The Near Protocol has reportedly completed the introduction of the JavaScript Software Development Kits (JS SDKs), helping JavaScript developers to write blockchain smart contracts and build apps. 

Specifically, Near founder Illia Polosukhin reportedly highlighted that the initiative will help broaden the current scope of blockchain development to a substantially larger audience. 

“There’s about 20 million JavaScript developers in the world. Probably like every developer one way or another wrote JavaScript in their life. And what we allow you to do is to write smart contracts in JavaScript.”

Per Polosukhin, prior to Solidity for Ethereum and other layer 2s, Rust was available, which was bearing similarities to the nature of Solana and Near. 

And so Solidity has probably 100,000 developers who are familiar with it, and those who are active is even less. There is even less probably in Rust,” he added.

Near further revealed that the JS SDK will reportedly come with the “contract framework itself, JavaScript and TypeScript contract examples and tests.”

Polosukhin additionally claimed that the JS SDKs are available for utilization by anyone, from students searching for a way to test the blockchain waters, to individuals in the commercial sphere having intentions of fast-tracking their projects.

“A student can build an app without needing to learn new languages without needing to learn new skills. It will also be easier for entrepreneurs to hire [devs], so they can actually build teams stronger, faster, and deliver products faster. So kind of the idea from Near is to build a very extensible and powerful system that allows developers to build really anything from simple apps to very complex apps.”

Upon the topic of whether the JS SDKs will have sufficient compatibility with Ethereum Virtual Machine, taking into account that Near is an Ethereum rival, Polosukhin revealed that the solution will operate particularly on Near, but with possibility to build EVM compatible smart contracts from the SDK, similar to the way EVM compatible scaling Aurora was created on Near.