#108 NEAR Protocol: Building a High Speed, Climate Neutral, Low Fee Blockchain with Illia Polosukhin, Co-Founder

In Episode #108, we explore building a global blockchain that’s high-speed, climate neutral, and low-fee. We’re joined by Illia Polosukhin, NEAR Protocol’s Co-Founder. We cover why proof of stake beats proof of work, how NEAR approached scaling, and how Illia raised more than $10M to help fund aid in war-torn Ukraine.

“For me, web3 is not about decentralization. I think decentralization is just a tool. What it is about is low switching costs.” – Illia Polosukhin

EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED)

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/near-protocol-illia-polosukhin-spotlight 

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/near-protocol-illia-polosukhin-spotlight-transcript 

CHAPTERS

This episode is our definitive guide to building a layer-one blockchain that’s incredibly fast, has very low transaction fees, and is climate neutral. In it we cover:

• (00:00:00) – Introduction
• (00:02:35) – How NEAR Protocol is imagining your world
• (00:04:46) – Why decentralization is just a tool
• (00:09:14) – Dethroning monopolies and leveling the playing field
• (00:14:02) – NEAR Protocol’s origin with scaling crowdsourcing
• (00:20:18) – Lack of intellectual honesty in crypto
• (00:24:19) – NEAR’s approach to sharding
• (00:31:03) – The importance of bringing the community into decision making
• (00:37:47) – How the co-founder’s role can evolve from centralized to decentralized
• (00:43:17) – Illia’s Web3 mindmap and staying decentralized while preserving privacy
• (00:46:36) – NEAR’s approach to sustainability in blockchain
• (00:49:46) – Founders: Build credibility and ship fast
• (00:54:19) – Handling fear and anxiety when building in crypto: Keep calm and build on
• (00:58:52) – The Unchained Fund and helping Ukraine

ABOUT NEAR PROTOCOL

Illia Polosukhin is Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol. NEAR is a layer-one blockchain that’s incredibly fast, has very low transaction fees, and is climate neutral—in part because of its Proof of Stake model. It’s traded on crypto exchanges under the ticker symbol NEAR and has a market cap of just under $5B today. From 2020 through 2021, the developers working in NEAR’s ecosystem—building applications on top of their blockchain—quadrupled, making NEAR the second-fastest growing chain behind Solana. 

Illia is an incredibly impressive founder, but more importantly, he’s an incredibly thoughtful engineer, leader, and community builder who has built something incredible slowly and methodically, one step at a time.

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