Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero said the protocol will remain operational after its acquisition by Neynar. According to Romero’s post, Neynar will assume responsibility for contracts, code repositories and the consumer app.
Romero reported 250,000 active monthly users in December and more than 100,000 funded wallets. He said the network continues to see meaningful usage and developer interest.
Romero added that Merkle Manufactory will return investor capital. “As for Merkle, we’re planning to return the full $180 million raised back to investors,” he wrote (Ed. note: Merkle will return $180 million to investors).
Merkle Manufactory previously raised $30 million from a16z crypto in July 2022. A March 2022 round led by Paradigm reportedly pushed the company’s valuation past $1 billion.
Romero and several team members will step away from day-to-day operations and move to new projects. Neynar has long provided core infrastructure and ran one of the first Farcaster clients.
Investor Balaji Srinivasan confirmed that funds are being returned and praised the team’s work, as stated.
Separately, Aave handed stewardship of Lens to Mask Network, letting Aave refocus on decentralized finance. Vitalik Buterin urged builders and users to use decentralized social platforms, saying “If we want a better society, we need better mass communication tools,” as shown in his remarks shared here.
