Ex-Houseparty founder wants 'Towns' to help verify communities and reputations on Base

Welcome back to Talking Tokens.

We’re building the best place for quick crypto insights, news and in-depth interviews with the best leaders, startups, market players and up-and-coming founders that are changing the industry.

If you haven’t already, subscribe here.

Towns wants to use people’s reputations to form better online relationships

It’s been over a decade since Ben Rubin started building platforms and products for online communication including the once-popular Meerkat and Houseparty.

Now, he’s building Towns, a decentralized messaging platform — or “permissionless group chat” — that’s built on top of Coinbase’s layer-2 blockchain Base.

But he doesn’t view himself as a web3 or crypto founder, but still a founder in the communications industry. For him, this next venture is all about proving someone is a part of a community, in order to join it.

“That type of reputation is something, I think, in 13 years building communications for people, is a dimension missing from how we converse online,” Rubin said on the Talking Tokens podcast.

(Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube.)

And it’s fairly true: across social media platforms, there’s few to no barriers to entry that verify whether or not a member is truly who they say they are.

This can apply to verifying whether or not someone read the latest book in a book club, to bigger areas like one’s political affiliations or obsession with the latest pop star (ahem, Taylor Swift).

Rubin wants to create “permissionless group chats” in a social setting that allows people to engage and be a part of these social circles by proving they’ve donated, voted, attended or been a part of the group they claim to be in.

The group is then open to anyone based on what a user has done, opposed to one centralized entity determining whether or not someone should gain entry.

“By that it expands the reach, but still makes it intimate,” Rubin said. “That’s attention I really like, not knowing who’s on the other side of the keyboard, but trusting they’re there for the context and what [is being discussed.]”

It’s a “dimension that is really unexplored on the internet,” Rubin said.

Check out the next section for more details and the full episode.

The latest Talking Tokens podcast 🎙️

For this week’s Tuesday episode, I sat down with Ben Rubin, CEO and co-founder of Here Not There Labs and Towns.

We talk about building online communities, the launch of Towns, how permissionless messaging can change the way people communicate and more.

Talking Tokens episodes are released on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at 6AM EST or YouTube at 10AM EST every Tuesday and Thursday. Listen in!

Make sure to subscribe to keep up with the latest episodes. Feel free to leave a review and tell us your thoughts.

Monitoring blockchains

Looking at some of the biggest developments onchain.

• The total stablecoin market cap hit a new all-time high at $168B with USDT making up over 70% of the total amount, DeFiLlama data showed

• Ethereum’s daily trading volume has declined about 55% in the past 30 days and daily transactions hit a multi-month low at 1.07M on Sunday, according to data from The Block

• Magic Eden Foundation announced $ME, a token to be adopted by the NFT marketplace and power cross-chain dApps in its ecosystem

Taking on the tokens 

The total crypto market cap decreased 2.68% in the past 24-hours to $2.18 trillion. It is up 1.87% over a 7-day period.

As for the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap…

These metrics were taken prior to publication Tuesday morning EST.

Money and people moves

Latest updates on crypto startups that secured funding and industry players who are starting something new.

1. Stork Network raised $4.7M in a seed round led by Lightspeed Faction

2. Ninad Naik, former Uber and Amazon AI exec, joined AI-focused Mira as chief product officer

3. Telegram-Linked Token Sheds $2.7 Billion After CEO Detained (Bloomberg)

4. Ark Labs raised $2.5M in a pre-seed round led by investor Tim Draper and his firm Draper Ventures

Talking points for the road 

Here’s some headlines and topics that you can talk about at your next dinner party, crypto event or on a first date to look smart (results may vary.) 

1. How Trump was ‘orange-pilled’ by three bitcoiners in Puerto Rico and the promise of $100 million (CNBC)

2. Bitcoin inflows hit $543 million last week amid hint of interest rate cut: CoinShares (The Block)

3. Many of Solana’s new users don’t seem to be new to crypto (Blockworks)

Get involved and share the newsletter. The more you share, the higher your ranking.

• Refer 25 people and get my customized media guide.

• Refer 50 people for a chance at a 1:1 meeting with me to dive into best practices when engaging with the media.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

If you do (or don’t) like what you see, let me know by sending feedback to [email protected].

This product was built by Token Relations. 

Please note that this content is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Any views shared should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research. We may have a direct or indirect financial interest in content mentioned in this newsletter.