Ethereum competitor Near Protocol (NEAR) gains 106% as DeFi heats up By Cointelegraph

Near Protocol (NEAR) is a smart contract platform that uses parallel processing to scale the network. This technique, known as sharding, resembles what Eth2 is aiming to achieve and Near’s proof-of-stake consensus mechanism also allows token holders to stake their coins.

In the past month, NEAR has rallied by 107% and this raises questions on whether the project is making significant strides in what has become an ultra-competitive smart contract industry.