Farcaster Co-Founder Says Protocol Won’t Shut Down After Neynar Deal
Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero has moved to quell speculation about the project's future, saying the protocol will not be shut down following its acquisition by infrastructure provider Neynar.
Farcaster is a decentralized social networking protocol that enables developers to build applications that chain users, instead of locking their identities, social graphs, and relationships within a single platform.
In a post addressing the community, Romero noted that Farcaster is still going strong and continues to see meaningful use, citing its 250,000 monthly active users and more than 100,000 funded wallets in December.
Venture-backed startup Neynar, which has long built infrastructure on Farcaster, said it plans to steer the project in a more developer-oriented direction.
Farcaster is set to return $180 million to investors.
In the year In July 2022, Merkle Manufactory, the company behind Farcaster development, raised $30 million from venture capital firm a16z crypto. In the year In March 2024, it had another round of funding led by Paradigm, which reportedly exceeded the company's valuation by over $1 billion.
Romero Merkel said that the total capital accumulated during his life will reach 180 million dollars. In a statement, the company said it would return the money to investors. “As for Merkel, we plan to return the full $180 million raised to investors,” he wrote.
He added that the decision was an attempt to direct five years of development efforts and investor capital to those responsible.
Cointelegraph reached out to Merkel Manufacturing for more information, but did not receive a response prior to publication.
The post drew a response from Farcaster investor Balaji Srinivasan, who confirmed that investors' funds had been returned. He also appreciated the group's work on decentralized social infrastructure.
The post followed the capture of Neynar Farcaster. Romero previously said that Neynar will assume responsibility for maintaining Farcaster's protocol contracts, code repositories and consumer applications, marking a leadership transition.
As part of the handover, Romero and several team members will be moving away from jobs to new projects.
Neynar has been closely involved with the Farcaster ecosystem since its early days, serving as one of Farcaster's first customers and providing infrastructure to support developers building on the protocol.
Related: Vitalik Buterin calls for a new DAO design for onchain disputes and governance
Aave has handed over leadership of Lens to the Mask Network
Beyond Farcaster, the decentralized social protocol Lens Protocol underwent a leadership transition this week.
The Aave team has handed over stewardship of Lens to Mask Network, allowing it to focus on decentralized financing while engaging with Lens in a technical advisory capacity.
As decentralized social projects change management structures, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin supports decentralized social media and urges the community to embrace open social platforms.
On Thursday, Buterin urged developers and users to spend more time in decentralized social ecosystems, saying the industry must move away from centralized information warzones and toward new forms of online interaction.
“If we want a better society, we need better mass media,” Buterin said.
Magazine: Chinese users turn to ‘U cards' to get around crypto regulations: Asia Express
