Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero sought to quash speculation about the project’s future, saying the protocol would not be shut down after its acquisition by infrastructure provider Neynar.
Farcaster is a decentralized social networking protocol that enables developers to create interoperable social applications where users own their identities, social graphs, and on-chain connections rather than being locked into a single platform.
In a post addressed to the Romero community he said Farcaster continues to operate and sees significant usage, citing 250,000 monthly energetic users in December and over 100,000 funded wallets.
He said Neynar, a venture-backed startup that has long been building infrastructure on the Farcaster platform, plans to take the project in a more developer-centric direction.
Farcaster will return $180 million to investors
In July 2022, Merkle Manufactory, the company behind the development of Farcaster, raised $30 million from venture capital firm a16z crypto. Another round of financing led by Paradigm took place in March 2022, which reportedly raised the company’s valuation above $1 billion.
Romero said the total capital raised by Merkle over its existence is $180 million. In the post, he announced that the company would return the funds to investors. “As for Merkle, we plan to return the entire $180 million raised to investors,” he wrote.
He added that this decision follows five years of development efforts and attempts to act as responsible stewards of investors’ capital.
Cointelegraph reached out to Merkle Manufacture for more information but received no response prior to publication.
Farcaster investor Balaji Srinivasan reacted to the post and said confirmed that investor funds have been returned. He also praised the team’s work on decentralized social infrastructure.
The post appeared after the announcement that Neynar was taking over Farcaster. Romero previously said Neynar would take over responsibility for maintaining Farcaster protocol contracts, code repositories and consumer applications, marking a change in leadership.
As part of the handover, Romero and several team members will step away from operations and pursue up-to-date projects.
Neynar has been closely associated with the Farcaster ecosystem since its early days, serving as one of Farcaster’s first customers and providing the infrastructure to support a enormous portion of developers using the protocol.
Related: Vitalik Buterin calls for a up-to-date DAO design for supply chain disputes and governance
Aave hands over management of Lens to Mask Network
In addition to Farcaster, decentralized social media protocol Lens Protocol also underwent a leadership change this week.
The Aave team announced that it has handed over management of Lens to Mask Network, which will enable Aave to refocus on decentralized finance while remaining engaged with Lens in a technical advisory capacity.
As decentralized social projects change leadership structures, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has expressed his support for decentralized social media and urged the community to adopt open social platforms.
Buterin on Thursday urged developers and users to spend more time in decentralized social ecosystems, saying the industry must move beyond centralized information war zones and toward up-to-date forms of online interaction.
“If we want a better society, we need better mass communication tools,” Buterin said.
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