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NEAR partners with Alibaba Cloud to offer RPC services, multi‑chain indexing and validator support, aiming to attract developers across Asia and the Middle
NEAR Foundation announced a strategic partnership with Alibaba Cloud, giving developers access to the Chinese tech giant’s infrastructure and developer ecosystem across Asia and the Middle East. The collaboration will provide remote‑procedure‑call (RPC) services, multi‑chain indexing APIs, and “plug‑and‑play” validator deployment on Alibaba’s cloud platform [1].
Key takeaways
The NEAR Foundation’s agreement with Alibaba Cloud aims to lower the technical barrier for developers building on the NEAR protocol. By offering RPC services, the partnership enables users to read blockchain data and submit transactions without running their own nodes. Multi‑chain indexing will expose a data‑query application programming interface (API), allowing developers to retrieve cross‑chain information more efficiently. In addition, the “plug‑and‑play” validator offering lets operators spin up NEAR validators on Alibaba’s cloud infrastructure, potentially accelerating network security and decentralization in the region.
The collaboration also integrates the NEAR Blockchain Operating System (BOS), a platform launched earlier in the year that supports social logins and other user‑friendly features. Running BOS on Alibaba Cloud’s extensive hardware and storage resources is intended to attract a broader developer base in Asia and the Middle East, where Alibaba’s ecosystem is already well‑established. Raymond Xiao, head of international Web3 solutions at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, highlighted the significance of the partnership for Asian markets, noting that developers can leverage Alibaba’s comprehensive infrastructure [1].
Earlier in 2023, NEAR partnered with blockchain analytics firm Nansen to deliver real‑time on‑chain insights, including transaction patterns, wallet activity, and network growth metrics [2]. This data‑driven collaboration complements the Alibaba Cloud infrastructure by giving developers and investors deeper visibility into the NEAR ecosystem. Nansen’s tools, such as Portfolio tracking and upcoming Query and Pro features, are slated to enhance developer decision‑making and dApp performance throughout 2023 [2]. Together, the infrastructure and analytics partnerships illustrate NEAR’s broader strategy to create a developer‑friendly, data‑rich environment for Web3 applications.
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NEAR Protocol is a sharded, proof-of-stake blockchain designed to serve as infrastructure for decentralized applications and an AI-focused 'agent economy'.
The NEAR mainnet officially launched in April 2020, initially operating in a restricted proof-of-authority mode.
Yes, the platform has experienced security incidents, including a $3 million exploit of the Skyward Finance project in 2022 and a compromised Discord moderator account in 2023.
The Alibaba Cloud partnership positions NEAR to capture a larger share of the rapidly growing Asian Web3 market, offering the technical resources needed for developers to launch and scale dApps and validator nodes. By coupling infrastructure support with advanced analytics from Nansen, NEAR seeks to lower entry barriers, improve network robustness, and foster ecosystem growth. Market reaction—an 8% token price increase—suggests investors view the collaboration as a positive catalyst. Continued expansion of such partnerships will be critical to NEAR’s ambition of becoming a leading Layer‑1 platform for scalable, user‑friendly decentralized applications.
AI-assisted synthesis by the TrendWatcher Editorial Desk · sourced from 4 outlets · Jun 12, 2026 · How we report
House of Stake is NEAR’s stake-based, onchain governance system used to coordinate protocol upgrades, economic parameters, and treasury decisions.