NEAR Unlocks AI Services with Staking-Based Payments

NEAR Protocol has introduced a staking-based payment system for its AI platform, enabling users to access confidential inference and autonomous AI agents by locking NEAR tokens instead of using credit cards.

The new feature converts locked 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.

The rollout covers all 43 AI models currently available through NEAR AI, including models from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google. The mechanism removes the need for a cloud billing account, stored payment credentials, or a credit card to access those services.