NEAR Protocol — sharded accounting and the Aurora EVM
NEAR's Nightshade sharding splits transactions across shards. Aurora is the EVM-compatible chain settling to NEAR. We cover both with one workspace.
NEAR's sharded execution means a single user transaction can touch multiple shards via cross-contract calls. We reconcile across shards so the audit trail tells one story. NEAR staking is delegator-style, with rewards distributed per epoch (~12 hours). Aurora is the EVM layer running on top of NEAR — most EVM-style DeFi on NEAR happens here, and the bridge to Ethereum (Rainbow Bridge) carries assets between Aurora and L1. NEAR also has account-name-based addressing rather than hex addresses, which we surface for readability in the audit trail.
What's tracked on NEAR
NEAR transfers across shards
Multi-shard transactions reconciled into one audit-trail entry.
NEAR delegation and rewards
Per-epoch reward accrual against validator nodes.
Aurora EVM activity
ERC-20 transfers, swap protocols (Trisolaris, Bastion), bridge events.
Rainbow Bridge events
NEAR ↔ Ethereum bridge with multi-step settlement.
Account-name addressing
Human-readable account names in the export rather than raw hex hashes.
Common NEAR transaction patterns we classify
- Send / receive NEAR
- FT transfer (NEP-141 fungible token standard)
- Storage deposit (account storage staking, refundable)
- Stake delegation deposit to a validator pool
- Stake delegation withdrawal
- Staking reward receipt (per-epoch)
- Ref Finance swap or liquidity position
- Burrow lending supply / borrow / repay
- Rainbow Bridge deposit (NEAR → Ethereum)
- Rainbow Bridge withdrawal (Ethereum → NEAR)
- Aurora EVM transaction (ERC-20, swap)
- NFT mint / transfer (NEP-177 standard)
- Function call (smart contract interaction)
What changes when you book NEAR
NEAR uses human-readable account names, not hex addresses
NEAR accounts have names like company.near rather than 0x hex addresses. This improves readability in the audit trail but can create confusion when the same entity controls multiple named accounts. Wag3s resolves account names to their on-chain representation and lets you group multiple NEAR accounts under a single entity so the consolidated report reads clearly without requiring manual name lookups.
Storage staking deposits are refundable, not expenses
Every NEAR account must maintain a minimum balance to cover on-chain storage used by its data. Deploying a contract or holding many tokens requires additional NEAR locked for storage. This locked NEAR is refundable when the storage is freed. Wag3s tags storage staking as a refundable deposit rather than an expense, preventing it from inflating your operating cost lines.
Aurora EVM gas is paid in ETH, separate from NEAR gas
Aurora is an EVM layer running on top of NEAR, and its gas is denominated in ETH rather than NEAR. A wallet that operates on both NEAR mainnet and Aurora will have two distinct gas currencies. Wag3s tracks them separately, applying the correct FX rate for each denomination, so your expense report shows accurate gas costs in both NEAR and ETH without conflating the two.
NEAR accounting questions
How does sharding affect the audit trail?
We reconcile across shards to produce one user-facing transaction record. The underlying shard activity is preserved for forensic detail but doesn't fragment the user's audit trail.
Is Aurora gas paid in NEAR or ETH?
Aurora gas is paid in ETH (or the equivalent NEAR gas token). We track per-transaction with the right denomination.
How does NEAR's human-readable account naming affect wallet tracking?
NEAR accounts use names like company.near rather than hex addresses, which improves audit-trail readability. Wag3s resolves account names to their on-chain key representation and lets you group multiple named accounts (e.g. treasury.near, ops.near) under a single entity so the consolidated report is clean without manual name-to-address lookups.
Other chain coverage and tax guides relevant to this network.
Book NEAR the right way
Free during Alpha. Connect a wallet, see every transaction reconciled to journal entries.