Towns

• Towns is decentralised messaging infrastructure where communities own and monetise their own spaces.

• Spaces are programmable, with access rules and revenue set by their owners rather than a platform.

• TOWNS is staked to spaces for access, rewards and governance.

• Supply allocated across community, ecosystem and contributors.

• Staked to individual spaces rather than only to the protocol.

Pros:

• Community owners control access rules and capture subscription revenue directly.

• Built on Base with real messaging usage.

• Data is not held by a central platform that can change terms.

Cons:

• Messaging network effects are extremely strong and favour incumbents overwhelmingly.

• Decentralised messaging has repeatedly failed to achieve scale.

• Token staking adds friction to joining a community.

• Exposure to decentralised social infrastructure with community ownership.

• Revenue capture for community owners is concrete.

• Weigh how difficult displacing incumbent messaging platforms is.

• Communities own their space outright, setting access rules and keeping subscription revenue rather than renting from a platform.

• Community operators build audiences on platforms that can change rules, take fees or remove them entirely.

• Owning the space removes the platform's ability to do any of that.

• Founded by Ben Rubin, who previously founded Houseparty and Meerkat.

• Backed by a16z crypto, Benchmark and Coinbase Ventures.

• No public ICO. Distributed through airdrop and ecosystem allocations in 2025.

• Messaging network effects strongly favour incumbents.

• Decentralised social has repeatedly failed to reach scale.

• Staking friction discourages casual participation.

• Base ecosystem dependency.