# NEAR @ ETHDenver
My first ETHDenver was a full on cyber citizen experience. A few themes seemed to permiate every conversation... NFTs, Scaling, and Interoperability. Dig further into these themes with bulleted take aways from sessions run by or featuring [NEAR](https://near.org/) team members.
Besides NEAR things being where my interest naturally lay, I was generously awarded a 10 $NEAR grant from the [Createbase DAO](https://createbase.community/) to write these up. [Submit your own creative project proposal](https://sputnik.fund/#/createbase.sputnikdao.near) and join in the passion economy!
If you enjoy synthesis extracts from talks and articles, follow [staRpauSe on mastodon](https://vis.social/web/accounts/36196) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/starpause).
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[ETHDenver 2021 Opening Ceremonies: NEAR Protocol](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgIUt2yAgN4)
* $1M grant positions NEAR as developer experience leader in the ecosystem.
* Projects focused on usability, adoption, & onboarding can apply for funds at http://near.org/grants.
* NEAR complements ETH with its own EVM & trustless Rainbow Bridge.
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{%youtube 7CmIHooej5A %}
[NEAR PROTOCOL Sponsor Feature, ETHDenver & ColoradoJam 2021 Feb 5th-12th](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CmIHooej5A)
* NearProtocol (L1 chain) is focused on speed to market for apps and scalability for everyday usability.
* Rainbow Bridge will let ETH developers benefit from NEAR speed & scale.
* NEAR addresses are human readable (like ENS).
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{%youtube PuZb_yoFxXQ %}
[Rusty NFTs on NEAR](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuZb_yoFxXQ) - [Nate Geier](@nategeier) ([Mintbase](@mintbase ))
For artists:
* Mintbase is a NiftyGateway or SuperRare factory, allowing you to launch & own smartcontract storefronts.
* UI supports split revenue/royalties & linking to liquidity/utility tie ins (defi, games, unlocks, ticketing, etc).
* NFTs are on ARWEAVE & cryptographically hashed.
For developers:
* Mintbase users launched more than 1,014 stores on ETH over 2.5 years.
* ETH gas fees rob NFTs of utility and Nate researched many workaround chains.
* Mintbase is happy 6 months into rebuilding their platform on NEAR.
* Mintbase rewrote their own indexer in RUST, new applications built on NEAR can use TheGraph.
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[War and Peace: The Multi-Chain Reality - Alex Skidanov (NEAR)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wt3wWZhUJo)
* Hot take: The most adopted interop solution will be a killer app rather than a pure interop play.
* Finality, permission/less, centralization, EVM support, and scaling are interoperability design choices.
* No single choice can be one size fits all.
* Ease of building and integration are something that new platforms like NEAR offer projects.
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[WHERE ARE MY KEYS? Onboarding the Masses with NEAR Protocol](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mO4yN1zjbs) - [Matt Lockyer](@nategeier)
Conext:
* NEAR is L1 but tools like Rainbow Bridge and EVM allow ETH developers to use it like an L2.
* 2020 May: Mainnet launched
* 2020 Oct: tokens unlocked, Mainnet decentralized, Paras & Berry Club launched.
* DevRel team releasing loads of working demos that can be build upon and combined into full apps.
Progressive Onboarding Demo:
* NEAR Account Model enables new ways to onboard users while still being non custodial and enjoying all the power of readable account names.
* Without any NEAR, user signs in as a guest. Guest account can only call cercertain functions in an app & has a gas limit.
* Guest mints a new NFT and puts it on sale for 5Ⓝ. Someone buys it 😉😉 Funds are waiting in escrow.
* Guest makes a new account at wallet.near.org. They send Ⓝ to the funding address via onboarding demo app. +1 NEAR user!
* Rust contract and app review. Steal the code and build cool isht!
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{%youtube htT1MHzCuEk %}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htT1MHzCuEk
[New Standards for DAOs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htT1MHzCuEk) - NiMA (NEAR), Illia (NEAR), James Young (Createbase)
CTA:
Contact DAO@NEAR.org with a proposal to access more than 100 million $NEAR in community fund!
Standards:
* We haven't solved governance in human history so crypto won't magically solve it. DAOs are just another tool & the social layer remains the most important.
* For DAOs, standardization is an exercise in balancing the formalism of smart contracts with the fuziness of managing an organization or community.
* Elements to standardize include membership, token roles, voting/nonvoting chairs, and how to interface (API) with other DAOs.
* Interoperability is an crypto industry wide issue. Standards are the most widely adopted solution rather than the best solution.
DAOs:
* DAOs reduce coordination cost by automating mechanical parts of governance & management.
* Small, focused, composable DAOs enable more fluid, dynamic, and innovative companies.
* Social tokens offer informal DAO functionality like membership, implicit identity, and asset access. There are often different social tokens in play on any given discord or telegram chat.
Resources:
* [See 4NTS article for further details!](https://nearguilds.com/2021/02/17/eth-denver-episode-5-a-new-standard-for-daos-featuring-illia-polosukhin-nima-asghari/)
* [Snapshot](https://snapshot.page/) can be used for off-chain voting.
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{%youtube j3wqHwlX_0E %}
[ETH Denver Walkthrough w/NEAR Booth Sputnik DAO and MORE!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3wqHwlX_0E)
Feature run through of the virutal space, more relevant durring the event... or if you want to experience some FOMO of what's past 😉
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{%youtube JVUy9LXzwoE %}
[Interoperability via the Rainbow Bridge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVUy9LXzwoE) - [Chad Ostrowski](https://twitter.com/chadoh?lang=en)
Example Rainbow Bridge Uses:
* Use ERC20 tokens in NEAR
* Make NFTs in NEAR then send to Ethereum to list in larger marketplaces.
* Balance liquidity and arbitrage across markets on both chains.
Tech details ([details in slides](chadoh.com/rainbow-bridge-talk)):
* Bridge peices are: Clients, Provers, and Connectors (in pairs)
* With 2 chains there are 4 directions (each implements send & receive)
* 4 steps to add to app: Dependencies, Initiate, List, Check in.
* This is working on testnet and a March ETA for libraries.
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{%youtube ATG83gKdFUk %}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATG83gKdFUk
Colorado Blockchain FTW: Project Edition - Dani Osorio (NEAR)
* "It's not about a killer app, it's about a killer ecosystem"
What CO companies are doing in blockchain.
# CREATEBASE @ ETHDenver
{%youtube W1cQDsy5PeM %}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1cQDsy5PeM
The Invisible Economy - Bea Ramos, Sparrow Read - Sparrow Read (Createbase)
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{%youtube joVhwi7UWMY %}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joVhwi7UWMY
NFTs For Everyone - Carolin Wend (Mintbase) & Sparrow Read (Createbase) & Chloe Lewis (Createbase) & Max Jackson (Paras.id artist)
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{%youtube YvF_3CC6R_w %}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvF_3CC6R_w
Onboarding Diversity: Exploring community challenges and unique solutions - Chloe Lewis (Createbase)
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{%youtube qIHX6bXCyJk %}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIHX6bXCyJk
Global Adoption: Where Are We Now? - Chloe Lewis (Createbase)
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