NEAR Protocol Announces “Chain Signatures Mainnet Launch”

This new technology ditches cross-chain bridges and lets users utilise smart contracts to “sign transactions on any blockchain”

Blockchain technology firm Near Protocol has announced the mainnet launch of Chain Signatures, a feature that allows users to interact with multiple blockchains without needing separate accounts or tokens for gas fees.

According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on Oct. 11, Chain Signatures enables Near smart contracts to sign transactions on any blockchain. The feature is designed to simplify DeFi interactions across chains.

The launch follows an announcement in May when Near revealed plans to integrate Chain Signatures with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and other blockchains by the end of the year.

The new feature is touted to support omnichain decentralized finance (DeFi) and the creation of tokens that exist on multiple chains without needing bridges.

Near explained that the Chain Signatures feature uses a threshold signature protocol where Near’s multi-party computation (MPC) nodes sign transactions.

The protocol is designed to simplify the user experience by eliminating the need for separate accounts and managing multiple tokens for gas fees when interacting with different blockchains.

Near Co-founder Illia Polosukhin described Chain Signatures as a “huge step toward Chain Abstraction,” highlighting the following:

“Chain Signatures enables @NEARProtocol smart contracts to sign transactions on any blockchain. Whereas before we had fragmented liquidity in DeFi, now there will be a single DeFi layer for all chains.”

Polosukhin added that the development aims to expand and diversify the user base in Web3, moving beyond the limitations of layer-one-centric thinking.

NEAR token up 13% following Chain Signatures launchThe price of Near’s native token NEAR reacted to the Chain Signatures launch with a strong increase of 13% in the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinGecko.

This comes after the token price dipped along with the broader market crash earlier this week, with NEAR only just beginning its recovery rally.

At the time of writing, NEAR trades hands for $4.08 and has quite a way to go to reach the previous high of $20.42, which it hit in January 2022.