Near Protocol: Account Model and Transaction Story

5 min readNov 18, 2023

DISCLAIMER

This material is based on personal research and study; therefore, it may contain factual errors and cannot be relied upon for critical decision-making. Additionally, the opinions in the material are purely subjective and have no connection to any past or current companies that I have worked at.

Account Model Story
Account Model 1) Addresses
Account Model 2) Private Keys
Account Model 3) A Sample UX Case
Transaction Story
Transaction 1) Transactions
Transaction 2) Actions
Transaction 3) Receipts
Transaction 4) A Sample Transaction Case
Personal Thoughts

Account Model Story

https://docs.near.org/concepts/basics/accounts/model

Account Model 1) Addresses

There are Two Types of Accounts.

1️⃣ Named Account

i.e., alice.near, bob.near, usa.near, texas.usa.near
Formatically Same as DNS
🙆🏻‍♂️ usa.near → texas.usa.near can be created.
🙅🏻‍♂️ usa.near → texas.uk.near can NOT be created.

2️⃣ Implicit Account

i.e., 98793cd91a3f870fb126f662858[...]
Formatically Similar to the Traditional Way to Create Addresses such as Bitcoin and Ethereum (64 letters)

Personal Thoughts

| Named Account

Improves the end-user UX of the product because it’s easy to memorize!
While ENS is executed at the contract layer, Near’s Named Account is executed at the protocol layer.

| Implicit Account

For user groups that want to maintain pseudonymization!
For developers accustomed to traditional address systems, especially hardware wallet service companies

Account Model 2) Private Keys

There are Two Types of Private Keys.

https://www.vitalpoint.ai/understanding-near-keys/

1. Full Access Key

| The address can be used to sign transactions of all types.

The 8 Types of Transactions (Transaction Actions)

Transfer, # Transfer Tokens
CreateAccount, # Create Accounts
DeleteAccount, # Delete Accounts
DeployContract, # Deploy Contracts
FunctionCall, # Call Functions of Contracts
Stake, # Staking
AddKey, # Add Keys
DeleteKey # Delete Keys

2. Function Call Key

| The address can be used to sign the following restricted transactions.

Transactions are restricted to specific Function(s) within a specific contract.

| Sending Native Token, $NEAR, is NOT possible.

Gas Fees can be paid, however.
Of course, if you set it so that you can’t even pay Gas Fees, only functions related to View methods can be called.

| Purpose of Using Function Call Keys

By passing it to the dApp’s client, creating an environment where the dApp can immediately invoke contract calls with limited permissions.
Full Access Key

pub enum AccessKeyPermission {
    FunctionCall(FunctionCallPermission),
    FullAccess,
}

Function Call Key

pub struct FunctionCallPermission {
    pub receiver_id: AccountId, // a Specific Contract
    pub method_names: Vec<String>, // Specific Functions
    pub allowance: Option<Balance>, // Max Gas Fee Payment Amount
}

Locked Account

Simply remove all keys through the transaction of the DeleteKey action.
No one will be able to control the account.
In other words, after deploying the smart contract account itself, it can be made fully decentralized, allowing only internal transactions to occur.

Account Model 3) A Sample UX Case

| Typical dApp Transaction Signing Architecture

https://docs.near.org/concepts/web3/near

To execute a specific transaction within the dApp, the user must undergo repeated redirection between the wallet and the client.
Advantage: Excellent security as the private key is not exposed to the client.
Disadvantage: Repeated redirections can be annoying for users.

| dApp Transaction Signing Architecture Using Function Call Key

It is possible to address the Disadvantage without significantly compromising the Advantage.
1️⃣ Add Key

2️⃣ Call a Specific Function within a dApp’s Contract

Transaction Story

Overall Execution Flow of the Transactions

Important Terms

Transaction
Action
Receipt

Transaction Story 1) Transactions

| A Transactions is:

a set of actions that need to be performed on the receiving account.
🙅🏻‍♂️ In other words, a transaction is NOT the atomic unit driving state changes in Near Blockchain.

Transaction Story 2) Actions

| An Action is:

the unit of work that the virtual machine needs to process through a transaction.
There are a total of 8 types recognizable by the Near Protocol. (You have already checked them above!)

Transfer, # Transfer Tokens
CreateAccount, # Create Accounts
DeleteAccount, # Delete Accounts
DeployContract, # Deploy Contracts
FunctionCall, # Call Functions of Contracts
Stake, # Staking
AddKey, # Add Keys
DeleteKey # Delete Keys

Transaction Story 3) Receipts

| A Receipt is:

the smallest unit executed by the virtual machine, in other words, the execution object.

Transaction Story 4) A Sample Transaction Case

| A Randomly Chosen Transaction Case

1️⃣ A Transaction Sending 0.02 NEAR.

https://nearblocks.io/txns/6aqjvabatzFkvoBzYmnpEZbAfnLbGo6PsUM6WdpUYxmG#

2️⃣ Receipt Executions (1) TRANSFER Action

2️⃣ Receipt Executions (2) Receiving a Refund for the difference between Gas Limit and Gas Used

Personal Thoughts

1. Protocolized Address System for DNS

| It seems that the computational burden on nodes has been compromised to become a user-friendly blockchain. (Due to the increased size of dtype…)

Wouldn’t there be a slowdown and an increase in gas fees then?
It seems that this has been addressed by dividing a block into multiple chunks to create the block.
Let me study deeper when I have more expertise to check out if there are any potential security drawbacks of this approach. 😁

2. Key Generation Structure for dApp End-User UX

| Of course, in the initial Add Key situation, wallet redirection still occurs, so it may not be possible to completely alleviate user confusion.

🗣️Picky Users (say, Joshua): “Earlier, my signature was required, but why are you executing things now without it?” 😠😡

Many Thanks!

👤 Joshua Kim
💼 Data Analyst
🎓 Master in Data Science
🎓 Bachelor in Finance
🎓 Bachelor in Philosophy
🌎 linkedin.com/in/joshuajsk
⚫ medium.com/@joshua.web3

REFERENCES

Near Whitepaper: https://near.org/papers/nightshade
Near Official Docs: https://docs.near.org
Near Official Dev Docs: https://nomicon.io
Near Official YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NEARProtocol
Blockchain Explorer (Nearblocks): https://nearblocks.io
Vital Point AI Content: https://www.vitalpoint.ai/understanding-near-keys