NEAR Foundation PR Roundup for February

As February draws to a close, NEAR Foundation wanted to share some of the best news headlines from the Near ecosystem and community. 

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from NEAR in February. 

NEAR partners with NYU for Web3 learning workshop

NEAR attracted over 135 pieces of global coverage this month. One of the popular announcements was NEAR’s partnership with New York University’s School of Professional Studies, featuring a Web3 learning workshop. 

Published by Cointelegraph and other top-tier press,  this partnership will expose students, faculty, and commercial partners to the underlying technology powering the Web3 industry. The course will focus on blockchain’s intersection with the sporting industry, exposing those involved to hands-on experience taught by Michael Kelly, a co-founder of Open Forest Protocol, and an early builder in the NEAR Ecosystem.

Former NBA player Baron Davis builds platform for photographers on NEAR

Two-time NBA All-Star Baron Davis announced his plan to transform the image and video rights market, utilizing NEAR’s extensive NFT infrastructure to create a purpose-built platform for photographers. 

In an interview with Decrypt, Davis revealed that his startup SliC Images is teaming up with Mintbase with a $250k grant to build a platform where photographers will have ownership of their channels, replacing long-term predatory corporate deals with a fairer platform facilitating opportunities for all photographers. 

Also featured in Tech Funding News and across the industry press, the announcement has excited the Web3 community around the world. Allowing users to take a photo, add a permanent license, auction it off, and stick it on a blog within five minutes, SliC images are aiming to have a prototype of the platform ready for ETH Denver.

NEAR Foundation and Supermoon announce NEAR House 

As the NEAR community prepares for ETHDenver, and especially NEAR Day, Near Foundation announced Near House in collaboration with Supermoon. 

As covered in the Bitcoin Insider, the unforgettable 8-day experience will see 20 builders and founders from the NEAR ecosystem set up camp in downtown Denver and engage in team-building activities and enthusiastic discussions about NEAR Protocol. NEAR House will also include a curated ETH Denver agenda, enabling the innovators to maximize their experience at the event.

Marieke Flament on more women in Web3

Fast Company spoke with Marieke Flament about the importance of greater participation from women in MENA. The crucial nature of diversity of thought in the boardroom cannot be understated, particularly in high-growth industries like Web3.

In the interview, Marieke outlines that human biases are unavoidable components of all our decision-making. So, ensuring that the group making the decisions is as diverse as possible is a key mission when creating the future on the blockchain.

Calimero amongst 10 Web3 startups to watch in 2023

Following their recent funding announcement, Calimero Network was featured in Tech Funding News’ 10 Web3 startups to watch out for in 2023. The piece covered the exciting startup’s ambition to assist Web2 companies in scaling up their offerings by utilizing the NEAR blockchain. 

Calimero’s founders Sandi and Mario are building the first private sharding infrastructure on the NEAR Protocol, enabling more privacy for companies storing data on blockchains.

NEAR partners with Recur

Towards the end of February, Business Insider covered NEAR’s latest step in enhancing interoperability and accessibility in Web3. Partnering with Recur, a project focused on improving the blockchain-building experience, the NEAR ecosystem will have access to an enterprise-grade Web3 software suite. 

The exciting partnership will make Web3 more accessible for everyone, empowering brands and fans to innovate and explore new digital experiences.

NEAR joins Figment-powered Ledger Live

Wrapping up a busy month of activity, NEAR Foundation announced that NEAR has joined Figment-powered Ledger Live, an all-in-one digital asset management app secured by Ledger’s industry-leading hardware wallets. As covered by the Crypto Reporter, more of the Web3 community will now be able to enjoy the benefits of self-custody whilst helping to secure the NEAR Protocol by staking their tokens. 

That’s all for February. If NEAR Foundation missed anything or you would like to share anything for next month’s roundup, please get in touch!