NEAR Protocol Introduces Staking-Based Payment System for AI Services
NEAR Protocol has launched a staking-based payment system for its AI platform, allowing users to access confidential inference and autonomous AI agents by locking NEAR tokens instead of paying with a credit card.
The new feature converts staked NEAR into monthly compute credits that can be used across the platform's artificial intelligence services. Users can adjust the amount they stake based on their computing needs, while the underlying tokens remain locked rather than spent and become available again after unstaking.
According to an announcement published by NEAR Protocol, the rollout covers all 43 AI models currently available through NEAR AI, including models from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google. The protocol said users can access all these services without a credit card, while retaining ownership of their staked tokens until they choose to unstake.
NEAR Protocol described the launch as one of the first production systems to let users pay for confidential AI inference and always-on agents through on-chain staking. In its announcement, NEAR said the feature brings together 'the NEAR you hold and the AI you run, joined without a card in between.'