The charm of the NEAR ecosystem, for me, is encapsulated in three words: high efficiency @NEARProtocol August 19th marks a significant upgrade for NEAR, with the mainnet shards increasing from 8 to 9, resulting in noticeable improvements in the entire network's performance, with throughput rising by 12.5%, taking it to the next level compared to before. However, this is just an "appetizer." When the total amount of $NEAR staked hits the 600 million mark, the original 300 validator slots are in short supply. To address this issue, the number of validator slots has now increased to 500, a growth of about 67%, significantly enhancing the network's decentralization. This increase in numbers will strengthen the network's resistance to attacks and also lower the staking threshold for small retail investors to some extent. The efficiency of NEAR's operations can be experienced through real case studies, demonstrating a straightforward approach to addressing issues while fundamentally solving them. Finally, expanding from the ecosystem outward, the biggest change is the integration of ADA with NEAR Intents, utilizing NEAR's Intents system to support cross-chain interactions across more than 20 different chains, with a focus on bridge-less cross-chain. I always feel that this is just the starting point. In the future, as efficiency continues to improve, there will be opportunities for more ecosystems to take notice. The above content is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. DYOR