@mila_arty bear markets are underrated for maintenance
fewer opportunities to chase
more time to clean up old approvals, wallets, and forgotten positions
@zacodil people often compare technologies as if one has trust assumptions and the other doesn't
in reality both do
the important question is whether those assumptions are visible and understood
Many still think NEAR Intents is just about moving assets between chains.
Cross-chain execution solved convenience.
Confidential execution solves visibility.
The next stage isn't only moving assets anywhere.
It's moving them without exposing every action to the entire market.
@zacodil the interesting part is not perps themselves
it's accessing the same liquidity from any chain without forcing users through bridges, wrappers, or extra wallets
@zacodil self-custody is not a binary concept
the important question is where the trust assumptions actually sit
many systems look self-custodial on the surface while relying on shared infrastructure layers underneath
@NEARProtocol the interesting shift is that privacy is no longer being discussed as a separate category
it’s becoming part of the user experience itself
payments, swaps, AI inference, treasury operations
people simply expect confidentiality to be there
@NEARProtocol@AskVenice privacy used to be a niche feature
now it’s becoming a requirement for both finance and AI
users don’t want every payment, prompt, balance, or interaction exposed by default
the projects growing fastest are the ones making confidentiality invisible and easy to use
@zacodil the important shift is that privacy is moving from “hide everything” to selective disclosure
public verification where needed
confidential execution where it matters
that’s much closer to how real financial systems actually operate
@zacodil the interesting part is that NEAR didn’t abandon the original thesis
it extended it
the runtime, sharding, async architecture —
all of it became the foundation for confidential execution, intents, and AI infrastructure
privacy in crypto is shifting from a niche feature to core infrastructure:
payments
swaps
AI inference
treasury management
users increasingly expect confidentiality by default, not as an extra mode hidden somewhere in settings
@zacodil the important part is that the thesis is no longer speculative
the infrastructure, confidential flows, intents volume, AI stack —
most of it is already live and being used
@NEARProtocol@near_intents crypto spent years making everything transparent
now the shift is making privacy usable
not hiding from the system —
just normal financial behavior without exposing every wallet, balance, and transfer publicly
confidential cross-chain flows feel like the next major UX layer
The next crypto products won’t win only by adding more features.
They’ll win by making complex things feel simple:
cross-chain movement, wallet flows, privacy, execution, and security.
That’s why UX + confidentiality matter so much for the next stage of onchain adoption.