The TLDR; We recommend using Swyftx to buy Near Protocol, they’re very reliable, have over 300 cryptocurrencies, fantastic support, and a great app. They also offer $20 of free BTC when you start trading.
1. Choose a crypto exchange
First things first, you need an exchange that both has Near Protocol, and is trustworthy!
You can find our top 3 exchanges for buying Near Protocol here.
It’s also possible to take a look at our analysis of the best cryptocurrency exchanges in Australia for those curious to know more about which exchanges we would recommend.
2. Sign up with the crypto exchange
Once you’ve chosen your crypto exchange, it’s just a matter of signing up and getting your account verified. Most exchanges have streamlined this process very well so it shouldn’t take long.
3. Fund your account
The next step is to transfer AUD or another cryptocurrency into your account. Most top crypto exchanges offer various payment methods. From bank transfer to PayID, POLi pay and credit cards, it’s very straightforward.
4. Buy Near Protocol
And of course, the final step is to find Near Protocol on the exchange and buy it. A lot of exchanges offer different ways of buying cryptocurrencies, like market orders and limit orders.
Table of Contents
Where to Buy Near Protocol (NEAR)
| Exchange | Rating | Available Cryptocurrencies | Fees | Visit Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 5/5 | 350+ | 0.6% | VISIT SITE |
 | 4.5/5 | 300+ | 0.1% | VISIT SITE |
 | 4/5 | 200+ | Varies | VISIT SITE |
How to Sell Near Protocol
- Sign into the exchange
- Find where you stored your Near Protocol, either on a hardware wallet or on the exchange.
- Transfer your Near Protocol to the right place on the exchange, it could just be the same wallet or a dedicated trading account.
- Sell Near Protocol.
Considerations when looking to buy Near Protocol.
NEAR Protocol, a layer-one crypto-currency, was created to be a community-run cloud computing platform. It eliminates many of the limitations that have plagued other blockchains such as slow transaction speeds and poor interoperability. This creates the perfect environment for DApps, and makes it easy to use as a platform for developers. NEAR, for example, uses human-readable account numbers, which is different from the cryptographic wallet addresses used by Ethereum. NEAR has its own consensus mechanism, “Doomslug”, and offers unique solutions for scaling issues.
The NEAR Collective is currently building NEAR Protocol. This community is updating the initial code, and releasing updates for the ecosystem. It is aiming to create a platform that is secure enough to manage high-value assets such as money and identity, but performant enough to be useful for everyday users.
Flux, which allows developers to create market based on assets and commodities, and Mintbase (an NFT minting platform), are two examples of projects built on NEAR Protocol.
NEAR uses Nightshade technology to increase transaction throughput dramatically. Nightshade, a variant of sharding in which multiple sets of validators process transactions simultaneously across multiple sharded chain chains, improves the overall blockchain’s capacity. Nightshade is different from regular sharding. It produces a fraction of the next block (called “chunks”), which allows NEAR Protocol to reach near-instant transaction finality and achieve 100,000 transactions per second.
NEAR Protocol simplifies the complicated onboarding process for other blockchains. It has human-readable addresses, and builds decentralized applications that have a similar registration process to what users have experienced. It also provides modular components that developers can use to quickly start projects such as token contracts and NFTs.
NEAR announced an ecosystem funding initiative of $800 million on Oct. 25, 2021. This follows in the footsteps set by various Layer-1s Blockchains such as Celo, Fantom, and Avalanche. This fund will be used for bankrolling initiatives that aim to accelerate growth in the NEAR protocol eco-system. Proximity Labs has provided $350 million funding for the fund. $250 million will go to existing projects to scale. $100 million will go to Startup Grant Pools where 20 startups will receive $5M each. NEAR will fund Decentralized Finance (DeFi-focused teams) that “actively revolutionize and reimagine the way we interact money with it.” NEAR is actively seeking projects that use NFTs, DAOs, and gaming. NEAR also recently raised $150 million through a seed investment, led by Three Arrows Capital. Additional participation came from Dragonfly Capital and Mechanism Capital. This money will be used for Web3 technology adoption acceleration.