Under growing scrutiny over privacy and content moderation in the social media industry, another blockchain-powered alternative, Towns, launched on Oct. 15.
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 Tuesday.
Founded by Ben Rubin, who also co-founded the social networking service Houseparty and the Meerkat video streaming app, Towns is setting an ambitious goal to provide a “new standard for digital communication” with blockchain capabilities.
Towns is running on the messaging protocol River
The new messaging app is built on the messaging protocol River, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible layer-2 chain with 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 allows builders to prioritize end-to-end encryption (E2EE), aiming to enhance privacy and security in communication.
Similar to the interface of communication platforms like Discord or Slack, Towns aims to give users “full ownership and control of their data” while also ensuring transparency, which is made possible through River smart contracts on Base.
Towns app interface. Source: Towns
“In Towns, users own 100% of their information,” 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.
How is Towns different from decentralized alternatives?
Towns is not the first platform to integrate blockchain capabilities in a messaging app to make it more transparent and decentralized.
Some blockchain-enabled rivals, including Jack Dorsey’s decentralized microblogging social platform Bluesky, implemented the Authenticated Transfer protocol to address some vulnerabilities of traditional social media.
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According to a spokesperson at Towns, the newly launched app is unique because it offers customizable onchain features for users.
“With more people living online, we wanted Towns to be accessible to everyone and seamlessly integrate into the online culture,” the representative said, adding:
“Towns is the first true permissionless group chat, with a goal of redefining how users communicate and build communities online.”