San Francisco, CA – NEAR is launching Close to.com, a brand new crypto pockets and shopper app that goals to make blockchain expertise really feel so simple as utilizing a conventional finance app, whereas positioning itself on the intersection of crypto and synthetic intelligence (AI).
Polosukhin beforehand co-authored the paper that launched the transformer mannequin, the structure underpinning trendy AI methods like ChatGPT and lots of different massive language fashions, and has more and more targeted on how blockchain infrastructure can assist the subsequent wave of AI-driven purposes.
“We’re getting into the world the place AI is changing into our interface to compute,” Polosukhin stated throughout the presentation.
NEAR token is down almost 3% during the last 24 hours.
At its core, Close to.com is designed to take away a lot of the friction that has lengthy made crypto complicated for on a regular basis customers. As an alternative of worrying about gasoline charges, non-public keys or switching between totally different blockchains, customers can handle their belongings in a single place.
“You don’t want to consider blockchains. You don’t want to consider gasoline, keys,” Polosukhin stated. “You simply use it as your major pockets.”
Close to.com helps a spread of digital belongings, together with bitcoin, stablecoins, NFTs and different tokens. The thought is to deliver collectively exercise that’s usually unfold throughout a number of wallets and networks right into a single, streamlined interface.
However NEAR’s ambitions prolong past constructing simply one other pockets. The corporate is betting that the subsequent huge wave in crypto will come from its convergence with AI.
As AI brokers turn out to be extra succesful, like reserving journey, managing emails or dealing with on-line purchases, they may more and more want the power to transact. That’s the place crypto infrastructure is available in. Blockchains can present programmable funds, international transfers and automatic settlement with out counting on conventional intermediaries.
Polosukhin argued that as AI methods start interacting with one another, they successfully turn out to be “financial actors,” software program packages that negotiate, pay and coordinate duties. In that world, crypto turns into the monetary layer that enables these brokers to function.
Close to.com is designed to function that layer, appearing as each a user-friendly pockets for folks and an financial backend for AI-driven exercise.
A key a part of the announcement is privateness. Considered one of blockchain’s longstanding tradeoffs is transparency: transactions are usually seen to anybody. Whereas that openness can construct belief, it could possibly additionally expose delicate monetary data.
“All the pieces you do onchain is clear,” Polosukhin stated. “That’s not life like for ordinary use circumstances, for day-to-day utilization.”
To handle this, NEAR launched a “confidential mode” inside Close to.com. The characteristic permits balances, transfers and buying and selling exercise to stay non-public inside the community’s safety framework. The corporate says this makes the pockets extra sensible not just for people and companies, but additionally for AI brokers which will must transact with out revealing technique or delicate information.
The launch alerts a broader shift for NEAR.
“We’ve got the stack. We’ve got all of the elements. We’ve got the product,” Polosukhin stated. “Now we’re switching … to how we really scale adoption — how we deliver this to billions of individuals world wide.”
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