AI bull case for NEAR: sharding, chain signatures and user-owned AGI
Quote766 words
Bullish call$NEAR+13%since this piece, moved with the callHow it played out ↓Argues NEAR suits AI agents thanks to Nightshade sharding (up to 100 shards, sub-$0.01 fees, 1-2s finality) and the Foundation's AI push. Frames autonomous agents as needing deterministic on-chain rails.
Key claims
AI to add up to $15.7T to the global economy by 2030
NEAR can scale to up to 100 shards
Fees consistently below $0.01
AI will change the world, disrupting global economies.
That's why the AI narrative is one of my main areas of exposure this cycle.
Among my largest positions in the sector is $NEAR.
𝗪𝗵𝘆?
It is expected that AI will contribute up to $15.7 trillion in value to the global economy by 2030.
@NEARProtocol could be key infrastructure in this historical transformation.
𝗧𝗟;𝗗𝗥 𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀 ⤵️
This massive value generation will be driven by productivity gains across various sectors, arising from the automation of business processes and the displacement of human labour cost with software cost.
Increasingly, business decisions will be made by autonomous instances of artificial intelligence that are able to control economic resources on-chain.
The on-chain component is key, as the programmable, economic APIs that blockchains provide, are exactly the kind of plumbing that these agents need to engage in economic activity among each other.
Legacy systems are too slow, too inefficient, and due to the human element, always to some degree random.
For Autonomous AI agents that strive to leverage their analytical capabilities to find and execute the most efficient solutions to given tasks, that's not a good fit.
Agent-driven economies need to be built in deterministic execution environments, which is exactly what programmable blockchains like @NEARProtocol provide.
$NEAR is specifically well suited for supporting AI-related use cases for a number of reasons.
This includes:
☞ 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘈𝘐 𝘹 𝘞𝘦𝘣3 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬
☞ 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘌𝘹𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨
☞ 𝘏𝘪𝘨𝘩-𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 & 𝘓𝘰𝘸 𝘊𝘰𝘴𝘵
To build the next-gen AI applications that will lead this revolution, developers need the right infrastructure and tooling to build with.
@NEARProtocol's AI x Web3 stack is designed to bring AI and Web3 together, enabling a user-owned internet that guarantees privacy and ownership of data and assets, where anyone can be a builder.
The $NEAR blockchain serves a number of functions within this stack. It is the economic base layer for agentic framework that enable autonomous on-chain economies and it can function as a coordination layer / marketplace for decentralized compute networks.
It can also provide a powerful (and cheap) option for decentralized data availability & storage.
Let's have a closer look at what I mean here. ⤵️
@NEARProtocol is a high-performance blockchain secured by a PoS-based consensus mechanism and based on a unique, dynamic execution sharding model.
What that means, is that the network is split network into smaller, more manageable segments, known as shards.
Each shard processes its own transactions and smart contract interactions, which allows the network to handle more transactions simultaneously, processing them in parallel.
Cross-shard messaging protocols allow for the network to function as one unified execution layer, maintaining composability across shards and ultimately apps.
However, Nightshade doesn't divide the network into physically separate shards.
Instead, it creates virtual shards where each block contains a full snapshot of the entire network's state.
This snapshot is divided into chunks, and each chunk is processed by a different group of validators before the chunks are then aggregated into a single block that validators reach consensus on.
Hence, while each validator is assigned a specific chunk of the network's state, and works on producing & validating transactions for that specific chunk, the overall state of the blockchain is maintained consistently across all validators.
Nightshade is designed to be dynamic, allowing the network to adjust the number of shards based on demand.
As the network grows and more transactions need processing, Nightshade can increase the number of shards to handle the increased transaction load.
Currently, @NEARProtocol can scale to up to 100 shards, which equals 100s of thousands of transactions per second that can be processed.
With this dynamic scaling capability and transaction fees consistently below $0.01, @NEARProtocol is the ideal base layer for AI use cases.
Each shard has the capability of easily handling a throughput of 4 mb/s, which equals thousands of transactions that reach finality within 1-2 seconds.
Few chains are a match for $NEAR in this regard.
Last but not least, it's definitely worth pointing out @NEARFoundation's efforts towards building and enabling user-owned Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
➸ I have recently covered this in more depth here: t.co/6e7mq0VOZx
Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, $NEAR is in a unique position and miles ahead of other ecosystems that want to get a piece of the cake.
DYOR anon. 🤖 ✨
More on my AI thesis for $NEAR also in the thread below ⤵️
x.com/zerokn0wledge_/status/1826263185315483956
QUOTING @zerokn0wledge_
✨ 🤖 The AI Bull Case for $NEAR 🤖 ✨ @NEARProtocol has already onboarded tens of millions of users to its network, 2 million of which are daily active users. This creates a perfect base layer for the next stage of innovation: Combining Web3 & AI. ⤵️ A few months ago, the @NEARF
✨ 🤖 The AI Bull Case for $NEAR 🤖 ✨ @NEARProtocol has already onboarded tens of millions of users to its network, 2 million of which are daily active users. This creates a perfect base layer for the next stage of innovation: Combining Web3 & AI. ⤵️ A few months ago, the @NEARF
4 images on X
How the call played out · since 29 Aug 2024
Prices as of 23 Oct 2026This piece takes a view on $NEAR, so that move is read against the call.
AI agents need deterministic onchain rails, and NEAR's sharding, sub-cent fees and Foundation AI push make it a natural base layer for them.
+13%
Moved with the call · over 2.1 years
- At publication
- $4.34
- Now
- $4.89
- vs BTC
- −18%
- After 1 month
- +26%
- After 3 months
- +57%
- After 1 year
- −41%
- High since
- +85% 07 Dec 2024
- Low since
- −78% 12 Feb 2026
Since then
Zero has written 34 more pieces on NEAR Protocol and NEAR AI and $NEAR since this one.
- Quantum and post-quantum map: PQ crypto assets by readinessOn NEAR
- I Built a Research Desk Staffed Entirely by AI Agents. It Works.Covers $NEAR
- New vs returning wallets across Ethereum, Solana, NEAR, Polygon and SuiCovers $NEAR
- NEAR DCML explained: confidential, verifiable and monetizable AI via TEEsCovers $NEAR
Daily closes in USD from DefiLlama and Yahoo Finance. Only a bullish or bearish call in a thesis or market take is tracked; explainers, lists, maps and mentions are neutral context. Not financial advice.