Dapp Platform NEAR Protocol Taps Ontology's Expertise for Decentralized Identity Effort

The dapp platform will leverage Ontology's experience in building decentralized identity solutions.

By Sebastian Sinclair

Aug 10, 2020 at 9:44 a.m. UTC

Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 9:41 a.m. UTC

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Smart contracts platform Ontology is to provide a blockchain project focused on decentralized apps (dapps) with technical help building its digital identity solution.

Announced on Friday, Ontology will support the development and deployment of NEAR's Decentralized Identifier (DID) solution with an eye on regulatory compliance.
A DID is a new type identifier for digital identities that can be scanned to verify any subject including a person, an object, an organization or a data model, and is being standardized under the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
The technology is aimed at preventing the privacy risks that can arise from centralized silos of user information.
As part of the new partnership, Ontology will also help NEAR's deployment of smart contracts and provide further assistance with W3C registration.
Erick Pinos, Ontology's ecosystem lead for the Americas, said the two firms shared the aim of making digital identity solutions more widely accessible.
NEAR said it chose to team up with Ontology due to its technical expertise and, in particular, has an interest in its decentralized identity solution ONT ID 2.0, which is designed for cross-chain interoperability, Near Foundation CEO Erik Trautman said.
NEAR recently raised $21 million in a token sale led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
The funding was joined by around 40 other investment firms including Pantera Capital, Libertus, Blockchange, Animal Ventures, Distributed Global and Notation Capital.
Trautman said following on from NEAR Protocol's mainnet launch on May 4, the project is now keen to build out its partner network.

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