Amid growing pressure on the social media industry over privacy and content moderation, another blockchain-enabled alternative, Towns, is launching today.
After raising $25.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) in February 2023, Towns officially announced its launch on Oct. 15.
Founded by Ben Rubin, who also co-founded the social networking service Houseparty and the Meerkat video streaming app, Towns sets an ambitious goal of providing a ânew standard for digital communicationâ with blockchain capabilities.
Towns is running on the messaging protocol River
The new messaging app is built on the messaging protocol River, which consists of an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible layer-2 chain, decentralized nodes and smart contracts deployed on the Base protocol.
The same team behind Towns also created the River Protocol, which launched in May 2023. The River Protocol opens opportunities for builders to prioritize end-to-end encryption (E2EE), aiming to enhance privacy and security in communication.
Similar in interface to communication platforms like Discord or Slack, Towns aims to give users âfull ownership and control of their dataâ while also ensuring transparency, which is made possible through River Smart Contracts on Base.
Towns app interface. Source: Towns
âIn Towns, users own 100% of their information,â a spokesperson for Towns told Cointelegraph. The representative added that blockchain is crucial for communication because it ensures transparency, security and decentralization, enabling trustless interactions without the need for intermediaries.
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.
