San Francisco, CA – NEAR launches Near.com, a new crypto wallet and consumer app that aims to make blockchain technology feel as simple as using a traditional financial app, while positioning itself at the intersection of crypto and artificial intelligence (AI).
Polosukhin previously co-authored the paper that introduced the transformer model, the architecture that underpins modern AI systems like ChatGPT and many other major language models, and has increasingly focused on how blockchain infrastructure can support the next wave of AI-powered applications.
“We are entering the world where AI becomes our interface to computation,” Polosukhin said during the presentation.
The NEAR token has fallen almost 3% over the last 24 hours.
At its core, Near.com is designed to remove much of the friction that has long made crypto confusing for everyday users. Instead of worrying about gas fees, private keys or switching between different blockchains, users can manage their assets in one place.
“You don’t have to think about blockchains. You don’t have to think about gas, keys,” Polosukhin said. “You just use it as your primary wallet.”
Near.com supports a variety of digital assets including bitcoin, stablecoins, NFTs and other tokens. The idea is to bring together activity that is typically spread across multiple wallets and networks into a single, streamlined interface.
But NEAR’s ambitions go beyond building just another wallet. The company is betting that the next big wave in crypto will come from its convergence with AI.
As AI agents become more skilled, such as booking travel, managing emails or handling online purchases, they will increasingly need the ability to act. This is where crypto infrastructure comes in. Blockchains can provide programmable payments, global transfers and automated settlement without relying on traditional intermediaries.
Polosukhin argued that as AI systems begin to interact with each other, they effectively become “economic actors,” software programs that negotiate, pay, and coordinate tasks. In that world, crypto becomes the financial layer that enables these agents to operate.
Designed to act as this layer, Near.com acts as both a user-friendly wallet for humans and a financial backend for AI-powered activity.
A central part of the notice is privacy. One of blockchain’s long-standing compromises is transparency: transactions are typically visible to everyone. While this openness can build trust, it can also reveal sensitive financial information.
“Everything you do on the chain is transparent,” Polosukhin said. “It’s not realistic for common use cases, for everyday use.”
To address this, NEAR introduced a “confidential mode” in Near.com. The feature allows balances, transfers and trading activity to remain private within the security framework of the network. The company says this makes the wallet more convenient not only for individuals and businesses, but also for AI agents who may need to act without revealing strategy or sensitive data.
The launch signals a broader shift for NEAR.
“We have the stack. We have all the components. We have the product,” Polosukhin said. “Now we’re shifting … to how we actually scale adoption — how we bring this to billions of people around the world.”
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