NEAR (NEAR) Tokenomics

Issuance Mechanism

The NEAR Protocol token ($NEAR) operates on an inflationary model designed to incentivize network participation and security.

• Initial Supply: The token generation event (TGE) in April 2020 launched with an initial token supply of 1.00 billion NEAR.
• Annual Inflation: The protocol has a fixed annual inflation rate of approximately 5.00% based on the total token supply. As of December 18, 2024, this inflation has resulted in a total token supply of approximately 1.23 billion NEAR.
• Net Inflation: The actual issuance is calculated as the fixed 5% inflation minus transaction fees. This mechanism means that if network usage is high enough, the burning of transaction fees could potentially offset the inflation, leading to a deflationary token economy.
• Distribution of New Issuance: Of the newly issued tokens from inflation, 90.00% are allocated to validator staking and delegator rewards, while the remaining 10.00% is allocated to the protocol’s treasury.

Allocation Mechanism

The initial 1.00 billion NEAR tokens were distributed across various categories, with the project team retaining control over several significant allocations intended for ecosystem growth and operations.

The project team controls the following allocations, based on the initial token supply:

Other notable distributions include:

• Community Sale: Approximately 120.00 million NEAR (~12.00% of the initial supply) were sold in a public token sale on CoinList in August 2020.
• Ecosystem Funding: In October 2021, NEAR announced an $800.00 million funding initiative for ecosystem growth, allocated to various entities like Proximity Labs, pre-existing projects, Startup Grant Pools, and Regional Funds.
• Community Treasury: The NEAR Community Treasury, launched in March 2023 to support grassroots initiatives, initially held approximately 5.66 million NEAR (~0.57% of the initial supply).

Usage and Incentive Mechanism

The NEAR token serves multiple utility functions within the network, primarily focused on security, transaction processing, and ecosystem development.

Network Security and Rewards (Staking)

NEAR uses a Thresholded Proof of Stake (TPoS) consensus mechanism, which relies on staking to secure the network.

• Validator Staking: Users can run a node and stake NEAR tokens to become a validator. The minimum required stake, known as the "seat price," is dynamically calculated based on the total staked amount. As of December 18, 2024, the seat price was 11,110.00 NEAR. Validators who earn a seat receive proportional inflationary NEAR rewards.
• Delegation: Tokenholders can delegate their NEAR to validators via staking pools. Validators use custom delegator smart contracts to manage commission fees and reward distributions.
• Reward Distribution: 90.00% of the fixed 5.00% annual inflation is allocated to validator staking and delegator rewards, distributed per epoch (approximately twice per day).

Transaction Fees and Deflationary Mechanism

• Gas Fees: NEAR tokens are used to pay for network fees (gas) associated with processing transactions, deploying smart contracts, storing data, and state changes.
• Fee Burning and Rebates: The network burns 70.00% of collected transaction fees, introducing a deflationary pressure. The remaining 30.00% is allocated as a rebate to the creators of the smart contracts called by each transaction, incentivizing developers.
• Account Name Auctions: Proceeds from Account Name Auctions, where users purchase digital identity names for their wallets, are also burned.

Storage Staking

• Smart contract deployers are required to stake NEAR tokens to cover the storage costs of their contract data. As of December 18, 2024, the cost is set at 100kb per NEAR token. These storage-staked tokens are unavailable for other uses, such as paying for transactions or staking to validators.

Locking Mechanism and Unlocking Time

Current Locking Mechanism (Staking)

For current validator staking, tokens are effectively locked for a minimum of three days as part of the TPoS auction mechanism.

Proposed Future Locking Mechanism (veNEAR)

A proposal introduced in July 2024 by Gauntlet, a third-party team, suggests implementing a new governance framework that includes a vote-escrow mechanism:

• Locking for veNEAR: Users would be able to lock NEAR tokens to receive vote-escrow NEAR (veNEAR), a non-transferable token that grants voting power.
• Lock Duration: The proposed lock duration would range from a minimum of three months to a maximum of 48 months.
• Voting Power: Voting power would be proportional to the duration of the lock. For example, locking 1.00 NEAR for 12 months would result in 1.50 veNEAR, while locking 1.00 NEAR for 48 months would result in 3.00 veNEAR.
• veNEAR Rewards: veNEAR holders would receive an annual percentage yield (APY) reward paid in NEAR, sourced from the project's treasury (which receives 10.00% of the annual inflation) and potential additional funds. The APY would be set by a proposed Screening Committee.

Information regarding the vesting schedules for the initial token allocations (such as Community Grants, Operations Grants, Foundation Endowment, and Early Ecosystem) was not available in the provided data. Additionally, specific token unlock schedules for the asset were not retrieved.