Near Foundation has launched Chain Signatures, a protocol that allows users to sign transactions on third-party blockchains from a single Near account. Chain Signatures is live on Near’s testnet and a mainnet launch is expected in early May, a Near spokesperson said.
Chain Signatures is powered by a decentralized multi-party computation (MPC) network and secured by Near network validators.
It enables Nearby accounts, including smart contracts, to sign transactions for any blockchain. Each Near account can manage any number of addresses across all blockchains, enabling new use cases around decentralized finance. According to the foundation, it will also receive additional security from EigenLayer in the future.
“Decentralized finance (DeFi) on non-smart contract chains is now possible for the first time on many networks, including Bitcoin,” said Near Foundation. “Developers can easily build DeFi products that use assets from other chains without bridging those assets.”
Chain Signatures currently supports Ethereum, Cosmos chains, Dogecoin, Bitcoin and XRP Ledger, and will soon support Solana, TON Network, Polkadot and others, Near said.
It includes a “Multichain Gas Relayer,” which eliminates the need to have another chain’s own gas token to conduct transactions; instead, they can simply use Near or NEP-141 tokens to cover gas on each chain.
About the author
Danny Park is an East Asian reporter at The Block who writes about topics such as Web3 developments and crypto regulations in the region. He was formerly a reporter at Forkast.News, where he actively covered the demise of Terra-Luna and FTX. Based in Seoul, Danny has previously written and produced video content for media companies in Korea, Hong Kong and China. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and business marketing from the University of Hong Kong.
