River Protocol acquires Llama to power decentralized governance

River, an on-chain encrypted messaging protocol, has successfully acquired Llama, a smart contracts platform supported by Founders Fund that focuses on decentralized governance.

This acquisition is expected to strengthen River’s governance framework across its ecosystem, as the protocol will integrate Llama’s open-source smart contracts technology into its various platforms. A blog post detailing the transaction explains that by utilizing Llama’s capabilities, River’s stakeholders—including node operators and space owners—will gain access to built-in tools designed to enhance governance mechanisms.

For example, node operators and space owners will now have the ability to submit proposals related to changes within the protocol, enabling a secure and transparent voting process.

“In short, this acquisition crystallizes the ability for every community to automatically deploy their own fully on-chain DAO with a treasury system. Through this framework, members can discuss and decide how funds are allocated and how to govern their own community,” River wrote in the blog post.

River was launched in March 2024 with the aim of revolutionizing the development of messaging applications. This smart contracts platform functions as a layer-2 blockchain and is designed to be compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

With River’s smart contracts on Base, creators of the protocol’s spaces can manage various features, including pricing and access control. In parallel, Llama enables protocols to utilize its governance and access control platform to achieve a range of governance objectives, such as overseeing smart contract operations, managing the treasury, adjusting protocol parameters, and implementing emergency functions.

In November 2023, Llama successfully raised $6 million in a seed funding round led by prominent venture capital firms, Founders Fund and Electric Capital.

River aims to carve out a niche in the messaging app market, which is currently valued at over $200 billion. Ben Rubin, the developer behind the Towns platform on River, emphasizes the significant potential for “private, ownable, and monetizable group chats.”

The messaging app landscape is presently dominated by platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, WeChat, and Discord. However, experts suggest that decentralization is the future of this industry.