![Deep Dive: NEAR Protocol](/content/images/size/w720/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/near-protocol.jpg-resizeboxcropjpg.jpg)
Deep Dive: NEAR Protocol
Setting the Scene
Before digging into NEAR specifically, let's start with the higher level question of how L1s should be evaluated. NEAR isn't a company or a platform, it's an open source protocol and developer community. How should we think about its potential and