As the adoption of cryptocurrencies continues to rise, businesses need to stay ahead of the curve by integrating digital payment solutions into their operations. With the recent announcement of a partnership between NEAR Protocol and NOWPayments, businesses can now accept NEAR payments with ease, leveraging the robust features of one of the most promising blockchain ecosystems. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the benefits of accepting NEAR payments, the unique features offered by the NEAR Protocol ecosystem, and how to integrate NOWPayments API to accept crypto payments seamlessly.
Table of Contents
- Introduction to NEAR Protocol
- Why Build on NEAR Protocol
- NEAR Protocol Ecosystem Expansion
- Accepting NEAR Payments with NOWPayments API
- NEAR Mass Payouts API
- Extended Custody API for NEAR
- Conclusion
Introduction to NEAR Protocol
NEAR Protocol is a layer-one blockchain platform designed to provide a community-driven, developer-friendly environment for building decentralized applications (DApps) and overcoming the limitations of traditional blockchains, such as low transaction speeds, poor throughput, and limited interoperability. One of the main distinguishing features of NEAR Protocol is its unique consensus mechanism called “Doomslug,” which enables near-instant transaction finality and high throughput.
Launched in April 2020, NEAR Protocol is backed by an extensive team of experienced developers, including multiple International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) gold medalists and winners. The platform aims to create a secure, scalable, and user-friendly ecosystem for both developers and end-users.
Why Build on NEAR Protocol
NEAR Protocol offers several advantages for developers and businesses looking to build on a blockchain platform:
High Scalability and Performance
NEAR Protocol leverages its Nightshade sharding implementation to achieve massive transaction throughput of up to 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) while maintaining virtually zero transaction fees. This allows for the creation of high-performing DApps that can cater to a large user base without compromising on performance.
Ethereum Compatibility
NEAR Protocol provides a high level of compatibility with Ethereum’s Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), enabling developers to easily migrate existing DApps or create new ones that can run seamlessly on the NEAR ecosystem. This compatibility allows developers to tap into the vast array of existing Ethereum tools, smart contracts, and applications.
Developer-Friendly Ecosystem
NEAR Protocol offers a range of tools and services to support developers, including extensive documentation, tutorials, and resources. The ecosystem provides a platform for developers to build and deploy decentralized applications while businesses can leverage the power of NEAR to enhance their products and services.
Growing Community and Ecosystem Funding
NEAR Protocol has a vibrant and growing community of developers, projects, and businesses built around its ecosystem. In October 2021, NEAR announced an $800 million ecosystem funding initiative to accelerate growth in the NEAR protocol ecosystem. This fund aims to support projects focusing on Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), and gaming.
NEAR Protocol Ecosystem Expansion
With a focus on ease of use and user experience, the NEAR Protocol ecosystem has been growing rapidly. The platform has seen the launch of numerous DApps, including Flux, a protocol for creating markets based on assets, commodities, and real-world events, and Mintbase, an NFT minting platform.
In August 2022, the NEAR team announced the release of a JavaScript software development kit (JS SDK), opening the door for more than 20 million JavaScript programmers to enter the blockchain and Web3 space.
Accepting NEAR Payments with NOWPayments API
NOWPayments is a cryptocurrency payment gateway that enables businesses to accept payments in various cryptocurrencies, including NEAR. By integrating the NOWPayments API, businesses can accept NEAR payments and manage them efficiently.
The NOWPayments API is a set of RESTful APIs that can be used to integrate NOWPayments with your business’s existing systems. These APIs provide a simple and efficient way to accept cryptocurrency payments and can be used to perform a variety of tasks, such as creating and managing invoices, conducting payouts, exchanging currencies, and more.
Trying Out the NEAR Payment Gateway API in a Sandbox Environment
Before integrating the NEAR Payment Gateway API with your business’s existing systems, it is recommended that you try it out in a Sandbox environment. A sandbox environment is a testing environment that allows you to test the API without affecting your live systems.
NOWPayments offers a sandbox API where users can test everything without sending real money by specifying the ‘case’ parameter in the create payment request and getting notifications for each of the presented cases.
To get started with testing NOWPayments’ API, users need to sign up at account-sandbox.nowpayments.io and specify their outcome wallet. They also need to generate an API key that will enable them to authenticate with the API. NOWPayments provides comprehensive API documentation that outlines all the available endpoints and parameters that users can use to interact with the API.
In the sandbox environment, users don’t need to send any funds to test the API. They can simply specify the ‘case’ parameter in the create payment request and get notifications for each of the presented cases. Users can then check the payment status or wait for an instant payment notification (IPN) request to be sent to their specified callback URL.
NEAR Mass Payouts API
Developers building on NEAR Protocol can use NOWPayments’ Mass Payout API to send NEAR payouts. To start, they need to check if the payout address is valid by using the POST Validate address endpoint. Once validated, a withdrawal request can be created using the POST Create payout endpoint. Developers must verify their payout using 2FA, which can be automated through their code by implementing the OTP generation library.
It’s important to note that payouts can only be requested from a whitelisted IP address to a whitelisted wallet address, which is a security measure enabled for each partner account by default. Developers can also obtain their balance using the GET method and the Get balance endpoint.
Extended Custody API for NEAR
NEAR Protocol developers can easily integrate NOWPayments’ Custody API to provide their users with a full-fledged crypto billing solution. With the Custody API, developers can create deposit accounts for their users, generate payments or deposits for topping up the account balance, and withdraw funds from it. To create an account for a user, developers can use the POST method with a unique user identifier not exceeding 30 characters.
In addition, developers can create recurring charges from user accounts using the POST method. This allows for automatic charging of the amount specified by the customer’s chosen plan. Developers can also use the GET method to check the balance of a user account, get the entire list of users, and the list of transfers created by their users. The transfer status can be checked using the GET method by providing the transfer ID in the request.
Conclusion
In conclusion, accepting NEAR payments through the NOWPayments API offers businesses a powerful and flexible solution for integrating digital payment options into their operations. Leveraging the robust features of the NEAR Protocol ecosystem and the seamless integration offered by NOWPayments, businesses can stay ahead of the curve and provide their customers with a secure and efficient payment experience. By adopting this cutting-edge technology, businesses can maximize their potential and maintain a competitive edge in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.