

Illia Polosukhin is a computer scientist who graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Before founding NEAR Protocol, Polosukhin spent seven years at Google, where he worked extensively on TensorFlow, the AI/ML software library developed by the tech giant. His work at Google focused on creating tools and resources for machine learning researchers worldwide.
Polosukhin's contributions to artificial intelligence have been significant and far-reaching. During his tenure at Google, he played a key role in developing TensorFlow, which has become one of the foundational tools for AI and machine learning communities globally. His work made advanced machine learning technologies more accessible to researchers and practitioners across various industries.
As a co-founder of NEAR Protocol, Polosukhin has championed the development of a scalable and user-friendly blockchain platform. The protocol simplifies the process of application development and provides substantial potential for building decentralized applications (DApps), including DeFi systems.
Polosukhin's vision has been to make blockchain technology more accessible and practical for mainstream adoption.
The NEAR Protocol represents a significant advancement in blockchain architecture, focusing on user experience and developer accessibility. The platform addresses key challenges in blockchain scalability while maintaining security and decentralization.
Illia Polosukhin's projects have profoundly influenced the technology and investment landscape. TensorFlow has become essential infrastructure for the AI/ML community, enabling countless innovations in machine learning applications. The NEAR Protocol has driven significant developments in blockchain technology and decentralized computing.
Polosukhin's approach to creating user-centric solutions has influenced the broader cryptocurrency industry. His emphasis on accessibility and usability has set new standards, encouraging other projects to prioritize intuitive design and practical functionality in their blockchain systems.
| Year | Key Innovation |
|---|---|
| 2017 | TensorFlow Lite was introduced while Polosukhin was at Google, expanding ML accessibility to mobile and edge devices. |
| 2020 | NEAR Protocol Mainnet was launched, establishing a fully functional blockchain network. |
| 2021 | Aurora, an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution built on NEAR Protocol, was launched to enhance interoperability and scalability. |
Illia Polosukhin has established himself as a driving force in technological and financial innovation. His dual expertise in artificial intelligence and blockchain technology demonstrates a commitment to building robust, user-friendly solutions. Through his work on both TensorFlow and NEAR Protocol, Polosukhin continues to shape the evolution of technology infrastructure, bridging the gap between advanced computing and practical, accessible applications for users worldwide.
Illia Polosukhin is a computer scientist from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He spent seven years at Google working on TensorFlow and AI/ML projects before co-founding NEAR Protocol, a blockchain platform focused on scalability and usability.
NEAR Protocol is a decentralized blockchain platform co-founded by Illia Polosukhin. It provides efficient smart contract functionality and scalability solutions, enabling developers to build decentralized applications with high performance and low transaction costs.
Illia Polosukhin is co-founder of NEAR Protocol, pioneering the integration of artificial intelligence with blockchain technology. His AI expertise drives decentralized application innovation and advancement in the Web3 ecosystem.
NEAR Protocol offers significantly lower transaction fees and faster transaction speeds than Ethereum. It provides better scalability through sharding technology, enabling higher transaction throughput while maintaining security and decentralization, making it ideal for DApp development.
Illia Polosukhin strongly supports Web3 and decentralization. He believes NEAR's technology stack integrates the fragmented Web3 modular landscape, enabling seamless cross-chain applications and advancing chain abstraction as the next frontier.
NEAR Protocol uses Nightshade Sharding to partition the network into independent sub-networks that process transactions in parallel. This increases concurrency, reduces latency, and enables the network to scale horizontally while maintaining security and finality.
Illia Polosukhin earned a master's degree from Birmingham University and joined Google Brain after graduation. He was the last author of the influential Transformers paper and left Google in 2017 to pursue entrepreneurship.











