NEAR is a dynamically sharded smart contract platform focused on providing a scalable and seamless user and developer experience for blockchain applications.
At Chorus One, we are here for you every step of the journey. Follow the steps below to start staking with us. If any questions, we're only a click away.
We are at the forefront of PoS blockchain research. We work with carefully selected networks and help them launch and operate seamlessly. Our technical input has been vital in adding value to blockchains such as Solana, Cosmos and Ethereum.
The Chorus One infrastructure and surrounding processes are highly specialized to guarantee reliable and fault tolerant operation of our nodes as well as safekeeping of associated cryptographic key material.
Both institutional and retail investors trust our staking services. Our engineers work around the clock to ensure your stake is safe. Moreover, we safeguard all investments with our delegator protection pool of $250k, refreshed each quarter.
We keep our community updated through regular posts, engaging podcast episodes, and in-depth research articles. We provide 24x7 support to our delegators via Telegram, email and chat.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are shards?
The notion of sharding, which tries to break the network's architecture into many pieces so that computers, also known as nodes, only have to handle a portion of the network's transactions, is central to the NEAR Protocol's design. In Near Protocol, this is called Nightshade.
What is Aurora?
Aurora is a Layer 2 scaling solution based on the NEAR Protocol that allows developers to deploy Ethereum decentralized apps on the NEAR network.
Did Near raise capital?
NEAR has received more than $20 million from renowned venture capital companies such as Andreessen Horowitz and Pantera Capital in successive stages. Early stage investors have purchased around 35% of the original supply of 1 billion NEAR tokens.
What is the Rainbow Bridge?
The Rainbow Bridge application in the NEAR Protocol enables players to quickly move Ethereum tokens back and forth between Ethereum and NEAR.
We are thrilled to introduce our latest product, Chorus One SDK. This advanced toolkit is set to transform how our customers integrate staking functionalities into their applications. As the leading staking provider with the most extensive network support in the industry, robust security features, and comprehensive transaction management, our SDK (Software Development Kit) is poised to become an essential tool for institutions and developers, enabling them to leverage enterprise-grade staking solutions across all major networks including Ethereum, Solana, TON, Avalanche, Cosmos, NEAR, and Polkadot with unparalleled ease and efficiency.
What is Chorus One SDK?
The Chorus One SDK is an all-in-one toolkit for building staking dApps or implementing programmatic native staking into your product. It supports non-custodial staking on various networks validated by Chorus One. With this SDK, our customers can build, sign, and broadcast transactions, as well as retrieve staking information and rewards for user accounts.
Supported Networks
Chorus One has the most extensive network support for staking in the industry. Currently, the Chorus One SDK provides support for the following networks, with plans to expand to even more in the future:
The Chorus One SDK is designed for a diverse audience, including:
Custodians: Looking to offer secure staking solutions.
MPC Wallets: Interested in integrating staking capabilities into their wallets.
Asset Managers and Funds: Aiming to implement staking transactions within their existing custody and risk management frameworks.
Exchanges: Wanting to provide ETH staking options to their users without any 32 ETH minimum requirement as well as staking across other major networks.
By using the Chorus One SDK, our customers can easily integrate programmatic native staking, access detailed staking position data, and minting of osETH LST to offer flexible staking options to their end users.
SDK vs. APIs: Why We Chose to Build an SDK
At Chorus One, we prioritize security, transparency, and user control. Our decision to develop an SDK over a traditional API was driven by the following considerations:
Enhanced Security
Local Transaction Building and Signing: Users can generate and sign transactions locally on their devices, ensuring that private keys are not exposed to external environments.
Reduced Risk of Exposure: Keeping private keys within the user’s environment minimizes the risk of exposure to malicious actors.
Verifiable Trust and Transparency
Direct Verification: Users can directly specify and verify the validator addresses they interact with, ensuring transparency and control over staking activities.
Elimination of External Dependencies: The SDK approach removes potential attack vectors associated with relying on external APIs, enhancing overall trust and security.
Open-Source and Auditable
Open-Source Code: The Chorus One SDK is open-source, allowing users and developers to review, audit, and contribute to the codebase. This openness ensures that the SDK is transparent and trustworthy.
💡 Why does it matter?
Choosing the Chorus One SDK means prioritizing security, transparency, and user empowerment. With local transaction building and signing, and open-source transparency, users can confidently participate in staking activities across supported networks.
How does it Work?
Our SDK offers a robust suite of tools for managing staking operations on various networks. Here’s a high-level overview of its functionality:
Comprehensive Transaction Management
Building, Signing, and Broadcasting Transactions: Users can seamlessly manage staking, unstaking, delegation, and reward withdrawal operations.
Flexible Custody Solutions: Supports a variety of custody options, including mobile wallets, browser extensions, hardware wallets, and custom custodial solutions like Fireblocks.
Detailed Information Retrieval
Staking Information and Reward Data: Users can fetch detailed staking information and reward data for any account, ensuring they have all the information needed to make informed decisions.
Integrated Validator Support
Built-in Support for Chorus One Validators: The SDK includes built-in support for Chorus One validators across all supported blockchain networks, as well as the ability to specify custom validator addresses.
Command Line Interface (CLI)
Easy Interaction: The SDK includes a CLI for easy interaction with supported networks, simplifying operations for users who prefer command line tools.
Resources
For more detailed information on how our SDK works and technical guides, explore the following resources:
The launch of Chorus One SDK marks our commitment to simplifying staking. By equipping our customers with all the necessary tools, we enable them to effortlessly integrate and deliver an exceptional staking experience to their end users.
If you’re an institution, wallet provider, asset manager, or developer looking to integrate staking into your product or would like to learn more, reach out to us at staking@chorus.one.
About Chorus One
Chorus One is one of the biggest institutional staking providers globally, operating infrastructure for 60+ Proof-of-Stake networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, and Near, amongst others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry and now offer easy enterprise-grade staking solutions, industry-leading research, and also invest in some of the most cutting-edge protocols through Chorus Ventures. We are a team of over 50 passionate individuals spread throughout the globe who believe in the transformative power of blockchain technology.
To get started with everything, you will want to go to https://wallet.near.org/. If you have already created an account and you don’t want to connect a new Account to that existing one, then you can open up an incognito browser. If it’s your first time it will bring you to this page below:
Assuming you are planning on creating an account, you will want to select the blue box on the left — Create Account. The screen below is what will pop up:
This is where you have the opportunity to create a NEAR Account. You pick your account name and then click Create Account
You cannot change your account name once you have claimed (although you can buy and sell it).
In the next step, you need to choose your security method. Note: This can be changed after the account is created, but you should still select the one that is going to be most secure (i.e. use a Recovery Phrase or a Ledger Nano S or X).
After you click Continue you are shown the passphrase. It should be 12 words long.
Store the mnemonic (passphrase) very securely. Anyone with the phrase can access your account and transact!
To make sure you have got the seed phrase correctly recorded, you will be prompted to input one of the words at random.
After you do that, you will be brought to the Account Verify screen. You will need to either fund it or use an email/sms to verify your account.
If you use email you will be taken to the next screen to enter the 6-digit verification code.
2. Fund your account to get Near ID
Here is where things can get a little tricky. NEAR is built around an Account model, where users have human-readable ID’s. In order to get that ID though, you need to fund your account with 0.1 NEAR.
So here is how you get the ID you selected earlier on in the process:
You keep the window open. Under no circumstances in the process should you close the window! If your computer freezes and you have to restart, you will have to start all over again!.
Open another window and use that to fund your one-time funding address. You can use an exchange to transfer NEAR to your account or you can borrow funds from someone who already has NEAR. A list of exchanges that currently offer $NEAR can be found here.
Once you receive the near you will see an Account Funded screen. Congratulations your account is funded and that account ID is yours forever (or until you decide to sell it)!
3. Set up your account
Now that your account is funded you click Continue to Accountto get onto the wallet home interface.
Once you are on the home interface there are different options available on the top left of the bar. On the right column, you can see your different security permissions. You can enable Email and Phone access on top of your seed phrase for quicker access.
You can also Enable 2 Factor Authentication from your email. In general, 2FA is highly recommended, as it means that even if your account is compromised, no action can be taken without first confirming that action with a special code sent to your email.
4. Add or import an existing account
You might want to connect other existing NEAR Accounts you have set up to the wallet interface. This will allow you to navigate quickly between accounts. On the top right corner, you can either click importor create new account
If you want to Import an existing account you just have to click the recoverseed phrase box and input that account’s seed phrase.
You are now set up with your NEAR Account and ready to stake.
From the moment your account has been funded the sole method of receiving and sending NEAR and any token from the wallet is via your newly created Account ID. DO NOT ever use the one-time funding address again.
5. Staking NEAR tokens
This next part will go into the details on how to stake and unstake from the NEAR wallet. Go to the Staking tab on the top left of the screen. Click on it and you will get a screen as displayed below.
This is the first step in staking. You will want to click the blue button Stake My Tokens. Once you do that, you will be prompted to Select a Validator from the list of NEAR Validators.
Selecting Chorus One Validator
Select chorusone.poolv1.near and click Stak with Validator. Then you are asked to input the amount that you would like to stake. If you want to stake everything in your wallet click Use Max’ Note as explained in the photo below, there is always 0.35 NEAR reserved for Fees.
Select the amount you would like to Stake:
Once you have entered an amount, you must then confirm your stake as depicted in the picture below. All you have to do is click ‘Confirm’.
You will see the following screen upon successful staking!
Congratulations you are now staking on NEAR Protocol! You can check in on updates and rewards from the Staking tab of the wallet.
6. Withdrawing Rewards (Unstaking)
Your account will start earning rewards upon staking and after some time you will be able to withdraw them. Your earned rewards are automatically restaked. If you want to unstake you have to select the ‘Unstake’ on the right hand side.
This will then prompt you to select which validator you would like to unstake from. Unless you are staking through multiple different validators there should only be one option.
The following screen will then prompt you to input the amount of NEAR you wish to unstake. You can then choose to either unstake just your earned rewards or more if you like.
Finally, confirm that you are ready to unstake that amount of NEAR that you entered.
The tokens become available on the 4th epoch after release which is usually between 52–65 hours in time.
After hitting confirm you will then get the Success message. Shortly after, the staking tab of your wallet, will reflect your tokens pending release and eventually they will become available for you to withdraw. Once they are available to withdraw you can simply select Withdraw to have them deposited back into your wallet.
7. (Optional) Connecting NEAR Wallet to a Dapp on NEAR?
NEAR Wallet can also be used to connect to existing dapps on NEAR. Just head over to a NEAR Dapp. You can check out the different dApps at Awesome NEAR. Look for the ‘Sign in with NEAR Wallet Option’. Give that a click.
It will then take you to this screen in your wallet. Note that if you have multiple accounts connected through the wallet you can decide which account you would like to allow the Dapp to access.
Once you click Allow you are good to go, and your Account will be automatically connected to the dapp going forward
Make sure to review the Dapps before allowing them access to your account. Malicious apps may try to steal your funds!
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62
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A conversation with Altan Turar of Near Protocol
January 11, 2024
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hr
39
min
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NEAR: Sharding Economics and Developer Business Models with Illia Polosukhin