Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero moved to quell hypothesis concerning the challenge’s future, saying the protocol will not be shutting down following its acquisition by infrastructure supplier Neynar.
Farcaster is a decentralized social networking protocol that enables builders to construct interoperable social apps the place customers personal their identities, social graphs and connections onchain moderately than being locked right into a single platform.
In a publish addressing the group, Romero said Farcaster stays operational and continues to see significant utilization, citing its 250,000 energetic month-to-month customers in December and greater than 100,000 funded wallets.
He mentioned Neynar, a venture-backed startup that has lengthy constructed infrastructure on Farcaster, plans to steer the challenge in a extra developer-focused course.
Farcaster to return $180 million to buyers
In July 2022, Merkle Manufactory, the corporate behind Farcaster’s improvement, raised $30 million from enterprise capital agency a16z crypto. In March 2022, it had one other funding spherical led by Paradigm, which reportedly pushed the company’s valuation past $1 billion.
Romero mentioned the full capital raised by Merkle over its lifetime quantities to $180 million. In a publish, he mentioned the corporate will return the funds to buyers. “As for Merkle, we’re planning to return the total $180 million raised again to buyers,” he wrote.
He added that the choice follows 5 years of improvement efforts and an try and act as accountable stewards of investor capital.
Cointelegraph reached out to Merkle Manufactory for extra info, however obtained no response earlier than publication.
The publish drew a response from Farcaster investor Balaji Srinivasan, who confirmed that investor funds have been being returned. He additionally praised the staff’s work on decentralized social infrastructure.
The publish adopted the announcement that Neynar was buying Farcaster. Romero beforehand mentioned that Neynar would assume accountability for sustaining Farcaster’s protocol contracts, code repositories and client app, marking a management transition.
As a part of the handover, Romero and several other staff members will step away from operations and transfer on to new tasks.
Neynar has been intently tied to Farcaster’s ecosystem since its early days, working as one of many first Farcaster purchasers and offering infrastructure that helps a big share of builders constructing on the protocol.
Associated: Vitalik Buterin calls for a new DAO design for onchain disputes and governance
Aave fingers over Lens stewardship to Masks Community
Past Farcaster, decentralized social protocol Lens Protocol additionally underwent a leadership transition this week.
The Aave staff mentioned it has handed over stewardship of Lens to Masks Community, permitting Aave to refocus on decentralized finance whereas remaining concerned with Lens in a technical advisory capability.
Whereas decentralized social tasks are shifting management buildings, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin voiced his support for decentralized social media and urged the group to undertake open social platforms.
On Thursday, Buterin urged builders and customers to spend extra time in decentralized social ecosystems, saying the business should transfer past centralized info warzones and into new types of on-line interplay.
“If we wish a greater society, we’d like higher mass communication instruments,” Buterin mentioned.
Journal: Chinese users turn to ‘U cards’ to get around crypto rules: Asia Express
