The crypto market has seen its fair share of impressive platform developments over the past few years. Services are growing in number and user adoption, allowing cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to get even more mainstream. Over the past two years in particular, blockchain activity has been rising. With decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and even blockchain gaming becoming the norm, it appears that we’re seeing a massive jump in blockchains' prominence and the peoples’ hunger for them. However, one challenge that still faces many blockchain-based services is their ability to raise funds to pursue their objectives. Investors have been interested in the blockchain space for sure, but their investment terms tend to not favor creators and developers who still need autonomy and the freedom to create as they will. Plus, there’s only so much money that traditional investors can actually give. If you’re a small guy who has a vision and would like to pursue it, there’s a need for a platform that can connect you to the funds you need to build. Thankfully, launchpads are finally gaining the prominence they need and connecting with visionary builders in the blockchain space. This article takes insights from - the founders of GONEAR; a launchpad and Initial NFT Offering (INO) platform built on the NEAR protocol Zac Minh and Silvia Ko What drew you to the NEAR protocol as opposed to bigger blockchains like Ethereum and Solana? The fact that NEAR has 40m+ transactions, 1.1m+ wallet addresses and a thriving community tells us that it’s definitely an up-and-coming protocol to look out for. How do you believe that GoNEAR is critical to developers in the blockchain space? Launchpads like GoNear offer project owners and developers a better way to raise funds and build their initial community. Using our service developers can focus their efforts on making great projects rather than the launching and listing of their tokens. What was the reason for your choice to explore NFTs for developers on your platform? NFTs act as primitives for many projects like play-to-earn blockchain games. Hence it’s natural for us to incorporate initial NFT offerings (INO) functionality to GoNear. Allowing developers and creators a simple way to launch NFTs on NEAR In a nutshell, what benefits does GoNEAR offer to projects that launch on it? Unlike other launchpads which are controlled just by founders, Gonear’s launchpad will be governed by nine key stakeholders via a unique tradable set of NFTs. The 9 Gonear NFT owners form “The Council”, contributing their value and communities to drive growth to the GoNear launchpad and projects launching on the platform. They own the launchpad and have a stronger say in its direction. This “knights at the roundtable” essentially form a decentralised incubator - better ensuring successful project launches.
