NEAR: Co-founder Illia Polosukhin introduces the open web

Liâm: Illia, thank you very much for being with us today. Can I ask you to introduce yourself in 3 sentences?

Illia: Thank you for your interest in my work! I am Illia, co-founder of NEAR, our Layer 1 solution that brings speed and profitability to transactions in the world of blockchain. My background is in machine learning engineering. I worked at Google as a manager for engineering researchers and I co-wrote an article that became a reference in its field entitled “ Attention Is All You Need » in 2017, before creating NEAR.

Liâm: Since 2018, you have been pursuing your vision, something you call “Open Web”. Can you explain to us what the Open Web refers to in your vision?

Illia: The Open Web would be a Web based on people. I want people to be in control of their assets, their data, and try to avoid the friction costs of all the third-party providers and companies. I am thinking in particular of the transition from banking use to the use of cryptocurrencies, to allow people to choose what they want to do with them. The Open Web would be a place where anyone who wants to create a tool to empower people can do so, and where the use of these power tools would be possible without having enormous costs or difficulties in being understood.

Liâm: What do you think are the main issues that need to be resolved to achieve this vision?

Illia: As things stand, there is still a big lack of user-friendly experience. And this, both for developers and non-technical users. Developers have to learn a new language to be able to code on a blockchain, and that programming language sometimes only works with one blockchain! That must change. This is why I strive to make it easier for manufacturers to onboard. They are the resources we need to deliver features, solutions and not just complex back-end engineering.

The integration of new builders into the blockchain can be done by improving the ease of development, but it must also be done through interoperability. If builders can come with their current programming skills, knowing that they will be able to provide a solution not only on NEAR, but also possible to use on all channels… This will certainly be a good incentive. For now, this is not the reality on the ground, and that is why we are focusing on infrastructure.

Liâm: An announcement was made regarding NEAR’s involvement in the development of zero knowledge technology, as part of a notable collaboration with Polygon Labs. What made NEAR take this direction?

Illia: As I said before, we need cross-chain collaboration. In our vision of the open web, we want people to maintain control of their data and assets. With Zero-Knowledge technology, it’s possible, and even better: we can preserve the confidentiality of this information. Fortunately, it is possible to use this technology on a large scale without costs increasing exponentially. So why not use this innovation, right?

Polygon has been working on this subject for several months. Its positioning on ZK technology is predominant in the ecosystem, and it is a very serious player. We decided to work with them on this project to leverage the expertise of both parties to build something that will certainly be better than if we had worked separately.

Liâm: Another announcement that NEAR provides a new solution improving the experience for Ethereum rollup developers. Finally, we might start to think that NEAR is turning its main activities towards layer 2 development… What do you have to say about this?

Illia: NEAR’s goal is to provide relevant tools to founders and builders to help them create the ecosystem quickly and efficiently. The current trend is towards layer 2 development, and this appears to be a long-term direction that Ethereum and others are taking. To be honest, we have to admit that today the main blockchain for smart contracts is Ethereum, and that many layer 2 builders come to their ecosystem to bring new use cases and new possibilities to it. Ethereum ecosystem. NEAR tracks manufacturers. If they need tools for ETH layer 2 development, we’re here. If tomorrow most founders and builders go to Cardano, then we will think about how we can help them on Cardano! This is just an example, but you get the idea… We just want people to be able to grow our Web3 ecosystem quickly, to realize our vision of the open web through their strengths.

Liâm: Today, a lot of infrastructure is being put in place to help the development of web-based businesses 3, but what are you planning to do to encourage people to create these new businesses?

Illia: Our first commitment is to give infrastructure builders the means and help them develop easily. However, the NEAR Foundation runs both a funding program for “infrastructure builders” and “use case companies”. The first is through NEAR DevHub and the second is through NEAR Horizon. We try to motivate by providing useful tools as well as grants for projects that seem to make sense.

Liâm: Thank you for your time Illia! One last question that I like to ask my guests: Apart from the vision of your project, what would be the key characteristic of a future ecosystem based on Blockchain and Web3?

Illia: I would say ease of use? This is the most important feature at NEAR, as you probably understood, and for us it is crucial that every tool created is possible to use for basic users. Without this, no other values ​​can be implemented, as people simply wouldn’t want to put in the effort, which I completely understand. For all the builders reading this: I know how difficult it can be to make technology simple, but it’s absolutely crucial!