Bank of America's research report on Tuesday described Near protocol as one of the new generation blockchains, including Cardano, Solana, and Polkadot, that are utilizing innovative approaches to improve scalability, decentralization, and security. These blockchains are likely to attract developers by growing functionality and incentivizing development in the short term. Near's sharding approach helps mitigate scaling issues related to centralization and poorly aligned incentives. However, the report stated that it's too early to predict the long-term winners and losers.
Bank of America expects that blockchains that prioritize usability and effectively market themselves to gain market share in the long term. Although Near prioritizes network usability, its development has stagnated in 2022 despite its innovative architecture and ecosystem of applications. The note added that the development of these innovative technologies remains in the early stages, and much of the software powering third-generation blockchains is still immature.