NEAR: Engineering Sovereignty in the Age of Agents

​Two very different agentic economies are possible. In one, closed platforms control intelligence and settlement. Agents act, but data, routing, and value flow belong to centralized providers. Economic power consolidates behind systems users can't inspect. In the other, users own their AI and the value layer beneath it. Agents transact as principals, confidentially, verifiably, and on terms set by their users, who remain sovereign.

NEAR has made its choice.

Held during Consensus 2026 in Miami, this working forum convenes builders, protocol teams, and AI platforms to examine the infrastructure decisions that determine whether the agentic economy is user-owned. Sessions span the full NEAR stack: NEAR Intents for cross-chain execution, NEAR AI Cloud for confidential and verifiable inference, and near.com as the unified interface where it all converges.

​Panels and firesides will include the biggest payment infrastructure providers across traditional finance and the blockchain industry, as well as major asset managers and DeFi platforms.

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​Schedule:
12-1 PM | Brunch
1-4 PM | Content Programming
4-6 PM | Happy Hour

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Key topics to be covered:

• ​Who Owns Intelligence and Value in the Agentic Economy?

• ​From Assets to Markets: How Value Moves on Open Rails

• ​Who Pays When AI Acts? Payments Today and the Future of Agent-Driven Transactions

• ​AI Financial Autopilot: The First Real Agentic Applications

• ​Intents Today: Progress, Partners, and the Road Ahead

• ​Who Secures the Assets? Custody, Risk, and Confidential Execution

• ​Benchmarking Agent Systems: Safety, Reliability, and Trust

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