---
description: Frequently asked questions about NEAR
title: FAQs
sidebar_position: 6
---

---

### What is NEAR?

It’s a decentralized application platform running on its own blockchain, that solves usability and scaling via sharding.

### What is The Difference Between Pagoda (formerly NEAR Inc) and The NEAR Protocol?

Generally, we differentiate between many of the different entities who are building the NEAR platform. Two of those different entities are the NEAR Foundation and Pagoda.

#### The NEAR Protocol

A permissionless, Proof-of-Stake blockchain protocol that anyone can access, add transactions to, or read from. The public NEAR blockchain is an instantiation of the reference code [here](http://github.com/near/nearcore), but theoretically, this repo could be forked and deployed as a separate chain, as much as many protocols have done to build upon the core Bitcoin code.

#### The NEAR Foundation

A non-profit foundation headquartered in Switzerland, and is responsible for contracting protocol maintainers, funding ecosystem development, and shepherding core governance of the protocol.

#### Pagoda (Formely Near Inc)

A US-based software research and development company that did much of the early development of the protocol and its tooling. While [Pagoda](https://www.pagoda.co//), which is the new branding of Near Inc, does not own or run the NEAR Protocol (which is decentralized), it continues to propose changes to the reference implementation codebase as one of multiple third-party entities performing R&D work for the protocol.

### Who is Building The NEAR Protocol?

Much of the early development of the protocol and its tooling has been done by Pagoda (formerly NEAR Inc).

### Where Can I Learn More About NEAR?

This wiki is a great place to start!

For developers looking for more technical information, have a look at - [docs.near.org](https://docs.near.org).
And if you want a deep dive into the NEAR technical specification, check out : [nomicon.io/](https://nomicon.io)

If you want to learn more about the NEAR Protocol design, take a look at:

- Our YouTube channel https://youtube.com/nearprotocol
- Our blog http://near.org/blog
- Our technical papers https://near.org/papers/the-official-near-white-paper


## Troubleshooting

### I Encountered a Problem With My Wallet

For help and support with wallet issues and errors, have a look at the [wallet FAQ](hhttps://nearhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500002248242-Creating-a-NEAR-Wallet-account) to see if your problem was addressed.
If you're problem wasn't solved, you can [open a ticket](https://nearhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new) with the support team.

## Contact Information

### What is The Official NEAR Email?

Official email [hello@near.org](mailto:hello@near.org).
For proposals and suggestions, please create a post in our [forum](https://gov.near.org/).

### Where Can I Sign up to The Newsletter?

You want to receive updates on the latest and greatest in the NEAR ecosystem, then head over to https://near.org/

## Contributing to NEAR

### How Can I Get Involved?

It depends on what you are excited about doing.
Do you want to develop on NEAR?
Build tutorials?
Answer questions?
Expand our [documentation]?
Write on the wiki? 
We recommend you have a look at the [NEAR Community Page](https://near.org/ecosystem/community).
If you are looking for something a little different, or you have questions, please reach out to the team on [Telegram](https://t.me/cryptonear) or [Discord](http://near.chat/).


## Tools

### What Tools Are Currently Available on NEAR?

Our [essential tools](essential-tools.md) include the NEAR-wallet, NEAR CLI, block explorer, and the actual blockchain.
We also have a large and growing list of community-led tools that you can find on [AwesomeNEAR](https://awesomenear.com/)

## More Questions?

Join our community channel ([Telegram](https://t.me/cryptonear) and [Discord](http://near.chat/)), we are here to help and answer any questions you may have.