NEAR Protocol is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) smart contracts platform that went live in mainnet in 2020. NEAR Protocol pioneered sharding, an idea of splitting blockchain into various interconnected chains to increase its scalability. Initially known as NEAR.ai, the protocol was introduced by Illia Polosukhin and Alexander Skidanov.
In this text, we’re going to dive deeper into the secret sauce of NEAR Protocol’s community management that allowed it to build one of the most passionate and vibrant tribes in the Web3 segment.
NEAR Protocol for Community: Hackathons and Foundation Grants
NEAR Protocol’s community management strategy includes the initiatives that target both NEAR-focused developers and cryptocurrency enthusiasts with different levels of expertise in blockchain and fintech.
NEAR’s hackathons MetaBUIDL are among the most anticipated events for developers of Web3 segment. The first MetaBUIDL took place in August-September, 2021; it included three core tracks (Work Hacks, Play Hacks, and Grand Prize Track) and 14 programs backed by NEAR’s official partners.
MetaBUIDL 2 was attended by 4,000 participants behind 356 projects; there were Welcome and Natives tracks and 36 partner challenges in its agenda. Both hackathons had a total of $1 mln prize funds each.
Also, NEAR Foundation supports various grants programs to boost the progress and adoption of Web3 globally. By the end of Q2, 2022, NEAR Foundation funded 800+ projects while an aggregated amount of funding eclipsed $45 mln in equivalent.
NEAR also backed a large educational program focused on introducing crypto instruments to the next million of developers and entrepreneurs. Also, large-scale DeFi products can apply to Grants DAO; its $450 mln endowment is also backed by NEAR.
Here’s How NEAR Concierge Team Approaches Crypto Audience
Traditionally, NEAR advocates the highest standards of community management. As per the internal documents kindly shared with GetBlock, every community manager of NEAR should ‘speak the platform’s language’ to make NEAR closer to global cryptocurrency audience:
Understand & answer various users’ questions, educate the community about NEAR, keep the community engaged, welcome new members, uphold community guidelines, be innovative, and last but not least, have fun
Knowledge, relatability, intelligence, positivity, accountability are five pillars of NEAR Concierge Team efforts. NEAR’s online interaction with existing and potential users is carried out via Telegram, Reddit, Discord and the project's own forums.
NEAR Concierge Team should perform its activities adhering closely to specified ‘DOs and DON’Ts’, guidelines and enforcement policy that aims to keep NEAR’s public channels free of spammers, FUDsters and trolls.
NEAR Protocol and GetBlock: So Much to be Done
GetBlock, a top-tier blockchain nodes provider, was the first APIs vendor to roll-out NEAR’s shared and dedicated nodes. From Q1, 2022, GetBlock and NEAR Foundation entered into a long-term strategic cooperation.
With its unmatched Blockchain-as-a-Service expertise, GetBlock develops low-latency and feature-rich explorers for blockchain networks. GetBlock is proudly working on novel explorer for NEAR to make it more transparent and newbie-friendly.
GetBlock’s NEAR explorer will display all sensitive data about the balances, wallets, accounts, transfers in the network in a comfortable interface.
