Alternative Facebook, Twitter? Web3 Social Startup Towns is coming.

The forthcoming app aims to give users full control of their communities and private communications.

Web2’s primary concept was to forge connections between people and firms such as Twitter or Facebook grew this notion into worldwide conglomerates. Nowadays, Meta is an important part of these empires.

Until recently, most users had to accept being commoditized and losing their privacy in order to access advanced connectivity features. Luckily, Here Not There Labs’ ‘Towns’ project has enabled users to enjoy the benefits of modern connection without sacrificing their data or privacy.

A whooping $25.5 million investment was announced by the project’s backers, with Andreessen Horowitz spearheading the funding. The main goal of the project is to transition messaging onto blockchain technology.

Ben Rubin, co-founder of Here Not There Labs, pointed out that communities often struggle with bringing people together and making the most of their collective knowledge. He highlighted this when speaking to Decrypt in an interview.

Majority of the tools we use like Discord, WhatsApp, and Telegram are owned by third-party organizations.

The team hopes to establish a digital public place for members to control the boundaries, determine regulations, and construct the virtual space they desire. This grand objective is feasible because of decentralization technologies and web3.

For the Series A funding, Andreessen Horowitz was joined by other investors such as Benchmark and Framework Ventures.

Rubin explains that the Towns App is like a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), except it’s running on Ethereum with smart contracts. Not only does this facilitate communities to exchange Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and interact through games — it also brings back the feeling of being in a town square!

According to Rubin, the main focus of the team is to provide end-to-end encryption along with portability. Since he wants to ensure everything is open-source and accessible in the long run, he sees on-chain communication as a natural next step for blockchain technology.

Rubin noted the progress in what can be done with blockchain technology — it began by storing value then moved onto computation. Now, it is being used to secure coordination and collaboration between parties.

DAOs offer a decentralized model of ownership and control. They are based on blockchain technology and rely on smart contracts to enable participants to vote on decisions using governance tokens. This structure eliminates the need for a hierarchical chain of command, creating an equitable environment.

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) can be set up on a variety of messaging platforms, the most popular being Discord. However, they are subject to the terms & conditions that are laid down by these platforms.

Towns is yet another attempt in the Web3 world at transitioning away from popular chat platforms like Discord and Telegram. It follows in the footsteps of projects such as Dragonchain’s Den, Matrix, Console and Nansen Connect, which is a product of the Nansen analytics platform.

Towns is designed to meet the needs of any group, creating a safe and secure space for them to communicate & collaborate. It ensures that organizations won’t be able to make alterations, generate revenue or deny them their rights in any way. This is what makes Towns so special, according to its creators.

Rubin shared details about Towns DAO, which will act as an organizing body in the Town ecosystem. Each DAO or town will be represented here, allowing for better organization and decision-making.

After the initial period of stewardship is over, Here Not There Labs will handover control to the DAO, where DAO members will have the power to vote on protocol-related matters such as roadmap updates, technology upgrades and management of the treasury.

I’m passionate about communication and have dedicated my career to bringing people together online. To me, the concept of having control over these connections & experiences is truly special and enchanting.