NEAR Co-Founder Pitches AI Pets, Private Trading, and Cross-Chain Payments

NEAR Co-Founder Unveils Blueprint for Consumer AI and Intent-Driven Applications

As decentralized development environments become increasingly accessible, blockchain projects face a shifting battlefield centered on user acquisition and real-world utility. Addressing ecosystem creators, NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin emphasized that “Building itself got easier too, so it’s really about what to build and how stand out to get distribution.” To accelerate ecosystem growth, Polosukhin laid out a broad portfolio of product concepts targeting friction points across e-commerce, consumer artificial intelligence, decentralized finance, and data confidentiality.

Central to Polosukhin’s recommendations is the integration of NEAR Intents—an underlying settlement architecture designed to execute complex transactions across multiple networks seamlessly. By abstracting the technical friction of conventional bridging, the framework aims to deliver web-like user experiences that link established merchant channels, decentralized finance protocols, and verifiable autonomous compute services directly to end users.

Transforming Payments and Cross-Chain Distribution

To capture mainstream retail and commercial activity, Polosukhin proposed deploying a universal checkout widget powered by NEAR Intents. The system would permit shoppers to purchase goods across merchant storefronts using their existing wallets and native tokens across any blockchain, eliminating manual bridging and network-switching hurdles. Developers were advised to target merchant networks directly, with Shopify identified as a primary distribution goal.

The checkout architecture also extends to live event coordination. Polosukhin recommended building an escrow-backed registration system modeled after Kickback. Event attendees would submit upfront crypto deposits held securely until venue check-in; forfeited funds from absent registrants would subsequently be redistributed among attendees who showed up. Expanding this structure across multichain assets aims to address common attendance fallout at industry gatherings.

Frictionless Multichain Execution

Interoperability remains central to NEAR’s distribution thesis. Polosukhin emphasized leveraging Aurora’s Intent Connect framework so consumers can interact with applications across external chains without needing to navigate manual cross-chain transfers or master NEAR’s base layer. The practical feasibility of this mechanism was demonstrated on Sep. 17, when Aurora Labs launched one-signature Sui execution via Intents Connect. That deployment enabled external assets to access Sui applications without requiring users to switch wallets, bridge assets, or purchase SUI for gas fees, with NEAR Intents supplying cross-chain liquidity and settlement guarantees.

Merging Onchain AI Agents With Digital Collectibles

On the consumer front, Polosukhin suggested pioneering an “AI Tamagochi” application centered on non-fungible tokens. Under this architecture, each digital character acts as an autonomous entity backed by a dedicated NEAR balance to finance its verifiable AI inference onchain. Features would include feeding, dressing, and eventual participation in interactive battle arenas. The computational layer aligns with infrastructure launched on July 31, when NEAR introduced staking-driven AI payment rails that convert locked token yields into computational credits across 43 integrated models, including systems from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, while preserving user principal.

Polosukhin also floated an AI-generated encyclopedia that replaces conventional community editors with continuous prediction markets structured on the Augur framework. In this model, machine learning models synthesize dynamic entries reflecting the collective consensus priced into active informational markets. Additionally, he proposed an AI model evaluation platform capable of benchmarking models against private datasets via cryptographic verification, allowing builders to validate model accuracy without revealing proprietary test data.

Private DeFi, OTC Markets, and Structured Positions

Decentralized finance proposals in the blueprint focus on overcoming user coordination obstacles. Addressing over-the-counter liquidity, Polosukhin highlighted counterparty discovery constraints within NEAR Intents’ current “private deals” feature, where participants must know each other beforehand. He recommended establishing an open counterparty marketplace to publish trade intents that arbitrary participants can execute programmatically.

For social and quantitative trading, Polosukhin suggested:

• Monetized Viewing Keys: Allowing experienced traders to broadcast verifiable profit-and-loss records while selling encrypted access keys that permit followers to execute copy trades without revealing underlying strategies to the general public.
• Automated Risk Management: An application concept dubbed “Never get liquidated,” which employs NEAR Intents to actively rebalance lending collateral and perpetual futures positions to harvest yields while safeguarding against forced margin liquidations.
• Delta-Neutral Strategies: A generalized contract architecture characterized as “Delta neutral anything,” bundling spot token custody with matching perpetual short positions via intent-driven execution.

Confidential Enterprise and Productivity Workflows

Polosukhin also detailed specialized privacy-preserving tools utilizing NEAR AI’s verifiable compute architecture. For developers, he proposed an autonomous code auditor capable of reviewing confidential pull requests without leaking proprietary source code. For digital healthcare, he outlined an encrypted interface that scrubs and secures personal medical records locally before transmitting them to specialized AI agents for clinical second opinions, with customizable diagnostic prompts managed through NFTs.

For workplace productivity, Polosukhin suggested a local-first voice transcription suite modeled on Granola. Powered by NEAR AI, transcriptions would process through onchain compute while user data remains stored locally and secured with private encryption keys, funded through staking balances rather than recurring SaaS credit card charges. Polosukhin urged development teams to leverage NEARLegion, coordinate cross-promotional campaigns with adjacent communities, and drive discovery through platforms like Product Hunt and X.

Why This Matters

The convergence of decentralized artificial intelligence and intent-based transaction execution represents a strategic bid by the NEAR ecosystem to solve Web3’s chronic distribution deficit. Rather than forcing retail users to manage complex gas tokens, disparate RPC networks, and bridging vulnerabilities, intent frameworks offload settlement complexity to specialized solvers. This infrastructure has already attracted traditional finance interest: on Sep. 29, Bitwise launched its physical NEAR exchange-traded fund on NYSE Arca under the ticker NRR with a 0.75% fee, staking fund assets to generate yield. Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan cited NEAR Intents as critical operational settlement infrastructure for autonomous AI agents conducting payments and financial swaps, underscoring how enterprise and institutional capital increasingly view programmatic execution as essential to the next phase of onchain adoption.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are NEAR Intents and how do they work in checkout widgets?

NEAR Intents provide cross-chain liquidity and settlement routing that allow users to sign an intended outcome—such as paying for an item—without manually converting tokens or managing bridges. In a universal checkout widget, consumers can pay using funds from their native wallet on any supported blockchain, while the intent protocol handles settlement behind the scenes.

How does staking fund NEAR AI computing credits?

Under NEAR’s staking-based payment structure, users lock up tokens, and the staking yield generated by the network is automatically converted into monthly compute credits. This model allows individuals and developers to access large language models from providers like Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic while retaining full ownership of their underlying staked principal.

What is the Bitwise NEAR ETF (NRR)?

The Bitwise NEAR ETF is an exchange-traded fund listed on NYSE Arca under the ticker NRR. It holds physical NEAR tokens directly and stakes its underlying holdings, with staking rewards accruing to the fund’s net asset value, subject to a 0.75% management fee.