DFINITY founder Dom accused NEAR Intents of using DFINITY’s proprietary cryptographic technology without authorization. According to Odaily, Dom said on X that further investigation found a key component used by NEAR Intents involved technology licensed only for the Internet Computer. He said it includes a threshold ECDSA algorithm for cross-chain asset custody and transaction signing, which he claimed can sign about three times faster than other approaches. Dom also alleged that NEAR deployed the technology across eight servers, falling short of its stated decentralization and security claims.

Dom said GitHub records show NEAR has recently tried to downgrade the algorithm to an alternative about three times slower, which he said may be related to concerns about its use of the technology. He said the matter could involve legal liability, that DFINITY and the ICP community had been harmed, and that he hoped the parties could resolve the dispute. The claims are one-sided allegations; whether the technology use constitutes infringement and whether NEAR has the alleged security and decentralization issues have not been independently established.