Near Protocol wants to build the largest open-source AI model.

Near Protocol has revealed its ambitious plan to build the largest open-source AI model with 1.4T parameters. At the same time, Near’s mainnet is now compatible with MetaMask and all Ethereum wallets. 

Near Protocol: the ambitious plan of the open-source AI model with 1.4T parameters

On the occasion of the Redacted conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Near Protocol revealed its ambitious plan for the new AI model it intends to build.

This is the largest open-source Artificial Intelligence model in the world, with 1.4 trillion parameters. This means it will be 3.5 times larger than the current open-source Llama model by Meta.

Specifically, the project involves the support of collaborators from the new hub Near AI Research and will be created through crowdsourced research and development. As of yesterday, in Bangkok, participants were able to start training a small model with 500 million parameters. 

The plan is to proceed with only the best collaborators who will make the leap to work on progressively more complex models. Not only that, the project will grow in size and sophistication through seven models. 

Furthermore, AI models will be monetized and privacy will be preserved thanks to the use of encrypted Trusted Execution Environments to reward contributors and encourage constant updating as technology progresses.

Near Protocol integrates with MetaMask and all Ethereum wallets

In addition to the super AI project, Near Protocol also revealed on X that the mainnet is now compatible with MetaMask and with all wallets Ethereum.

“An orange fox met a black dragon. The rest is history. Today, the NEAR mainnet is fully compatible with @MetaMask and with the entire suite of Ethereum wallets”

In practice, all Ethereum users now have access to the advantages of the Chain Signatures and Chain Abstraction apps, without the need for new wallets or assets. Developers and teams can also directly incorporate the Ethereum wallet selector into their apps, allowing users to access using MetaMask or the ETH wallet of their choice.

This integration of NEAR Wallet Selector for Ethereum wallets was carried out by Aurora Labs.

Illia Polosukhin, co-founder and CEO of NEAR, commented as follows: 

“The enabling of all Ethereum wallets, including MetaMask, for access to NEAR apps bridges another gap in achieving chain abstraction. ETH users are now able to explore experiences on NEAR and other chains without having to change wallets. This is a big step forward in simplifying onboarding and defragmenting liquidity and user access in DeFi, bringing all of Web3 closer to realizing the vision of Chain Abstraction.”

The price of the crypto NEAR

Near Protocol (NEAR) seems to ride the general crypto bullish trend. In fact, at the time of writing, NEAR is worth $5.17, in a pump of +9% in the last 24 hours. 

Not only that, the current price is up by +41% compared to even a week ago. NEAR is in the 18th position in the crypto ranking by market capitalization, with its 6.28 billion dollars of market cap. 

Another significant piece of data is the trading volume of NEAR in the last 24 hours, from the day of its conference in Bangkok where it revealed its plan for the AI model. In fact, NEAR transactions are up by +139% compared to yesterday, for a total volume of 1.06 billion dollars. 

In any case, the current price of NEAR is still very far from its ATH price recorded last January 2022, of over $20.