Because NEAR paused their applications and not the NEAR blockchain It's confusing with all these wannabe Ethereum chains, which I can't be bothered tracking They could have worked on Ethereum but instead they wanted L1 premium to presumably try to get rich - good luck with that If you're truly public and permissionless then all the best End of the day that's what Satoshi wanted Satoshi's definition of crypto: “I've been working on a new electronic cash system that's fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.” - Satoshi Nakamoto ------ If there's a third party involved, it's CeFi Same third parties, same KYC AML and same processing fees