NEAR Protocol 

Cryptocurrencies are inherently a highly volatile and risky asset class. Our personal risk assessment should therefore be understood as relative and considered within the context of cryptocurrencies. This rating aims to provide a rough indicator of how risky we personally consider a cryptocurrency or project to be. A special feature of this metric is that the lower the stated risk value, the better. To correctly incorporate this into our overall rating, we internally use a “Safeness Score” (1–10), from which the risk score is derived. (Example: Safeness Score 8 = Risk Score 2).

The community rating reflects our assessment of the size, activity, and engagement of the community, for example on Twitter, Discord, Reddit, or other channels.

Cryptocurrencies with a high score are often widely discussed and dominate news and conversations.

By “active usage” we mean the number of network participants, users, applications, and stored value (“TVL - Total Value Locked”) that a cryptocurrency or its network can demonstrate.

The network effect in cryptocurrencies describes how deeply integrated and established they are within the existing crypto ecosystem, applications, or even the real economy. The network effect is a self-reinforcing cycle that is often difficult for direct competitors to catch up with.

Decentralization refers to the censorship resistance of a blockchain network. A blockchain is considered censorship-resistant if it is validated and maintained by a large number of independent, geographically distributed participants. If a network could be forced to shut down due to political pressure or threats of any kind, it is considered neither censorship-resistant nor decentralized.