Blockchain

Social Infrastructure OpenSocial Protocol receives $6 million strategic backing led by Framework Ventures and North Island Ventures to fuel community apps

Hong Kong, Hong Kong, July 25th, 2024, Chainwire

 

The ‘Web3 Shopify of Social’ hits 30,000 onchain users in 2 weeks as the first app goes live

OpenSocial Protocol, a composable infrastructure layer for building social applications, announced today a $6 million strategic backing led by Framework Ventures and North Island Ventures, with participation from other investors including Hivemind Capital Partners, Stratos, Moonrock Capital, Chorus One, HV Capital, X Ventures, Gate Labs, Panga Capital, Aspen Digital; and super angels like Jordi Alexander (Selini Capital), Sreeram Kannan (EigenLayer), Luca Netz (Pudgy Penguins), Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon Labs), Yaoqi (Altlayer), Robinson Burkey (Wormhole Foundation), Gabby Dizon (YGG), Mik Naayem (Dapper Labs), Cygaar (Abstract), Regan Bozman (Lattice Capital), Muddy Water and more.

Built by Everest Ventures Group, a leading Web3 operating group in Asia focused on consumer applications, OpenSocial Protocol provides open-source, multichain social application infrastructure tools that enable users and communities to build social decentralized applications (dApps) without coding experience. This is a vision that OpenSocial stands by as it helps to lower the barriers of entry for users who are looking to create their own community app.

Along with the $5 million seed funding round and $15 million in OpenSocial Protocol ecosystem funds raised previously, OpenSocial Protocol now has $26 million in funding to support the protocol’s development. Earlier investors include Portal Ventures, Animoca Brands, OKX Ventures, and renowned Web3 entrepreneurs include Smokey the Bera (Berachain), Jason Yano (Blockworks), Roham Gharegozlou (Dapper Labs), Brian Fabian Crain (Chorus One), Mike Dudas (6th Man Ventures) and more.

“We think that the OpenSocial team is well positioned to become a major player in the growing SocialFi movement across Asia,” said Framework Ventures Co-Founder Vance Spencer. “Their team is immensely talented and has prior experience scaling apps and onboarding millions of users. We’re excited to partner with the team as they expand to support several promising new apps.”

“We believe that OpenSocial is building a sustainable social platform that can bring millions of new users into crypto, and we’re thrilled to be supporting Allen and his highly capable team in this effort,” said Travis Scher, Co-Founder and Managing Director of North Island Ventures.

“The strategic backing accelerates OpenSocial’s ability to deploy its infrastructure across all major chains and ecosystems, launch a user-friendly platform where creators, moderators, and users can easily build communities, and develop new dApps tailored for the existing Web3 culture and communities. We aim to help empower and launch 1,000 community apps by 2025,” said Allen Ng, Co-Founder of OpenSocial Protocol.

OpenSocial Protocol hits 30,000 onchain users in 2 weeks as the first app goes live

OpenSocial Protocol aims to onboard thousands of apps by providing infrastructure and a customizable user interface layer, ensuring true ownership of intellectual property and community relationships, and offering better-aligned monetization and financial incentives for communities and users. It is building the necessary open-source infrastructure to enable the largest multichain community economy by solving three key challenges: user retention, spam bot prevention, and user growth beyond the crypto-centric audience.

SoMon (short for Social Monster), a Reddit-like forum built to empower communities with true ownership, became the first app to launch on OpenSocial Protocol on June 19 with over 30,000 onchain active users, an average engagement time close to 20 minutes and over 300,000 onchain transactions, excluding spam bots, in just two weeks, solving one of the key challenges in any social media platform.

Another app that is launching on OpenSocial is Zeek, a social collaboration network that allows users to harness the value of their community-building networks through onchain social bounty mechanics and reputation building. In June, Zeek completed its own $3 million fundraise.

OpenSocial: Enabling scalable, multichain social apps without coding experience

OpenSocial Protocol’s modular design with easy-to-deploy social tools on a multichain approach enables creators and communities to compose apps quickly and economically. Features are either on-chain or off-chain and include feed, chatroom, text/video/audio/posts, comments, reactions, voting, share, on-chain social graphs (social data and structure), tribes (user and topic-based communities), megaphones (advertising engine), as well as plug-ins (token issuance, DAO tools, betting, voting, bounties, matching, mini-games).

By embedding social functionalities into the core experience across different verticals, onchain social helps break down silos and enables greater connectivity and engagement across the entire ecosystem. “We believe social has the potential to be a major catalyst for mainstream consumer adoption. Every creator and community builder should be owners and entrepreneurs,” Ng added.

EVG has also deployed 80 developers and builders to develop the infrastructure for onboarding thousands of community apps with just a few clicks.

By actively working with early adopters to integrate thriving communities, redefine data sovereignty, and implement sustainable economic incentives, OpenSocial is paving the way for a future where anyone can cultivate meaningful yet sustainable social connections and true social data ownership.

About OpenSocial Protocol

OpenSocial Protocol (OpenSocial) is a multichain Social infrastructure empowering creators to effortlessly build community apps. Leveraging its robust social graph and modular design, OpenSocial enables transparent content promotion to specific user groups, ensuring fair value distribution among all stakeholders. OpenSocial offers one of the best data, tooling, and financial layer, and its vision is to enable the largest multichain community economy.

OpenSocial Protocol is founded by Everest Ventures Group.

Website: www.opensocial.co

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenSocialLabs

Media contact: Gemma Lo / [email protected]

About Everest Ventures Group

Founded in 2018, Everest Ventures Group (EVG) is a Web3 operating group driving mass adoption of Web3 by building products with real use cases that are set to onboard the next million users.

Headquartered in Hong Kong with a global team of over 300 individuals, EVG has built and launched 15+ products across Social (OpenSocial Protocol, SoMon, Zeek), Gaming & Culture (Mugen Interactive, Legend of Arcadia, Last Odyssey, LiveArt) and FinTech (Aspen Digital).

As an early investor and lead advisor, EVG has contributed to 10+ unicorns and 150+ defining projects such as Celestia, Berachain, Wormhole, Dapper Labs (Flow), Animoca Brands, Immutable, The Sandbox, Yuga Labs, Kraken, Lukka, Dunamu and Blocklords.

Website: https://www.evg.co/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EVGHQ/

Disclosures: Information contained herein is accurate as of the date of publication and is subject to change. This is not investment advice and readers should not construe discussion of any particular organization as a recommendation to purchase or sell, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase or sell, any securities or digital assets related to such organization.

 

Contact

PR Manager
Kelvin Yeo
Everest Ventures Group
[email protected]

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Bybit Bolsters Compliance with Appointment of New Chief Legal & Compliance Officer

2024-09-30T13:18:52Z

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 30, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bybit, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is pleased to announce the appointment of Robert MacDonald as the new Chief Legal & Compliance Officer. With a distinguished career spanning both the public sector and traditional finance, Robert brings a wealth of expertise in regulatory compliance and combating financial crime, reinforcing Bybit’s commitment to legal integrity, principled compliance, and robust governance.

Robert’s leadership will be instrumental in paving a sustainable and responsible path for Bybit’s continued growth. He began his career practicing criminal law as a barrister in London, specializing in the field of financial crime, before serving the U.K. Ministry of Justice. Over the next decade, Robert embarked on a cross-continental journey mostly in traditional finance and banking, working for global institutions including one of the world’s largest asset managers, South Korea’s most popular eCommerce company, and crypto exchange Binance. 

In his new role, Robert will oversee a joint legal and compliance team in navigating the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape. The team is comprised of a dedicated taskforce of legal counsels who cover a wide array of global legal issues and topical research, as well as a versatile compliance function including: a regulatory compliance function looking after licensing and registrations matters across jurisdictions and adherence to local requirements; a global compliance team of Money Laundering Reporting Officers; and specialists in compliance operations focusing on a safe and responsible client onboarding process including rigorous compliance controls throughout the user lifecycle.

“Bybit’s vision is to build a company that stands the test of time—lasting a hundred years or more,” said Helen Liu, Chief Operating Officer at Bybit. “A strong foundation begins with a culture of compliance and a dedication to doing things the right way. We’re thrilled to have Robert on board, as his decade of experience and keen insight into evolving regulatory trends will be invaluable to our continued growth and long-term success,” she added.

Robert said he sees inconsistencies in regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions as the key challenge to the industry. “There is a lack of uniformity in how cryptocurrencies are classified and regulated, which creates uncertainty for businesses and investors. Additionally, many governments are grappling with issues related to consumer protection, money laundering, and taxation,” said Robert MacDonald, Chief Legal & Compliance Officer at Bybit.“ The focus on stabilizing and regulating stablecoins and ensuring compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations are also pressing challenges. These issues give legitimate crypto exchanges with the technical know-how and right culture an opportunity to change the digital asset industry for the better. For regulators, the evolving nature of the technology and the fast-paced growth of the crypto market is a pain point, and many acknowledge a growing demand for more comprehensive regulations and clearer guidelines,” he continued.

Undeterred by the challenges, Robert said Bybit’s invitation presented him an opportunity to make a difference in the industry. “I am thrilled to join Bybit at this exciting time, this role brings together my legal, compliance and previous crypto experiences. Bybit is on an incredible growth trajectory, and doing this in a sustainable manner by ensuring we build a world-class legal and compliance function with adherence to local regulations is key.”

#Bybit / #TheCryptoArk

About Bybit

Bybit is the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, serving over 50 million users. Established in 2018, Bybit provides a professional platform where crypto investors and traders can find an ultra-fast matching engine, 24/7 customer service, and multilingual community support. Bybit is a proud partner of Formula One’s reigning Constructors’ and Drivers’ champions: the Oracle Red Bull Racing team.

For more details about Bybit, readers can please visit Bybit Press 

For media inquiries, readers can please contact: [email protected]

For more information, readers can please visit: https://www.bybit.com

For updates, readers can please follow: Bybit's Communities and Social Media

Contact

Head of PR
Tony Au
Bybit
[email protected]


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