NEAR Protocol Embraces Full Privacy: Confidential by Default Now Live The @NEARProtocol has made a major privacy upgrade. Starting now, all user transactions — balances, deposits, swaps, yields, and payments — are hidden by default through Confidential Intents. Your financial activity on near:native is no longer exposed to the public mempool. This means protection from MEV attacks, frontrunning, and bot exploitation that has plagued other networks. Confidential Intents operates as a private shard with a TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) bridge to the mainnet. Unlike other privacy solutions that rely on zero-knowledge proofs (which can be complex), near:native approach maintains smooth UX without added friction for users. By July 2026, confidential transactions already accounted for 42% of near:native total trading volume. The feature originally launched in February and reached general availability in July. Importantly, near:native clearly distinguishes this from traditional mixers. Regulators can access transaction data upon request—combining privacy with transparency where it matters. The shift to confidential-by-default reflects near:native response to growing MEV bot activity. No going back to the old mode; this is the standard now.