NEAR Protocol

Is NEAR Protocol (NEAR) Halal? A CoinStudy HCS Analysis

Every generation of blockchain technology tries to solve the same fundamental problem — how do you make this useful for ordinary people?

Bitcoin solved digital scarcity. Ethereum solved programmable contracts. But both still require users to manage private keys, understand gas fees, and navigate interfaces that feel foreign to anyone outside the crypto world. Mass adoption has remained elusive not because the technology isn't powerful — but because it isn't accessible.

NEAR Protocol was built with a different starting point. Instead of asking "how do we build the most technically sophisticated blockchain?" — NEAR asked "how do we build a blockchain that normal people can actually use?" That user-experience-first philosophy, combined with genuine technical innovation in scalability, has made NEAR one of the more interesting infrastructure projects in the current market.

For Muslim investors evaluating blockchain infrastructure, NEAR deserves careful attention. We ran it through the full CoinStudy Halal Crypto Standard (HCS) methodology. Here's the complete picture.

Quick Verdict: NEAR Protocol Is Generally Halal ✅

NEAR Protocol passes the CoinStudy HCS Sharia red-line screening with no violations. It scores 87 out of 100 and is classified as Halal. It has strong blockchain infrastructure utility, a genuine user-accessibility focus, no built-in interest mechanism at the protocol level, and a perfect underlying business activity score.

What Is NEAR Protocol, Really?

NEAR Protocol is a Layer 1 blockchain platform designed to be fast, affordable, and genuinely accessible to developers and users who aren't already deep in the crypto world.

The network supports smart contracts, decentralized applications, digital identity systems, and Web3 services — similar in broad category to Ethereum, Solana, and Cardano. But NEAR's distinctive characteristic is its relentless focus on the user and developer experience alongside raw technical performance.

NEAR was founded by Illia Polosukhin and Alexander Skidanov — both with strong technical backgrounds including experience at Google and other technology companies. The project raised significant venture backing and has built a substantial foundation with genuine global developer programs.

NEAR tokens are used to pay transaction fees, participate in staking to secure the network, and engage in governance. The token has clear and functional utility tied directly to network operations.

How Does NEAR Work?

NEAR uses a sharding approach called Nightshade to achieve horizontal scalability — the network can process transactions across multiple shards simultaneously rather than being bottlenecked by a single processing thread.

Each shard processes a portion of the network's transactions in parallel. As demand grows, more shards can be added — theoretically allowing NEAR to scale its throughput proportionally with demand. This is one of the most technically ambitious scalability approaches in the Layer 1 space.

Transaction fees on NEAR are very low — fractions of a cent — and finality is fast. The network is compatible with Ethereum through the Aurora bridge and EVM layer, allowing Ethereum-native developers to deploy on NEAR with minimal friction.

One of NEAR's most user-friendly innovations is its account model. Instead of managing cryptographic addresses like long strings of characters, NEAR allows human-readable account names — similar to usernames. This makes the experience significantly more accessible for users who aren't technical crypto veterans.

The User Experience Focus — Why It Matters for Islamic Finance

This aspect of NEAR's design deserves specific attention in the Islamic finance context.

One of the genuine barriers preventing Muslim communities in developing countries from participating in blockchain technology is the complexity of existing interfaces. Long wallet addresses. Confusing gas fees. Technical terminology that assumes prior crypto knowledge. These barriers disproportionately exclude exactly the communities — lower-income, less technically sophisticated, often in developing regions — that Islamic finance has historically prioritized serving.

NEAR's explicit focus on making blockchain accessible to ordinary users — through readable account names, low fees, and developer tools that reduce complexity — addresses this accessibility barrier meaningfully.

A blockchain designed to be genuinely usable by ordinary people in Muslim-majority countries across Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa serves a genuinely valuable social purpose aligned with Islamic finance values around financial inclusion and broad economic participation.

Real World Utility

NEAR scores 9 out of 10 on Utility and Real Use — reflecting genuine and growing real-world application development across the ecosystem.

The network supports active development across DeFi, gaming, NFT infrastructure, social applications, AI integration, and Web3 consumer services. NEAR's AI integration efforts — connecting blockchain applications with artificial intelligence capabilities — represent a genuinely interesting emerging use case that distinguishes it from older blockchain networks.

The developer ecosystem is active and supported by substantial foundation resources. Real applications are being built and used — not just announced. That demonstrated activity is what earns a strong utility score rather than theoretical potential alone.

Islamic Finance Analysis

Riba — Strong Pass

NEAR Protocol does not provide interest payments, guaranteed returns, lending income, or fixed financial products at the infrastructure level. NEAR tokens are used for transaction fees, staking, and governance — all functional uses tied to real network activity.

At the protocol level, NEAR is free from Riba. The staking mechanism rewards validators for genuine network security work — processing transactions and maintaining the integrity of the Nightshade sharding system — rather than simply generating percentage returns on deposited capital.

As with other smart contract platforms, some independent applications built on NEAR may offer lending or yield-generating products. These are separate from the NEAR protocol itself. Muslim investors should evaluate each application individually.

The Riba Exposure score of 23 out of 25 reflects a clean core protocol with a small deduction for DeFi ecosystem activity — consistent with how we score other Layer 1 smart contract platforms.

Gharar — Well Managed

NEAR operates with transparent network rules, open-source code, publicly verifiable operations, and well-documented technical architecture. The Nightshade sharding design is thoroughly explained in public documentation. Governance processes are accessible to token holders.

The Gharar score of 13 out of 15 reflects strong transparency and clear network design. Small deductions acknowledge adoption uncertainty in a competitive Layer 1 market and some complexity around the sharding architecture that creates more technical opacity than simpler single-chain designs.

Maysir — Infrastructure Purpose Clear

NEAR was built to be accessible blockchain infrastructure for real applications — payments, identity, gaming, social, AI integration. The technical design consistently reflects this productive infrastructure purpose rather than speculative financial engineering.

The Maysir score of 11 out of 15 reflects no gambling mechanics in the core protocol while acknowledging speculative market trading in NEAR tokens and some higher-risk DeFi applications that exist within the broader ecosystem — consistent with how we assess other Layer 1 smart contract platforms.

CoinStudy HCS Screening Results

Layer 1 — Sharia Red Line Screening

NEAR Protocol clears every hard red line.

Interest-Based Core Function — Passed. NEAR is not an interest-based lending or borrowing protocol.

Gambling and Betting — Passed. No gambling or betting mechanism exists in the network.

Haram Industry — Passed. NEAR has no involvement in prohibited industries.

Guaranteed Interest — Passed. No guaranteed interest obligations exist in the protocol.

Synthetic Interest Products — Passed. No synthetic interest instruments are present.

No red line violations were found. NEAR Protocol is fully eligible for HCS scoring.

Layer 2 — HCS Score Breakdown

NEAR Protocol is scored across 7 Shariah principles with a total of 100 points.

On Financial Exposure Risk, weighted at 25%, NEAR scores 23 out of 25. Clean core protocol with minimal indirect exposure to interest-based or yield products. Small deduction reflects DeFi ecosystem activity within the broader network — consistent with other Layer 1 smart contract platforms.

On Gharar and Uncertainty, weighted at 15%, NEAR scores 13 out of 15. Transparent architecture and well-documented technical design. Small deductions for competitive adoption uncertainty in the Layer 1 market and the inherent complexity of sharding technology.

On Maysir and Speculation, weighted at 15%, NEAR scores 11 out of 15. No gambling mechanics in core infrastructure. Deductions reflect speculative market trading and some higher-risk DeFi applications within the broader NEAR ecosystem.

On Underlying Business Activity, weighted at 15%, NEAR scores a perfect 15 out of 15. Accessible blockchain infrastructure for smart contracts, decentralized applications, digital identity, and Web3 services is fully permissible and genuinely valuable economic activity. The user-accessibility focus adds positive social value that aligns with Islamic finance principles around broad economic participation.

On Utility and Real Use, weighted at 10%, NEAR scores 9 out of 10. Strong and growing ecosystem with active developer adoption, meaningful application development, and genuine real-world usage across multiple sectors. The AI integration work represents an interesting and potentially significant emerging utility vector.

On Tokenomics Fairness, weighted at 10%, NEAR scores 8 out of 10. Token distribution model is reasonable with some concerns around early investor and team allocations common to venture-backed blockchain projects. The NEAR Foundation holds significant token reserves used for ecosystem development — a structural consideration for fairness assessment.

On Transparency and Governance, weighted at 10%, NEAR scores 8 out of 10. Open-source and publicly auditable with token-based governance mechanisms. Still developing governance maturity compared to more established community-governed networks like Polkadot's OpenGov system. Active development transparency is strong.

Overall HCS Score: 87 out of 100 — Halal

NEAR's AI Integration — An Emerging Consideration

This is worth specific attention because it distinguishes NEAR from most other Layer 1 platforms in our analysis series.

NEAR has been actively pursuing integration between its blockchain infrastructure and artificial intelligence capabilities — including founding a new initiative called NEAR AI focused on building open-source AI assistants and AI application infrastructure on the NEAR network.

From an Islamic finance perspective this is genuinely interesting. The combination of NEAR's accessible blockchain infrastructure with AI capabilities could enable new categories of genuinely useful applications for Muslim communities — Islamic finance tools, halal product verification systems, educational applications, and financial inclusion services — that are both blockchain-powered and AI-enhanced.

The AI work also creates some additional consideration for the compliance assessment. As NEAR's ecosystem evolves with AI integration, Muslim investors should monitor whether AI-related applications introduce new compliance considerations — particularly around data use and the nature of AI-generated services.

At present this work is early stage and does not introduce compliance concerns. It represents potentially positive utility development worth watching.

NEAR Compared to Other Layer 1 Smart Contract Platforms

Muslim investors frequently compare NEAR to Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Avalanche, and Sui — all of which we've analyzed in this series. NEAR's score of 87 places it alongside Sui, Sentient, Bittensor, and Toncoin in our analysis.

What distinguishes NEAR within this group is its user-accessibility focus and AI integration work. Ethereum has the largest ecosystem but higher fees. Solana is faster but has more pronounced meme coin culture. Cardano has stronger governance but slower ecosystem growth. Avalanche has stronger enterprise adoption.

NEAR occupies a specific niche — highly accessible, developer-friendly, AI-forward — that creates a distinctive long-term positioning in the Layer 1 competitive landscape. Whether that positioning translates into dominant adoption is the investment question Muslim investors need to form their own conviction about.

All are classified as Halal. The choice depends on which Layer 1 vision you believe creates the most genuine long-term value.

Important Questions for Muslim Investors

Before investing in NEAR Protocol, ask yourself honestly:

Do I understand NEAR's sharding architecture and why the user-accessibility focus creates genuine differentiation in the Layer 1 market? Am I investing based on conviction in the accessible blockchain thesis — or following broader Layer 1 market momentum? Am I actively avoiding interest-based DeFi lending applications within the NEAR ecosystem? Do I understand the venture backing and foundation token reserve considerations in the tokenomics? Is my investment strategy focused on long-term infrastructure value rather than short-term price speculation?

NEAR rewards investors who understand its genuine technical differentiation and accessibility mission — not those chasing Layer 1 narrative trends.

Final Verdict

NEAR Protocol is generally considered halal under the CoinStudy Halal Crypto Standard with a score of 87 out of 100.

It serves a legitimate technological purpose. It operates without built-in interest mechanisms. It provides real utility through accessible blockchain infrastructure for smart contracts, decentralized applications, and Web3 services — with a genuine user-accessibility focus that aligns with Islamic finance values around broad economic participation.

The concerns — DeFi ecosystem exposure, tokenomics concentration through foundation reserves, and competitive adoption uncertainty — are real and honestly reflected in the score. But they don't constitute Sharia violations. They are investment considerations that responsible Muslim investors should understand clearly.

For Muslim investors looking for Layer 1 blockchain infrastructure with a genuine accessibility mission, strong technical innovation, and solid Sharia compliance fundamentals — NEAR Protocol is one of the more compelling options in the current market.

Disclaimer: This analysis is provided for educational and research purposes only. This analysis is based on guidance from CoinStudy's HCS Shariah Board members. CoinStudy does not issue personal fatwas or financial advice. Please consult a qualified Islamic scholar for individual guidance.