NEAR Protocol launches staking payment feature for AI fees

Foresight News reports that NEAR Protocol has announced the launch of a staking payment feature for AI expenses. Users can pay confidential inference and persistent agent fees by staking NEAR, without the need to link a credit card. The staked NEAR will be converted into monthly calculation credits, with the credit scale increasing according to the amount staked. The funds themselves are not consumed and can be recovered after unstaking. All 43 models on NEAR AI, including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google, are accessible through this staking mechanism.