Hey builders 👋,
I’ve spent years tinkering with Ethereum, Solidity, and the usual L2 suspects. But last week, I decided to dive into NEAR Protocol—and holy cow, it felt like swapping a rusty bike for a Tesla. Here’s my journey, complete with code, aha moments, and a very happy wallet.
🌅 Day 1: Setting up (Faucets, wallets, and Zero gas panic)
Why NEAR?Ethereum’s gas fees had turned my hobby projects into a financial burden. NEAR’s promise of sub-cent transactions and Rust/Wasm support hooked me.
First steps:
1. Created a NEAR wallet in 30 seconds: wallet.near.org.
2. Grabbed testnet tokens from the faucet: No KYC, no drama.
3. Installed NEAR CLI:
npm install -g near-cli-rs
near login
Immediate win:
● Gas Costs: Sent 10 test transactions for less than $0.01 total. Ethereum could never.
📝 _Day 2: Deploying my first smart contract (Rust FTW)
The project: A simple DAO voting contract.
Code snippet (Rust):
Deployment:
Why NEAR won me over:
● No Solidity: Rust’s safety + WASM’s speed = fewer runtime errors.
● Instant finality: Transactions are confirmed in 2 seconds.
🖥️ _Day 3: Building a Web3 frontend
Task: Connect a React app using NEAR’s recommended workflow.
Code Snippet (JavaScript):
● Users could vote without gas prompts (sponsored transactions FTW).
● Frontend updates were seamless—no waiting for 12 block confirmations.
● Seamless Reads/Writes of viewFunction and functionCall mirror NEAR’s official examples.
🌐 _Day 4: Exploring the NEAR Ecosystem (BOS + Aurora)
Discoveries:
1. Aurora EVM: Deployed my old Solidity contracts with 2-second finality and $0.001 fees.
○ Tutorial: Aurora + NEAR Guide
2. BOS (Blockchain Operating System): Glued together components from different chains into one UI.
○ Example: BOS Component Gallery
Mind blown:
● Rainbow Bridge: Moved ETH to NEAR in 5 minutes.
● NEAR Social: Built a profile like a Web3 LinkedIn.
🚧 _Day 5: Debugging (Yes, even NEAR has quirks)
Debugging snippet:
Challenges faced:
1. Rust learning curve: Borrow checker fights 😤.
○ Fix: Used NEAR Rust Docs for reference.
2. Sparse SDK examples: Some advanced features lacked tutorials.
○ Fix: Joined NEAR Discord—community helped instantly.
Lesson learned:
● NEAR’s tooling is young but growing fast. The tradeoff? Less boilerplate, more flexibility.
🏁 _Final takeaways
Why NEAR?
● Cost: 1000x cheaper than Ethereum.
● Speed: Sub-3-second transactions.
● UX: Wallet integrations feel magical for end-users.
When to Choose NEAR:
● You’re building user-first dApps (no gas popups!).
● You want Rust’s safety without Solidity’s quirks.
● Your app needs cross-chain features (Aurora + BOS = cheat code).
Get Started Now:
1. NEAR Docs: Best place to start.
2. NEAR Examples: Code templates for everything.
3. Aurora: For Ethereum refugees.
Peace,\
— A dev who finally built something without crying over gas fees. 🚀
