a familiar user experience with all the benefits of Web3 but without the hassle of dealing with wallet or crypto,” says Vivian Zhang, CEO of Solaire. “And NEAR’s blockchain is perfectly suited to run enterprise-level protocols to ensure a seamless and frictionless user experience.”
Soliare infrastructure helps brands create meaningful digital twins for physical goods, as well as providing a means for consumers to buy and trade phygital assets. Solaire allows for minting unique NFTs attached to physical goods and offers an end-to-end solution for securing and tracking a product from manufacturing through its entire product lifecycle.
Solaire has already collaborated with major fashion brands like Freeman’s Limited Edition Phygital Harry Potter™ Collection and Ilona Song. Smart contracts facilitate shipping, returns, and exchanges all on the NEAR blockchain This allows customers to shop and purchase with transparency and confidence.
Benefits of Phygital Assets for Fashion Brands
Phygital assets are a new way for fashion brands to engage consumers, combining the physical and digital worlds to create a more immersive shopping experience. For example, when a customer buys a dress in real life, they also receive a digital wearable. This can be in the form of an AR filter, a digital skin in their favorite game, or to wear in the metaverse.
“Solaire’s mission is to empower the retail industry with web3 tools to cultivate a more connected and automated ecosystem,” Zhang continues. “With our suite of APIs, brands are able to maximize revenue and gain valuable data from digital assets, facilitate the secondary market, and build community.”
Brands can then use Solaire as a powerful CRM tool. Through the digital twin in customers’ wallets, brands will have a constant open channel of communication with both the primary customer and secondary owners. Smart contracts also automate royalties from secondary selling, giving brands visibility into trading data.
Another exciting feature is the secondary market experience brands can now provide. Solaire’s backend enables peer-to-peer physical asset trading without a middleman, utilizing blockchain-secured data and smart contracts. Buyers and sellers can independently confirm possession and authenticity of assets on-chain, and smart contracts resolve any disputes.
Solaire and NEAR Building a Phygital Fashion Future
“We’re building on NEAR because it champions community, and it’s one we have found to be incredibly supportive,” remarks Vivian Zhang, CEO of Solaire. “We’ve been able to connect and collaborate with so many partners as we build an entire retail ecosystem together on NEAR.”
As fashion brands recognize the value of web3, NFTs, and phygital technology as important audience touchpoints, Solaire has the potential to partner with even more fashion brands and designers. Solaire’s game-changing approach and tech stack – aided by the NEAR blockchain – will bring web3 to more fashionistas without some of the usual pain points.
“Together with NEAR, we hope to lay out the Web3 infrastructure for the retail industry to onboard the next billion users into web3,” concluded Zhang.
NEAR Foundation is excited to announce that it has joined Hydra Ventures, a “fund of funds” investment DAO. A first in the Web3 space, Hydra Ventures is designed to help other investment DAOs get off the ground.
By partnering with NEAR Foundation, Hydra Ventures will open the doors to the eventual launch of the first investment DAO in the Near ecosystem.
“The combined expertise of the leaders that have created this fund offers a winning formula that will help provide critical funding to purpose-driven, socially impactful web3 startups,” said Marieke Flament, CEO of NEAR Foundation. “We are delighted to be playing a part in launching this DAO and look forward to seeing the role it will play in developing our ecosystem.”
Decentralizing Web3 investment with DAOs
To power the “fund of funds” investment DAO, Hydra Ventures has raised $10M in capital from NEAR Foundation, MetaCartel Ventures, ConsenSys, 1kx Ventures, Collab + Currency, Nonagon Ventures, CMT Digital, among others. Hydra Ventures aims to take a hands-on approach to support investment DAOs, from community coordination and investment practices to organizational design, incentive design, and back office/operations.
“While the first legally wrapped investment DAOs showed us what was possible, many of them have had major operating flaws which have been exposed over the years,” said Peter Pan, co-summoner of MetaCartel and Partner at 1kx Ventures. “Hydra looks to address many of these problems and ultimately emerge with a fundamentally better model for how investment DAOs should be operated. We are thrilled to have NEAR Foundation’s support in this venture.”
Hydra Ventures is incubated by Thing3 and MetaCartel Ventures (the first and one of the most successful investment DAOs created), and backed by leading founders and thinkers in Web3. MetaCartel has incubated and made investments in several category-leading projects like Sky Mavis, Axie Infinity, Arweave, Open Zeppelin, DAOhaus, Zapper Finance, and Rarible, and were also one of the first investors in Mintbase, an NFT marketplace built on Near. MetaCartel members include Ameen Soleimani (founder, Moloch DAO), Stani Kulechov (founder, AAVE), Roneil Rumburg (founder, Audius), Bobby Ong (founder, Coingecko), RAC (Grammy award winner), Peter Pan (Partner, 1kx Ventures), amongst others.
NEAR Foundation is excited to announce a new partnership with Popp, a company helping small businesses generate better customer engagement using Web3 technology.
As part of the partnership, Popp — a solution-as-a-service (SaaS) for small-to-medium consumer brands — will launch its white-labeled tools and products exclusively on NEAR.
How Popp works for small businesses
Popp helps consumer brands launch micro community spaces for customers, which are embedded in their online stores. Milestone-based customer rewards then drive more engagement for brands. The NEAR partnership will, for instance, allow Popp’s customers to issue NFTs when certain milestones are met.
On Popp, brands can build deeper, more meaningful connections with customers by rewarding them across multiple touch points. Through these bespoke projects, Popp has already generated over £57k in revenue ($69k USD) in six months via six pilot partners.
Popp has two interfaces. On the business side, each brand gets its own custom dashboard, where they control its loyalty and rewards program and see customer data. On the customer side, users can see all of the user activity in one place, like new members and the number of “Popps” that are live or completed. Customers can also create and interact with content — the more they interact with the community, the more coins they can earn.
Popp’s customer brands include Batch LDN, perl Cosmetics, Acid Running, Jenki Matcha, and Ocean Bottle.
What’s a Popp?
A Popp is a small task set by a brand for customers. If customers complete the task, they earn coins that can be used to redeem rewards or unlock experiences.
Each brand can set a variety of Popps for their customers, which are micro-tasks that generate value for the brand. This can include creating content, leaving reviews, or referring friends. Completing various Popps give users things like discounts and vouchers, but brands can also set up popps for charity, sustainability, and much more.
Through Popp’s “Partnerships” feature, brands can make coins redeemable for rewards from partnering bands. This feature even allows companies to “invite” brands to partner with them for these rewards. Each customer gets their own user profile, through which they can see the number of coins they’ve collected, and explore where to redeem rewards.
Head over to Popp to explore the company’s customer rewards ecosystem. Popp’s closed beta is now live and e-commerce brands should head over to the website now to join the waitlist!
The Near Foundation is excited to announce that it’s partnering with WEMADE, one of the largest publicly-listed gaming companies in South Korea. A leading game developer in South Korea for over 20 years, WEMADE will be vital in Near’s push toward mainstream adoption of Web3.
Near and WEMADE will support the development of blockchain apps in Korea as well as other markets. Near and WEMADE will also jointly work on mutual brand awareness, and collaborate on a number of Web3 community events and business opportunities.
“WEMADE and Near share a similar vision of enabling and accelerating the mainstream adoption of blockchain to create a future of nearly limitless potential use cases and benefits for all of us across many different areas of our daily lives,” said Shane Kim, CEO, WEMIX and Vice President, WEMADE.
“In order to achieve that vision, we must make it easier, faster, and more cost-effective for developers to onboard off-chain apps, organizations, and startups, and are confident that Near is ideally positioned to do so.”
Onboarding end users and developers into Web3
The partnership will do much to encourage developers, including game designers, to build on the Near. Beyond co-hosting community events like offline hackathons and boot camps, Near and WEMADE will work together on mutual brand awareness, invest in research and collaboration on cross-chain initiatives, and be on the lookout for potential Web3 business opportunities and founders.
A renowned leader in game development, WEMADE is at the forefront of a generational shift as the gaming industry pivots to blockchain technology. Its WEMIX subsidiary is building an experience-based, platform-driven, and service-oriented mega-ecosystem — one that will give users everywhere access to a wide array of easy-to-use Web3 apps and experiences.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with WEMADE as part of our shared vision towards a decentralized future for the gaming industry,” said Commenting on the partnership, Marieke Flament, CEO of the Near Foundation. “By joining forces, we are confident in our ability to accelerate the development of cutting-edge solutions that meet the growing needs of gamers and developers in the Web3 space.”
The Near-WEMADE partnership marks the second major Web3 gaming partnership from the Near Korea Hub. The first, a partnership with BORA — the Web3 GameFi platform of Kakao Games — will also be vital in accelerating the mainstream adoption of Web3.
For the 2023 edition of ETHDenver, the Near ecosystem offered a number of bounties across a range of Web3 verticals, including DeFi, Content, Search, Social Media, Interoperability, Smart Contract History, and more. There were 3 main prize pools from Aurora, Proximity, and Developer Governance (DevGov).
Congratulations to all Near winners. who received over 30k in USDC! Let’s have a look at the winning projects of the Near at ETHDenver bounties.
Aurora Bounty Winners
Open Aurora Bounty
Winner – StakingPool Aurora
Implements a liquid staking protocol around Aurora Plus staking. Users will deposit AURORA and receive a share in $stAUR tokens, which distributes the APY rewards. $stAUR could be immediately converted with a fee or wait for a delayed unstake.
Runner Up – Geni
AI-powered specifications generator of security tests for smart contracts.
Runner Up – Demeter
A lending platform that offers yield advancements, i.e., self-paying loans. Borrowers’ collateral is invested in RWA protocols, and the yield pays off debt.
Proximity Bounty Winners
Deploy a Decentralized Frontend Component
Winner – BosWrap
BosWrap used the Near Blockchain Operating System to build a decentralized widget for wrapping/unwrapping ETH.
Runner Up – ABI BOS Widget
A solidity explorer widget that allow users to explore any smart contract for a given ABI. You can get ABI from Etherscan website.
Runner Up – Bossed Up
A project focusing on Ethereum frontends, Blockchain Operating System improvements, and NEAR Social widgets that interact with NEAR contracts.
Runner Up – Atmosph3re
A dApp for reducing the homeless crisis in the United States by giving those living on the streets a decentralized identity, mentoring and community support, and funds for spending on their basic needs to help them thrive.
Runner Up – EthDenver2023UWCA
A dApp on NeaR’s new frontend with BOS.GG. Integrates with Rocketpool to offer quick swaps on Ethereum.
DevGov Bounty Winners
Extensive Developer Profile Widget
Winner – Developer Profile
A recreation of Github profile for NEAR social developers in the Blockchain Operating System.
Fuzzy Search Widget / Promoted Posts Banner Widget / Top Posts Widget / Post History with Diff Widget
Winner – Near.Social DevGovGigs Improvements
A new Developer Governance Gigs interaction experience for Near.Social. Features: 1) Fuzzy Searching that can handle typos, 2) Promote posts and Promoted Post viewer, 3) Hottest Posts viewer, and 4), Post editing history viewer.
Near.Social Bots Coded in Javascript
Winner – JS Bot Widget
Verifiable RPC Replies
Winner – Near Verifiable RPC Endpoints for Viewing Access Keys
Adds proof generation support to RPC read access key endpoints on the NEAR protocol to help pave the road for light client support.
Missed Near Day and ETHDenver 2023? We’ve got you covered with content from Near talks and panels. There were also a number of awesome announcements, including the big news out of ETHDenver — the Blockchain Operating System.
Let’s take a look at all that was Near at ETHDenver.
Near Day talks
Near Day, the 1-day mini summit on all things Near, was jam-packed with the latest technological and protocol updates. Chief among them was the announcement of the Blockchain Operating System.
Things got started with a Regenerative Finance (ReFI) talk from Open Forest Protocol’s Frederic Fournier and Flow Carbon’s Phil Fogel. Later in the morning programme, OnMachina’s Polina Aladina and Mark Collier talked about building decentralized storage on Near. As a vital Near ecosystem project, it was great for the ETHDenver crowd to hear from OnMachina on Web3 storage.
Keypom, which also recently launched on Near, got some much needed visibility at Near Day. In “Instant Crypto Experiences with Keypom”, Ben Kurrek and Matt Lockyer took the audience on a tour of their Web3 onboarding solution, in which users are given a special type of access key that can be used to experience a crypto application and later be turned into a wallet. (Read more about Keypom here.)
The morning programme also featured talks from Calimero Network’s Sandi Fatic on privacy and scaling with private sharding; Aurora Labs’ Alex Shevchenko on Containers, Aurora’s cloud computing solution for blockchains; Sweat Economy’s Oleg Fomenko on how to effectively onboard people from Web2 to Web3; and Near co-founder Alex Skidanov on how the future of AI will be decentralized.
In the afternoon, there were a range of talks, starting with Pagoda’s Max Zavershynskyi presentation on creating “high velocity developer communities” via Near DevGov DAO. But the big news on Near Day was the Blockchain Operating System talk from Near co-founder Illia Polosukhin. After Illia primed the audience, Pagoda’s Chief Product Officer Alex Chiocchi elaborated on how Blockchain Operating System will help in onboarding millions of users to Near, while Pagoda’s Bowen Wang detailed the protocol innovations powering the Blockchain Operating System.
Near Foundation CEO Marieke Flament and Dragonfly Capital’s Haseeb Qureshi also talked about why the future remains bright for Web3 even during the crypto winter. There were also talks from Pagoda’s Pavel Kudinov on the Near data stack and Josh Ford on a fully decentralized Javascript.
Other topics included the building of infrastructure to onboard 1 billion users on Near, NFT infrastructure, a “DeFi survival kit” for the bear market, and the regulatory landscape in Web3.
Near speakers at ETHDenver
A number of speakers represented the Near ecosystem at ETHDenver talks. Topics included the Blockchain Operating System, sustainability, UX design, and more.
Aurora Labs’ Alex Shevchenko kicked things off with a presentation on Web3 infrastructure and scalability — specifically, how not to hack everything up in creating bridges. Alex also gave another talk on next generation user experience. Near Foundation CEO Marieke Flament delivered a talk on the three pillars of Web3 sustainability, while Proximity Labs’ Kendall Cole explored how Web3 can win in the DeFi battle against app stores.
In separate talks, Illia Polosukhin and Pagoda’s Bowen Wang spoke to the ETHDenver audience about the Blockchain Operating System. While Bowen mapped out Near’s vision for Layer 1 Infrastructure, Illia talked about reinventing Web3 development with decentralized frontends and social networking.
Near Announcements
While the Near is the Blockchain Operating System announcement was the talk of ETHDenver, there were plenty of other announcements. Find the full run-down of Near ecosystem announcements here.
In other news, the Near ecosystem had two wins at ETHVC’s Startup Demo Day during ETHDenver — Niche Protocol, a Web3 social media platform, and Kino, a film financing platform.
Near is excited to announce a new strategic partnership with BORA, a Web3 gaming subsidiary of METABORA. Near and BORA will support each other in spreading local brand awareness, invest in research and collaboration on cross-chain, host events, and generate Web3 opportunities in Korea.
An affiliate of Kakao Games and its parent company BORANETWORK, BORA is focused on game development and blockchain-based gaming ecosystems. Its mobile gaming titles include Friends Popcorn, Friends Town, and Friends Shot.
“We are thrilled to be working with Near and welcome their expertise, knowledge and network as we aim to transform the world of Web3 gaming,” said Vincent Lim, a CBO of BORA. “Together with Near we will not only explore cross-promotion opportunities, but also seek future collaborations on IP-based game development that will lead to mass adoption and give us the competitive edge we need to position ourselves as leading players in the web3 gaming space.”
Since the launch of Near’s Korean Hub in November of 2022, BORA has been steadily building up awareness throughout South Korea, while focusing on Web3 innovation, business development, education, and talent. The hub is led by entrepreneurs Scott Lee and Ben Kang — both influential figures within South Korea’s growing blockchain community.
“One of the big ambitions of the hub is to tap into the country’s active gaming community, and to bring amazing projects and creators to the Near ecosystem.” said Robbie Lim, GM, Partners & International at Near. “ The partnership with BORA is our first major win – and a big step forward for NEAR as it accelerates its ambition to become the go to layer 1 for the Web3 gaming community.”
Near announced today that it is becoming the Blockchain Operating System (BOS). The BOS is an industry-first category: a common layer for browsing and discovering open web experiences, compatible with any blockchain.
The Blockchain Operating System will make Near the entry point for the Open Web, for users and developers alike. And it will make both Web3 and Web2 easier than ever to access and navigate.
Becoming more than just a blockchain
Since inception, Near’s mission has been to onboard 1 billion users to the Open Web. The first step in the journey was to focus on building a best in class L1 blockchain that was easy to build on and easy to use.
Near was designed to be simple, with a flexible account model and human readable accounts — any name a user wants instead of a string of letters and numbers. And with Near’s Nightshade sharding approach, the Near blockchain was designed to be infinitely scalable and secure. At the same time, Near concentrated on building out tooling to support builders developing on the protocol, including the JavaScript SDK that now gives 15 million developers access to building on Near.
This has created and sustained a thriving Near ecosystem with more than 23 million accounts and over a thousand project building, but these were only the first steps toward delivering the vision of Web3 to a mainstream audience.
Now, Near is building up the Web3 stack to integrate experiences from across the open web and streamline the discovery and onboarding experience for users and developers alike.
Enter Near: the Blockchain Operating System
Today, Near is launching near.org — a composable frontend for Web3. It will allow end users to easily and frictionlessly discover all of Web3’s possibilities in one seamless experience. It will also empower developers to create and code interfaces in a single environment with the ability to fork a host of components to build apps faster, and more efficiently than ever before.
Anyone in the Open Web ecosystem can create their own frontends (i.e., their own versions of near.org), compatible with the blockchain of their choice. This means that builders from any ecosystem can create components in just a few lines of code, and take advantage of fast onboarding to help make new and custom Web3 experiences.
This is an industry first. With the addition of composable frontends to the tech stack, Near now becomes the Blockchain Operating System, allowing seamless, one-time onboarding and removing friction points like making accounts for every experience, while supercharging development from a collection of over 1,800 components.
Near.org is the first step in Near’s Blockchain Operating System journey. It’s the Alpha version, where builders can see the frontend come to life.
Try it out at near.org to experience the world’s first Blockchain Operating System — a revolutionary moment in Web3. If you’re a developer, see how easy it is to fork components and create new experiences. If you’re an end user, see how easy it is to explore Web3 experiences, social, and news all in one place.
The Blockchain Operating System is Near and it’s here. #NearistheBOS
Near will see a number of partnership and project announcements at Near Day and ETHDenver. Over a 1,000 people are attending Near Day, with many more visiting the Near booth and dropping in on ETHDenver talks and panels featuring Near ecosystem figures. Beyond the many engaging talks and projects demos, there was also an ecosystem party, side events, a hackathon, and much more.
Let’s take a quick look at a few of the latest announcements from Near at ETHDenver.
A number of other announcements will be rolling out over the course of Near Day and ETHDenver, so stay tuned for those below in the coming days.
Few and Far raises $10.5 million in funding
Few and Far, a leading Digital Collectibles web3 platform, announced today that it has raised $10.5 million in a funding round led by Pantera Capital, the leading blockchain investment firm.The raise marks a significant milestone for Few and Far, which has been experiencing exponential growth since launch.
The new funds will help expand the platform’s capabilities, enhance user experience, and increase the number of Web3 developers. IP owners also stand to benefit from the platform. Few and Far features an all-inclusive platform available to carry out everything related to next generation digital collectibles, including a suite of developer tools.
The round also included top VCs, Cypher Capital, Huobi Ventures, Hypersphere, Metaweb, Mantis Partners, K5 Global and many more.
Near Blockchain Operating System now live on Alpha.Near.Org
Read the full Near Blockchain Operating System announcement here
For Near Day on March 2nd, Near launched alpha.nearpages.wpengine.com — a composable frontend for Web3. It will allow end users to easily and frictionlessly discover all of Web3’s possibilities in one seamless experience. It will also empower developers to create and code interfaces in a single environment with the ability to fork a host of components to build apps faster and more efficiently than ever before.
Anyone in the Open Web ecosystem can create their own frontends (i.e., their own versions of alpha.nearpages.wpengine.com), compatible with the blockchain of their choice. This means that builders from any ecosystem can create components in just a few lines of code, and take advantage of fast onboarding to help make new and custom Web3 experiences.
This is an industry first. With the addition of composable frontends to the tech stack, Near now becomes the Blockchain Operating System, allowing seamless, one-time onboarding and removing friction points like making accounts for every experience, while supercharging development from a collection of over 1,800 components.
Alpha.nearpages.wpengine.com is the first step in Near’s Blockchain Operating System journey. It’s the Alpha version, where builders can see the frontend come to life.
Try out the Alpha at alpha.nearpages.wpengine.com to experience the world’s first Blockchain Operating System — a revolutionary moment in Web3. If you’re a developer, see how easy it is to fork components and create new experiences. If you’re an end user, see how easy it is to explore Web3 experiences, social, and news all in one place.
The Blockchain Operating System is Near and it’s here. #NearistheBOS
Flow Carbon announces carbon-market ecosystem built on Near
Near and Flowcarbon, the pioneering climate technology company, announced the launch of a carbon-market ecosystem that will enable carbon credits to be traded on the Near network through Flowcarbon’s tokenized carbon credits. With this collaboration, Near will realize its vision of becoming a carbon-negative blockchain. As part of this partnership, Near plans to offset its carbon footprint through Flowcarbon.
Flow Carbon’s carbon credit token will be launched on both Near and Aurora, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) built on Near. Validators will be set up for the purpose of offsetting, and large Near holders will be able to stake with these validators.
Designed to make carbon offsetting more accessible and transparent, this partnership will help Near become carbon-negative, solidifying Near’s position as one of the top players in Regenerative Finance (ReFi).
With Stacksports, parents and athletes can mint royalty-free NFTs
StackNFT is teaming up with Near to offer an NFT platform that allows youth athletes of all ages and skill levels to create and capture their favorite sports memories digitally.
Youth sports parents and athletes can now mint royalty-free NFTs effortlessly, without any advanced knowledge of the minting or wallet creation process. Just upload, decorate, and mint. Parents and athletes can also mint NFTs knowing that Near is a carbon-neutral, environmentally friendly blockchain, which supports several forest protection and restoration projects.
StackNFT is owned and operated by Stack Sports, a global technology leader in SaaS platform offerings for the sports industry, with nearly 50 million users in 35 countries. From little league to the pros, Stack Sports powers the many moments that create the story of your journey through sports.
Calimero’s private shard infrastructure now live on Near
Calimero.network, a secure private shard infrastructure provider announced that after several months running in a stealth mode, during which it was tested by beta testers and partners, is ready to serve customers with unique blockchain power and a Web2 interface.
With roots in the Near Protocol, Calimero is a high performance blockchain that launched on mainnet in 2020. Founded by Sandi Fatic and Mario Halambek, two of the first infrastructure engineers at Near, Calimero allows projects to launch their own shard in a matter of minutes. In launching a private shard, users can be certain of the network’s performance and security, which is managed by Calimero itself.
Calimero is targeting so-called “Web2.5”, seeking a way to connect Web3 and Web2 worlds. For Web3 startups, Calimero provides a unique way to scale their products and leverage the privacy features, giving access to target Enterprise customers and getting access to new audiences. For classic Enterprises, Calimero offers a way to build new products and onboard chosen Web3 mechanics to find new areas to grow their businesses with growth rates compared to DeFi and NFT markets.
With the cheapest option starting from less than $300, Calimero provides a flexible model to maximize the cost efficiency by adjusting shard performance according to the load. Calimero also offers a 14-day grace period to test out the platform for startups who are in the very beginning of their journey.
Calimero.network is a London-based startup that has recently raised an investment round of $8.5M, co-led by Khosla Ventures, Lyrik Ventures, and Near foundation.
Near Foundation Council updates
Near Foundation announced that Mona El Isa, a founding council member at Near Foundation Council (NFC), has been appointed as Chair. Marieke Flament, CEO of Near Foundation, has joined as a council member, and will govern alongside existing members Richard Muirhead, Chairman and Managing Partner at Fabric Ventures, and Jason Warner, Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures as well as Sheila Warren advisor to Near Foundation and CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation.
Mona takes the place of Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of Near Protocol and CEO of Pagoda (formerly Near Inc.), who has stepped down as Chair and member of the Near Foundation Council (NFC) to focus on Web3 ecosystem development and participation.
“It was an honor to serve as Chair and Council Member of the NEAR Foundation Council over the past two years,” said Illia Polosukhin. “I’m stepping down in order to focus fully on the development of products and technology at Pagoda, which is critical to the continuing success of the NEAR Ecosystem.”
“I will continue to be involved with NFC in my capacity as Pagoda CEO,” he added. “From a governance perspective, my departure increases the council’s independence and further decentralizes leadership and decision-making in the NEAR Ecosystem. I welcome Mona’s appointment as the new Chair and Marieke’s as council member to continue steering the Foundation in its mission of supporting NEAR’s growth.”