NEAR Protocol (NEAR)

NEAR explore: https://explorer.near.org.

NEAR wallet: https://wallet.near.org.

Alternatively you can create a Near Ledger Wallet.

NEAR Protocol’s native token, NEAR, is used to stake, pay for transactions, and for validators to participate in on-chain governance.

In short: transfers and staking rewards are now enabled.

Token transfers were enabled by validators on October 13, 2020 via on-chain vote. Staking rewards began after we upgraded the network on October 20, 2020.

Initially, the NEAR token is being staked to earn new issuance (“inflationary”) subsidies. That means that the NEAR supply will increase and stakers will capture the newly issued NEAR.

In short: you can stake locked tokens to earn annually ~22% as of Oct 21.

You can stake locked tokens. Stakers will proportionally share the newly issued NEAR tokens. The targeted issuance rate is 5% annually with 10% of that going to the NEAR treasury.

This means that 4.5% of issuance will be given to validators and NEAR token holders who decide to stake NEAR.

In short: up to 48 hours.

From the moment you initiate the unbonding process, it takes up to 48 hours (4 epochs) to unstake. During this time you will not earn rewards. When the process is complete, you can transfer/trade your NEAR tokens.

In short: self-custody or third-party; the protocol controls staked NEAR.

You will be able to self-custody your NEAR tokens, ideally using a Ledger hardware wallet. You can use the NEAR team’s wallet with (or without) a Ledger device: https://wallet.near.org.

Figment has partnerships with a number of top-in-class custodians: support@figment.io.

NEAR Protocol takes control of your NEAR tokens while you are staking. If you unbond your tokens, this process will take 36 to 48 hours before the protocol returns your tokens to you. While your NEAR are staked, you will earn staking rewards and your validator will vote in on-chain governance on your behalf.

In short: no.

Your validator (and stake) will not be slashed for downtime. Validators who perform an equivocation (ie. double signing a block at the same height) or an invalid state transition (producing an invalid chunk of a block) will not will not lose stake.

However, you can lose potential rewards for downtime, and you can learn more about how we secure our infrastructure here.

Rewards on NEAR are automatically distributed. Figment is never in control of your rewards.

Rewards are staked automatically, which means you will need to unstake to withdraw them.

In short: yes, if your validator is offline too long.

Your validator (and stake) will not be slashed for downtime, but your validator will be removed from the active set if offline for more than 10% of a 12 hour period. If this happens, your validator will not be able to earn rewards for up to 36 hours. Your validator (and stake) will not be slashed for downtime.

If your validator is online at least 99% of the time, you will earn 100% of your potential rewards. Anything below that and you will lose potential rewards, and ultimately you will earn no rewards for the epoch (ie. 12 hour period) below 90% uptime. That means, for example, that if your validator has 95% uptime, you should receive ~50% rewards for that epoch.

You will not lose potential rewards if your validator performs an equivocation (ie. double signing a block at the same height) or produces an invalid state transition (producing an invalid chunk of a block).

In short: a 5% increase in supply via new issuance (and a 70% burn rate for transactions).

NEAR Protocol launched with a supply of 1B NEAR tokens, 176M of which will be circulating. New supply issuance will not begin until Mainnet Phase II. You can read about token distribution here. According to the Economics Blog Post and Economics Paper, 5% of additional supply is issued yearly: 90% goes to validators (4.5% total) and 10% to the protocol treasury (0.5% total). 30% of transaction fees are rebated to the contracts touched by the transaction and 70% are burned. Read more about token distribution here.