NEAR has announced that it is becoming the Blockchain Operating System (BOS), introducing a common layer for browsing and discovering open web experiences, compatible with all blockchains. Today’s Web2 and Web3 are fragmented: Web2 because each account and experience is centralized and controlled by a company, Web3 because each blockchain network is a silo.

The BOS wants to solve this for both by offering a way to discover and use experiences with common services including a single identity, user-owned assets, and user-controlled data. Developers gain full composability of frontends and users have full portability of their data and assets. The Blockchain Operating System works with any blockchain or Web2 backend and allows access to a range of gateways.

For end users, the BOS will be one continuous experience, similar to using a single app, even if users flow between experiences built by different developers or on different chains. For developers, decentralized and composable frontends offer a way to build and launch apps, with the possibility of creating faster forking existing pieces and components, using built-ins like profiles, payments, notifications, and search without needing to host anything themselves. A suite of launches The BOS launch also features the debut of alpha.

near. org, the first preview of a gateway for developers to build on the Blockchain Operating System, and FastAuth, a solution for fast onboarding to the BOS via web login. Alpha.

near. org is a composable multichain frontend for developers, with over 1800 components already live. Alpha.

near. org and FastAuth were built by Pagoda, the product and engineering company contributing core technology to the NEAR ecosystem. FastAuth helps improves usability and accessibility for a range of end users and is easy for developers to manage.

It is mobile-friendly, Pass Key enabled, and does not require a crypto wallet to activate, while still allowing decentralized ownership – using human-readable account names that also keep power in the hands of users. All of this is possible without needing a seed phrase or password, and it only needs to be done once: a single, secure, streamlined login for the entire web. The BOS wants to be a truly decentralized, community-driven effort with contributions from many teams across the NEAR ecosystem.

Pagoda, the NEAR Foundation, and other teams from the NEAR ecosystem will build the BOS through 2023. .