Alexander Skidanov

Co-founderCo-Founder of NEAR Protocol

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About Alexander Skidanov

Alexander Skidanov is a Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol. He co-founded NEAR with Illia Polosukhin after work building large-scale distributed systems, including early engineering at MemSQL (now SingleStore), where he developed expertise in high-performance database infrastructure.

Around 2017–2018, Skidanov and Polosukhin began an AI developer tooling project, which they named NEAR AI. As the pair recognized the need for a scalable, developer-accessible blockchain substrate for their AI tooling, they pivoted the project toward what became NEAR Protocol. Skidanov's distributed-systems background was central to NEAR's sharding and scalability design; verify exact research and engineering authorship for specific protocol mechanisms from authoritative sources.

NEAR Protocol mainnet launched in 2020. As of August 2026 Skidanov's most recently confirmed public identity is co-founder of NEAR Protocol. No current formal operating title beyond co-founder has been independently verified from first-party sources for this profile; any such title is omitted to maintain accuracy.

Information last checked: August 2026

Projects Founded

NEAR Protocol

Career Timeline

Pre-2017

Engineer at MemSQL (now SingleStore), building large-scale distributed database systems. Developed deep expertise in high-performance distributed infrastructure.

2017–2018

Co-founded the original NEAR AI project with Illia Polosukhin as an AI developer tooling venture. The project pivoted toward a scalable blockchain architecture.

2020

NEAR Protocol mainnet launched. Skidanov's distributed-systems background contributed to NEAR's sharding and scalability design.

2021–2023

NEAR Protocol continued evolving with Nightshade sharding upgrades and expanding ecosystem adoption.

2025–2026

NEAR's 2026 roadmap includes IronClaw dynamic resharding and AI-agent infrastructure. Skidanov's current role beyond co-founder status was not independently verified from first-party sources as of August 2026.

Key Contributions

Co-Founded NEAR Protocol

Co-founded NEAR Protocol with Illia Polosukhin, bringing large-scale distributed-systems expertise from MemSQL/SingleStore to the project's sharding and scalability design.

NEAR Sharding Architecture

Played a major role in NEAR's sharding and scalability foundations; exact research authorship for specific sharding mechanisms should be verified from NEAR's technical documentation.

MemSQL/Distributed Systems Background

Prior engineering at MemSQL (SingleStore) gave Skidanov deep knowledge of high-performance distributed data systems, which informed NEAR's approach to scalable blockchain state management.

NEAR AI Founding

Co-founded the original NEAR AI project that evolved into NEAR Protocol, providing the initial technical direction for the project.

Developer-First Protocol Design

Contributed to NEAR's emphasis on developer accessibility, including human-readable account names and a JavaScript/Rust-friendly development environment.