GetBlock, a multi-chain Web3 infrastructure provider, today announced the launch of its NEAR Protocol validator node, operating under the on-chain staking pool getblockio.poolv1.near. The validator went live with Verified Staking Provider status from the NEAR Foundation and runs at a 7% operator commission.
Meta Pool, the largest liquid staking protocol on NEAR, has delegated 500,542 NEAR to the pool as its anchor delegator. Total stake at launch stands at approximately 504,000 NEAR.
GetBlock rolls out NEAR validator, hits 99.7% reliability rate
The validator operates as a chunk validator under NEAR's Nightshade 2.0 protocol upgrade, with responsibility for verifying state witnesses and signing chunk endorsements that secure the network.
"GetBlock is joining the NEAR ecosystem as a network validator. We've admired NEAR's vision and what the team has actually shipped for a long time, from the early sharding work to where they're pushing things now in AI, and the community and developer experience around it are some of the best in the space." said Vasily Rudomanov, CEO of GetBlock. "Beyond the technical and economic case, this is a deliberate bet on visibility with NEAR-aligned developers, investors, and founders. Together with the NEAR veterans at Metapool, we're putting together educational events, knowledge sessions, special perks for our NEAR RPC node customers, and a lot more on top."
Over the most recent measurement window, the GetBlock validator produced 23,871 chunk endorsements out of 23,933 expected — a reliability rate of 99.7%.
GetBlock, Meta Pool kick off the collaboration, tech and education in focus
The launch is supported by a partnership with Meta Pool, founded in 2021 by Claudio Cossio and Lucio Tato as the first liquid staking DAO for NEAR Protocol. Joint initiatives planned for the coming quarters include educational sessions, ecosystem events, technical workshops, and dedicated perks for NEAR RPC node customers on GetBlock.
GetBlock operates a NEAR mainnet JSON-RPC endpoint from its Frankfurt data center for low-latency access across Europe. The validator launch complements the company's existing NEAR infrastructure offering and is part of GetBlock's broader expansion into validator services.
NEAR Protocol launched its mainnet in April 2020 and was co-founded by Illia Polosukhin and Alexander Skidanov. Polosukhin is one of the eight co-authors of "Attention Is All You Need," the 2017 paper that introduced the Transformer architecture behind modern large language models. NEAR currently operates nine live shards on mainnet under the Nightshade 2.0 design.
About GetBlock
GetBlock is a multi-chain Web3 infrastructure provider offering RPC node access, dedicated nodes, and validator services across 130+ blockchain networks. The company serves developers, decentralized applications, and enterprises with low-latency endpoints from globally distributed data centers.
About Meta Pool
Meta Pool is a multi-chain liquid staking DAO, founded in 2021 as the first liquid staking solution on NEAR Protocol. Its stNEAR token lets holders earn staking rewards while retaining liquidity for DeFi. Meta Pool has since expanded to Aurora and Ethereum. More information at metapool.app.
