Community platform Towns raises $25.5 million in funding

Photo - Community platform Towns raises $25.5 million in funding
It's impossible to imagine modern life without social media. However, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter should not be complacent. In the midst of free speech restrictions and endless advertisements characteristic of Web2, Web3 startups are rapidly increasing
Towns is a promising social startup launched by Here Not There Labs in January 2023. As of February 23, the project has raised $25.5 million in Series A funding led by a16z crypto venture capital fund, with additional investment from Benchmark and Framework Ventures.
Source: Twitter

Source: Twitter

What is Towns?

Towns is a web communication platform designed for online communities. Its creators propose to revive the concept of a town square and provide a promising future for virtual towns. But what exactly do they mean by that?
Source: towns.com

Source: towns.com

Town is a web communication platform designed for online communities. Its creators propose to revive the concept of a town square and provide a promising future for virtual towns. But what exactly do they mean by that?

Towns is an application based on the eponymous group chat protocol. By using it, users can communicate with each other and establish a community and a digital town square.
Any group can use Towns to assemble and chat freely in a space designed to their needs β€” without ever worrying that some organization will change the rules, profit from their activity, or take away their rights
, β€” the project website informs.
In the beginning, Here Not There Labs envisions that all communities will be managed by developers. However, in the future, control over particular cities will be transferred to self-governing DAOs that will form as the network decentralizes. These DAOs will include all major categories interested in the project's development: users, node operators, space owners, and key stakeholders.

Towns offers community creators all the necessary tools and opportunities within the Ethereum network:

  • Open source code;
  • End-to-end encryption;
  • Smart contract compatibility.

Currently, users can gain early access to the alpha version of the Towns app, which runs on the Ethereum Goerli testnet. As for the beta version, the developers have plans for a launch on Ethereum and L2 Solutions.