The NEAR Foundation, a non-profit organization responsible for the development of NEAR protocol’s ecosystem, has announced a collaboration with Alibaba Cloud, the computing and storage division of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, to facilitate the growth of Web 3 in Asia and the Middle East. This partnership is poised to benefit both the NEAR Foundation and Alibaba Cloud, as it provides access to Alibaba Cloud’s extensive developer ecosystem throughout the region, potentially attracting more developers to build on the NEAR protocol.
One of the critical features of this partnership is the ability for developers to launch new NEAR validators using Alibaba Cloud’s “plug-and-play” infrastructure as a service. This easy-to-use system eliminates many complexities typically associated with connecting to a blockchain network and provides a simple, straightforward path to launching new validators. While some may argue that relying on a centralized company like Alibaba Cloud could potentially harm decentralization, others view this collaboration as a necessary move to foster adoption and scale the protocol to a wider audience.
The partnership also includes the provision of remote procedure calls (RPC) as a service for developers and users in the NEAR ecosystem. These RPCs enable users to read data on blockchains and send transactions to different networks, resulting in increased functionality and cross-network compatibility. Additionally, multi-chain indexing will be offered to give developers a data query API, further enriching the developer experience.
Users will gain access to the NEAR Blockchain Operating System (BOS), a platform launched earlier this year, allowing them to interact with and build upon other users while utilizing Alibaba Cloud’s infrastructure. This collaboration comes after Alibaba recently welcomed its new Chairman, Joseph Tsai, who embraces Web 3 and has played an active role in investing and securing deals with crypto-related entities.
Raymond Xiao, the head of international Web3 solutions at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, has expressed optimism on the partnership between the NEAR Foundation and Alibaba Cloud, as it continues to support Web3 developers in discovering opportunities. Furthermore, the partnership holds significant promise for developers and validators in the Asian markets, as they can leverage Alibaba Cloud’s comprehensive infrastructure in the region.
In conclusion, the collaboration between the NEAR Foundation and Alibaba Cloud demonstrates a strong commitment to advancing the adoption of blockchain technology and Web 3 in Asia and the Middle East. While some may argue that centralized partnerships may be detrimental to absolute decentralization, the potential scaling benefits and positive impact on developer communities cannot simply be overlooked.
Source: Coindesk
