The
NEAR
Foundation,
the
non-profit
behind
the
layer-1
NEAR
Protocol,
announced
that
the
protocol
now
supports
chain
signatures,
offering
users
multichain
access
from
their
NEAR
account.
The
chain
signatures
network
is
secured
in
part
by
Eigenlayer,
which
joins
NEAR
as
a
launch
partner,
according
to
a
press
release.
Eigenlayer
is
a
restaking
project
built
on
Ethereum.
“Since
day
one,
the
NEAR
ecosystem
has
focused
on
simplifying
access
to
Web3
for
developers
and
mainstream
users,”
said
Illia
Polosukhin,
co-founder
of
NEAR.
“Chain
Signatures
is
the
next
step
in
that
journey,
making
it
significantly
easier
to
transact
on
any
blockchain
while
also
defragmenting
liquidity
across
the
ecosystem.”
Developers
can
now
build
decentralized
finance
(DeFi)
products
that
use
assets
from
other
chains
without
bridging
these
assets,
added
the
press
release.
The
offering
is
the
latest
step
towards
NEAR’s
initiative
of
“chain
abstraction,”
which
aims
to
tackle
the
user
experience
in
crypto
by
simplifying
the
hurdles
that
exist
in
a
multichain
environment.
NEAR’s
native
token
(NEAR)
has
been
rising
over
the
past
few
months,
up
roughly
seven-fold
since
the
start
of
October,
including
a
doubling
in
one
week
earlier
this
month.