Business Wire

NEAR-PROTOCOL

12.5.2021 14:02:10 CEST | Business Wire | Press release

Share
Aurora Launches on NEAR Protocol, Providing Ethereum Layer-2 Experience

Aurora, an Ethereum Layer-2 protocol that provides developers and users the experience of Ethereum on top of NEAR Protocol , a scalable blockchain-based developer platform, has officially launched. Aurora combines two pieces of technology to create a seamless experience: a full-featured Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and a powerful cross-chain bridge. Developers can launch their Ethereum decentralized applications (dApps) on Aurora within minutes by linking to other Ethereum contracts and assets.

Due to increasing traffic in global network activity, Ethereum transaction fees have reached record highs. Aurora bypasses these growing costs by capping gas fees to ensure they do not infinitely increase, maintaining an average transaction cost of a few cents. Aurora manages to lower costs while radically speeding up transactions, which achieve finality within two seconds. Aurora lets developers deploy existing Solidity and Vyper contracts with no changes, while users can seamlessly access these applications using MetaMask and other Ethereum wallets. At the same time, ERC-20 tokens and contract data will be transferable from Ethereum to Aurora through the trustless Aurora bridge (based on the Rainbow Bridge). With low costs, best-in-class transaction finality, and scalability, Aurora redefines what is possible in the Ethereum ecosystem while also expanding NEAR’s ecosystem with the inclusion of every EVM-based application.

“With Aurora, Ethereum users can work with familiar applications while benefiting from the efficiency of NEAR, removing a steep financial barrier to entry for users and developers,” said Illia Polosukhin, Co-founder of NEAR Protocol. “Our goal is to create an interoperable future where the gaps between blockchains, developers and users are bridged. Aurora does just that by allowing for a seamless user experience and allowing for assets to pass uninterrupted between the Ethereum and NEAR blockchains, thereby merging economies and facilitating the development of creator communities that will bring this technology to the mainstream.”

Aurora is fully compatible with Ethereum 1.0, including base fees paid in ETH and out-of-the-box operability with all existing wallets and other tools. To start using Aurora, please visit https://aurora.dev .

About Aurora

Aurora is an Ethereum Layer-2 built on top of NEAR Protocol. Aurora delivers 1000x lower transaction fees compared to Ethereum and sub-two-second transaction finalization. Aurora is fully interoperable with Ethereum, with ETH used as a base token and all existing Ethereum tools usable out of the box. Aurora includes the trustless Rainbow bridge , allowing for bidirectional transfers of any information from Ethereum, including ERC-20s. To learn more about Aurora, please visit https://aurora.dev .

About NEAR Protocol

NEAR Protocol is a blockchain-based, ultra-scalable, developer-friendly platform for decentralized applications. NEAR’s platform provides decentralized storage and compute that is secure enough to manage high value assets like money or identity and performant enough to make them useful for everyday people, putting the power of the Open Web in their hands.

NEAR Protocol uses a technique called “sharding” which splits the network into multiple pieces so that the computation is done in parallel. Parallelism radically increases throughput and allows the network to scale up as the number of nodes on it increases. With NEAR, there isn’t a theoretical limit on the network’s capacity.

Core contributors of NEAR have won multiple world championships in competitive programming and worked at major tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Niantic. To learn more about the NEAR Protocol, please visit https://near.org .

Link:

ClickThru

About Business Wire

Business Wire
Business Wire
101 California Street, 20th Floor
CA 94111 San Francisco

http://businesswire.com

Subscribe to releases from Business Wire

Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Latest releases from Business Wire

Hitachi Joins Anthropic’s Critical Infrastructure Defense Program9.10.2026 02:32:00 CEST | Press release

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, "Hitachi"), today announced that it has joined Anthropic, PBC’s (“Anthropic”) “Critical Infrastructure Defense Program,” launched on October 8, 2026, as a founding partner. The program is aimed at strengthening cyber defense for critical infrastructure, including control systems supporting power, water, manufacturing, and transportation services. Infrastructure systems that underpin society and the economy cannot tolerate prolonged downtime, making it difficult to implement certain security measures, such as system shutdowns for patch deployment. At the same time, advances in AI are significantly shortening the time between vulnerability disclosure and exploitation, creating an urgent need to redesign systems based on the assumption that cyberattacks will occur. The program seeks to strengthen cybersecurity through rapid vulnerability detection and remediation by integrating Anthropic’s advanced AI models, Claude, into the products and services of trusted syste

Lapmaster Wolters and Precision Surfacing Solutions Secures Strategic Minority Investment from The Cynosure Group and Fernweh Group to Accelerate Growth8.10.2026 22:49:00 CEST | Press release

Investment strengthens the balance sheet and brings long-term strategic partners to support continued growth and expansion across semiconductors, advanced materials, advanced packaging, and precision optics end markets. Lapmaster Wolters and Precision Surfacing Solutions (“Lapmaster Wolters”), a leading global supplier of high-precision machine systems and consumables to the semiconductor, advanced materials, precision optics, and advanced packaging industries, today announced the completion of a minority equity investment by affiliates of The Cynosure Group (“Cynosure”) and Fernweh Group (“Fernweh”). The investment strengthens the balance sheet and adds long-term, engaged partners to support the company’s next phase of growth. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261008141876/en/ Positioned for growth Demand for ultra-high-precision surface finishing continues to grow as customers in semiconductors, advanced mater

Dubai Launches Global Create AI Agents Championship with Prize Pool Exceeding AED 2.5 Million8.10.2026 19:05:00 CEST | Press release

Dubai has launched the Create AI Agents Championship, a global competition inviting innovators to develop practical and scalable AI-agent solutions that address real-world challenges, with a total prize pool exceeding AED 2.5 million. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261008883373/en/ Dubai has launched the Create AI Agents Championship as part of its efforts to accelerate the adoption and development of Agentic AI (Photo: AETOSWire) The launch of the championship was announced by H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the UAE, and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, who encouraged innovators from around the world to participate. Led by Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, the championship aims to accelerate the adoption of Agentic AI and support the development of innovative AI-agent solutions with strong potential for

Seiden Law LLP issues statement: Prosecuted by Press Conference: Declared Guilty Without a Charge, Yim Leak Family Asks UN Human Rights Experts to Hold Thailand to Its Own Treaty Commitments8.10.2026 18:26:00 CEST | Press release

Urgent appeal to UN Special Rapporteurs cites the presumption of innocence, due process and protection of a child. The key facts are the Thai government's own words and files. Seiden Law LLP, chief global counsel to Cambodian businessman Yim Leak, announced today that Jared Genser, international counsel to Mr. Yim and his wife, has asked two UN Special Rapporteurs to send an urgent appeal to the Thai government. The request is made on behalf of the couple and their seven-year-old son. It says Thailand violated its international human rights commitments by announcing the family’s guilt before any court had tried them, and by freezing their assets, including their minor son’s savings, without a hearing. Six Official Statements in Nine Months. No Charge Filed in Any Court. Between December 2025 and September 2026, Thai officials described Mr. Yim as the center of a criminal network on six occasions: at two press conferences chaired by the head of the Thai government, in the House of Repre

Sam Altman-Backed Meanwhile Raises $37.5M as Families Across Asia, Europe and the Middle East Turn to Bitcoin Life Insurance8.10.2026 18:12:00 CEST | Press release

Existing investors, led by Bain Capital Crypto, back the first licensed Bitcoin life insurer after its single-premium policy for international clients drives a record year Meanwhile, the first life insurer licensed to operate entirely in Bitcoin, today announced $37.5 million in new funding from its existing investors. Bain Capital Crypto led the round, alongside Haun Ventures, Framework Ventures, Pantera Capital, Apollo, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, and Morgan Creek Digital. Meanwhile, whose backers also include Sam Altman, has now raised more than $180 million. The round follows a surge in international demand for Meanwhile’s Bitcoin life insurance policies, particularly in Asia, Europe and the Middle East amid broader macro instability. In early 2026, Meanwhile launched BTC Life 1-Pay, a single-premium whole life policy built for high-net-worth clients outside the United States. It is the company's second product line after BTC 10-Pay, which is purposely designed for US taxp

In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.

Visit our pressroom
World GlobeA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.HiddenA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.Eye