✍️ The Great Scholar Debates @NEARProtocol’s Rebirth (AI + The King of Intents) Mainly just want to share my position a bit, the call might feel a bit vague, so let’s add some data. Although most of the data exists even during “drops,” when the price rises, it can become a “useful” tool for everyone . AI Aspect: AI integration drives ecosystem expansion and valuation growth NEAR Protocol’s founder @ilblackdragon is a co-author of the Transformer paper, which injects deep AI genes into the platform. So when you talk about AI, NEAR is an unavoidable topic. This is also why during last year’s AI hype, everyone fomo-ed all the way up. By 2025, NEAR will focus on developing AI agents and autonomous systems, such as the Shade Agent Sandbox toolkit, which allows developers to deploy AI agents for DeFi, oracles, and DAO automation. NEAR’s AI roadmap emphasizes cross-chain expansion and scalability, aiming to build the largest open-source AI model. ZK Aspect: Zero-knowledge proofs enhance privacy and cross-chain capabilities NEAR has made significant progress in zero-knowledge proofs (ZK), greatly improving its privacy and efficiency. The platform has integrated a ZK SDK, offering compilers, code libraries, and debugging tools to make it easier for developers to build ZK applications. Recently, due to the surge in ZEC prices, this feature was discovered by the “Great Scholar,” sparking debates!!! NEAR Protocol, through its NEAR Intents protocol (a cross-chain and chain abstraction solution), helps ZEC (Zcash) achieve cross-chain transfers. Weekly revenue: About 1.7M from Intents fees, accounting for 47% of the cross-chain market share. Among them, ZEC-related transactions (like Zashi Swaps) processed 65M in volume, directly contributing to part of the fees. Fundamental Expectations It’s foreseeable that DAT might emerge, which is inevitable. Then there’s the submission of ETFs. After NEAR’s halving, NEAR might turn deflationary in 2026, with fees used to buy back tokens. ✍️ Final Thoughts On October 10th, I placed an order to buy NEAR at 2.95 when it was at 3.2, and woke up on October 11th to find NEAR valued at 1.45 . So this logic and fundamentals stuff have nothing to do with price movements. When it rises, people naturally start talking; when it drops, people naturally start criticizing. Writing this is just to strengthen the “belief” behind holding my position.