Encode x NEAR Horizon Accelerator — Summary
The Encode x NEAR Horizon Accelerator, an eight-week online programme, has successfully concluded, marking a significant milestone in the journey of transforming promising hackathon and early-stage projects into fully operational startups. This accelerator, tailored specifically to the NEAR ecosystem, provided an unparalleled platform for budding entrepreneurs. Participants were immersed in an environment of expert guidance and mentorship, gaining access to a wealth of resources crucial for their entrepreneurial journey.
The accelerator’s structure was both intensive and supportive, featuring weekly workshops and one-on-one sessions that allowed participants to receive personalized assistance in various domains, including technical development, design, product testing, and fundraising. This hands-on approach was further enhanced by the involvement of mentors, leading investors, and seasoned entrepreneurs in the space. Notably, the programme’s flexible nature did not require full-time commitment or company incorporation from the participants, making it accessible to a broader range of innovators. The culmination of the accelerator was marked by a Pitch Day, where participants showcased their refined projects, ready to make a significant impact in the NEAR ecosystem and beyond.
Workshops
Product Development and MVP
Francisco Pinto from RequestNetwork
Accelerate onboarding with Templates and MintbaseWallet
Luis Freitas from Mintbase
How to Build a Successful Startup (for Grant from the venture perspective)
Bowen Shen from Proximity
Fundraising
Lindsay Keyfauver from NEAR Foundation
Accelerator Projects
Partage
Partage is a shared utility platform based on a fractional ownership protocol. It provides casual users a solution to co-own and time-share blockchain-registered real-world utilities. While the MVP is working fine, we looked for the best go-to-market strategy.
NexArb
Upon signing up for the application, users select a bridge destination from a list of chains the application supports. The user’s wallet address is then stored in the bridge contract on both the NEAR and destination chain. Users provide their contract addresses during bridge creation. Bridge contracts emit events that are captured by a network listener, which includes the destination chain, user’s wallet address, and message if the emission is from the NEAR contract. The network listener forwards these events to the corresponding chain unchanged. The primary function of the bridge is message transmission, controlled by chain bridge contracts. An interface, which must be implemented to use the bridge, includes a method for smart contracts to call when a bridge request is made, facilitating message delivery to the destination contract.
Mutable Web by Dapplets
The Dapplets Project is pioneering Mutable Web, a novel web3 technology that integrates Blockchain Overlay Services (BOS) with millions of traditional websites. This innovation allows communities to modify existing websites and social platforms in real-time without needing permission, by creating ‘Mutations’ that incorporate extra services. Mutable Web is transformative, empowering communities to manage their front-end interfaces, regardless of the website’s ownership. This enables communities to become self-reliant economic entities.
Nimbus
Nimbus offers a personalized portfolio that includes:
- Support for over 30 Centralized Exchanges (CEX).
- Compatibility with more than 10 blockchain networks, covering 92% of the market’s Total Value Locked (TVL).
- Access to over 1000 yield farming opportunities.
It aids users in tracking their investments by providing in-depth analysis tools, including Profit and Loss (PnL), Volatility, Sharpe Ratio, and more.
Blockhouse
A comprehensive platform for tokenized real estate has been developed, featuring smart contracts written in Solidity and deployed on NEAR Aurora. This marketplace facilitates the buying and selling of tokens, and also offers the option to secure loans using these tokens as collateral.
Cableguard
They created a world-first innovation: the use of custom digitally signed non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for API configuration, authentication, and licensing. Their primary function is to simplify and secure the use and sale of API services.
Crisp Exchange
Crisp is a new type of DEX that multiplies capital efficiency, and improves liquidity and LP earnings. By combining a concentrated liquidity AMM and a lending protocol it provides leverage on liquidity positions. Every position can serve as collateral to borrow more tokens and increase the position size. With a conservative minimal over-collateralization factor of 125%, it allows up to 5x leverage. It is already live in NEAR Testnet. Users can swap tokens, provide liquidity, use leverage and deposit tokens to the lending protocol for other LPs to borrow.
Hodla
Hodla, likened to a Shopify for validators, assists them in acquiring retail delegations across any chain from any wallet. The project addresses the issue where validators depend on third-party wallets for customer acquisition, lacking control over user attribution. This challenge is compounded as many wallets, such as Phantom and Cosmostation, default to their own validators, creating a conflict of interest. Hodla resolves this by standardizing the staking experience at the frontend, integrating wallets and native staking across leading Proof of Stake (PoS) chains. Partner validators are provided with their own dedicated “Shopify page.”
Proof of Reputation
Proof-of-Reputation introduces a novel loan protocol aimed at simplifying loan access for Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) in underbanked areas. This protocol is straightforward, on-chain, and transparent, based on key principles:
1. Eliminating complex, bureaucratic, and time-consuming loan application processes, with all tracking conducted on-chain via a Soul Bond Token.
2. Facilitating necessary anti-money laundering (AML) procedures through quests that provide proof of identity, citizenship, and other verifications, as required by third parties.
3. Enabling individuals in regions with limited banking services to obtain loans easily.
zkToro
zkToro is a DeFi protocol that acts as the critical infrastructure required for crypto quant traders in top-tier banks to create, share and execute cross-chain their expert strategies, whilst preserving their intellectual property.
This is achieved through the creation of our own, in-house L3, which, albeit being permissionless, decentralized and open to join, the strategies running on them are kept absolutely private.
About NEAR Horizon
NEAR Foundation recently launched NEAR Horizon, a startup support platform revolutionizing how founders are supported in Web3. Made possible through the initial partnerships with Dragonfly, Pantera, Lyric, Fabric Ventures, Decasonic, Hashed, and others, NEAR Horizon will enable founding teams to scale their projects with a wide range of support. This support will, in turn, enable the rapid growth of great products with real-world value in the NEAR ecosystem. Read more here.
About Encode Club
Encode Club is a web3 education community learning and building together through fantastic programmes with the leading protocols in the space. Together we organize programmes like education series, bootcamps, hackathons, and accelerators both online and in person. We then help our community get jobs and funding for projects and startups.
