Elixir API for NEAR Blockchain

I'm excited to introduce near-api-ex, an Elixir library for interacting with the NEAR Protocol blockchain. This library enables Elixir developers to build decentralized applications (DApps) on NEAR.

Why NEAR Protocol?

NEAR is a layer-1 blockchain designed for usability:

Human-readable accounts: alice.near instead of 0x7f3d8...
Low transaction fees: Fractions of a cent
Fast finality: ~1-2 seconds
Developer-friendly: Easy onboarding for web developers

Why Elixir?

Elixir's strengths make it excellent for blockchain development:

Concurrency: Handle many concurrent requests efficiently
Fault tolerance: OTP supervision trees for reliability
Real-time: Phoenix Channels for WebSocket subscriptions
Functional: Immutable data fits blockchain semantics

Installation

Add to your mix.exs:

Elixir

def deps do
  [
    {:near_api, "~> 0.1.0"}
  ]
end

Configuration

Elixir

# config/config.exs
config :near_api,
  network: :testnet,  # or :mainnet
  node_url: "https://rpc.testnet.near.org"

Basic Usage

Viewing Account Information

Elixir

{:ok, account} = NearApi.Account.view("example.testnet")

IO.inspect(account)
# %{
#   amount: "1000000000000000000000000",
#   locked: "0",
#   code_hash: "11111111111111111111111111111111",
#   storage_usage: 182,
#   ...
# }

Checking Balance

Elixir

{:ok, balance} = NearApi.Account.get_balance("alice.testnet")
# Returns balance in yoctoNEAR (10^-24 NEAR)

Calling View Methods

Elixir

{:ok, result} = NearApi.Contract.view_function(
  "contract.testnet",
  "get_greeting",
  %{}
)

Advanced Usage

Sending Transactions

First, set up your account credentials:

Elixir

account = NearApi.Account.new(
  "your-account.testnet",
  "ed25519:YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY"
)

Then send a transaction:

Elixir

{:ok, result} = NearApi.Account.function_call(
  account,
  "contract.testnet",
  "set_greeting",
  %{message: "Hello from Elixir!"},
  gas: 30_000_000_000_000,
  deposit: 0
)

Creating Accounts

Elixir

{:ok, result} = NearApi.Account.create_account(
  parent_account,
  "new-account.testnet",
  public_key,
  initial_balance: 1_000_000_000_000_000_000_000_000  # 1 NEAR
)

Deploying Contracts

Elixir

wasm_bytes = File.read!("contract.wasm")

{:ok, result} = NearApi.Account.deploy_contract(
  account,
  wasm_bytes
)

Real-Time Updates

Using Phoenix Channels, you can subscribe to account changes:

Elixir

defmodule MyApp.NearChannel do
  use Phoenix.Channel

  def join("near:account:" <> account_id, _params, socket) do
    NearApi.Subscription.subscribe_account(account_id)
    {:ok, socket}
  end

  def handle_info({:account_update, data}, socket) do
    push(socket, "update", data)
    {:noreply, socket}
  end
end

Error Handling

The library uses tagged tuples for error handling:

Elixir

case NearApi.Account.view("nonexistent.testnet") do
  {:ok, account} ->
    process_account(account)
  {:error, %{type: "UNKNOWN_ACCOUNT"}} ->
    Logger.warn("Account not found")
  {:error, reason} ->
    Logger.error("Error: #{inspect(reason)}")
end

Contributing

The library is open source: github.com/alexfilatov/near-api-ex Contributions welcome! Areas that need work:

Access key management
More RPC method coverage
Better documentation
Integration tests

Conclusion

near-api-ex brings the power of NEAR Protocol to the Elixir ecosystem. Whether you're building a DeFi application, an NFT marketplace, or any other blockchain-based system, Elixir's concurrency and fault tolerance make it an excellent choice. Check out the GitHub repo for more examples and documentation.

Elixir API for NEAR Blockchain

Why NEAR Protocol?

Why Elixir?

Installation

Configuration

Basic Usage

Viewing Account Information

Checking Balance

Calling View Methods

Advanced Usage

Sending Transactions

Creating Accounts

Deploying Contracts

Real-Time Updates

Error Handling

Contributing

Conclusion

Recent posts