Mask Acquires RARA in Big Bet on Web3 Social Protocols
Mask Network
Mask Network is thrilled to announce the acquisition of the team behind RARA, the social curation protocol. As part of the Mask ecosystem of Web3 social builders, the team will continue building apps and developer tools for RARA. “Pronounced ‘Rah rah!’ like a cheer, the goal of RARA’s protocol […] is to give a voice to a world of curators,” the Loud Paper published one year ago. "We're making it easier for people to bring their likes and interests everywhere with them on the Internet just like their NFTs," explained RARA founder Lawson Bae. "By opening up the curation graph for NFTs and moving away from centralized algorithms, we will create new opportunities for social network builders and help create a more personalized Internet where every voice can find its community.” Founded in 2017, Mask aims to build an easy-to-use bridge from Web 2.0 to the Web 3.0-era decentralized apps. Mask has been one of the earliest community members of the Bluesky protocol founded by Jack Dorsey and the Mask team is the maintainer of the most active instances of Mastodon. With funding of US$100 million, Mask has strategically invested in decentralized social networks, infrastructure, and creative content to feed its ambition of becoming the Web 3 social conglomerate building for the first billion people in Web3. "When we first saw RARA, our team was impressed by their innovative approach to letting third-parties store additional data on NFTs. So every person’s curation and comment travels with the NFT,” said Suji Yan, Founder of Mask. “It fits our Mask’s dream to liberate people from control of one company and one app. Ultimately we want to achieve a new and open internet through building and growing the decentralized social network ecosystem.” With RARA, social network and other NFT app builders can: Add live and historical commentary for NFTs with reactions, comments, and tags across all Web3 apps; Introduce new people to Web3 with free soulbound collectibles for curating called RA! like tokens; and Personalize social feeds and NFT recommendations based on each person’s likes. "Being able to engage with an NFT just like a tweet is critical to the future of the aggregated Web2 and Web3 feed in our app," said Terrence Wu, Eco Product Lead at Firefly, Mask’s newest mobile app. “We are excited to be one of the first to integrate RARA into our app while we are still in private beta.” “Joining the Mask team is everything a builder dreams about,” said Bae. “Created by builders, mission and funding to think big, and ethos aligned - for the people, by the people. It’s like we were already friends and building together all along.” About Mask Mask Network is a leader in the vibrant decentralized social network ecosystem. In 2019, Mask extension started supporting Twitter users with secure, decentralized social messaging, payment networks, file storage and sharing upon the current mainstream social media networks. As a Top 100 Market Cap project, Mask strategically invests in decentralized social networks, infrastructure, and creative contents with the goal of making Web3 more accessible to all. Learn more at mask.io. About RARA RARA is a protocol for adding social commentary to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on social apps and NFT marketplaces. Developed by RARA Social Inc, the RARA social curation protocol enables anyone to add reactions, comments, and tags to any NFT in any Web3 app. With the release of v2.0 of the protocol, all curation is now free with all curation data stored permanently on-chain and generates a free RA! Like Token, soulbound memories for curators. Learn more at rara.social. Mask Network is thrilled to announce the acquisition of the team behind RARA, the social curation protocol. The extended team is actively building a vibrant decentralized social network ecosystem for the first billion people in Web3. Contact Details Mask Network Media Contact media@mask.io Company Website https://mask.io/
April 03, 2023 07:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time