‘Facebook-Killer’ Synereo Raises $2M in First Six Hours of Crowdsale

Synereo, a new social platform with ambitions to “decentralize the web,” has launched its second crowdsale, raising almost $2 million USD in the first six hours.

Also read: ‘Yours Network’ to Use Bitcoin in Competition Against Steemit

$2 Million Raised and Counting

The Tel-Aviv-based startup aims to be more than just a decentralized version of Facebook. Synereo said its platform allows anyone to develop, run and build their own decentralized networks. In other words, if the project delivers, it will behave more like a social layer for distributed applications (dApps).

The Synereo team has slowly built momentum after its first crowdsale in 2015, which raised a modest 500 BTC.

Since then, the team has worked with Ethereum developers on scaling. Additionally, it has built a network of community managers called “Amplifiers,” including two in China, in recent months. The startup has recently been accepted into the Silicon Valley accelerator NFX to boot.

The current fundraising campaign began September 19th and runs until October 18th. Participants can purchase AMPs at a fixed price for the next 30 days, with purchasing bonuses as detailed here.

Three different websites currently sell AMPs: BnkToTheFuture.com, Synereo’s campaign page, and YUNBI.

Synereo CEO Dor Konforty told Bitcoin.com:

We are pleased to see the community supporting us in our quest to build a decentralized web. Synereo is receiving a wealth of positive feedback through our campaign, as well as with people who are joining our community and contributing towards the success of the Synereo project. We just passed 1,400 members on our Slack channel today!

Funds raised during this campaign will be used to scale up Synereo’s operations and expand the company’s team. Moreover, developers said the funding should boost development of its 2.0 tech stack — a decentralized computation platform, able to run dApps without central servers.

In August, Synereo released the alpha version of its decentralized social network. The platform will be under continuous development until Q4 2017, when the beta version launches.

Synereo Destroys $146 Million in AMPs

The crowdsale launched just 48 hours after Synereo announced the destruction of half of its AMP holdings. The burn removed 731,108,937 AMPs from circulation, worth about $146 million USD at today’s market prices.

Konforty explained that since the platform uses a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain, “it would not make sense” for Synereo to control more than 50% of the its native currency. This is because PoS blockchains can be manipulated by the majority holder of its native currency.

Konforty stated:

It was never our intention to be the central bank for our currency. Such centralization goes against the very principles Synereo stands for, but merely standing for principles is not enough.

The remaining AMPs under the company’s control serve as an incentive for developers to build dApps for its platform, the company explained. Additionally, the company said it will distribute a large chunk of its AMP holdings among new users joining the network to incentivize content creation.

Dawn of Decentralized Social Media

Decentralized platforms have the potential to give more control to the users, as well as reward them for their content. Steemit, Yours, and Akasha, make up some of the next-gen social media platforms that will compete with current giants, like Facebook and Twitter.

As these next-gen competitors attempt to make Facebook obsolete, social media users face a potential future where they become empowered to not only control their own privacy, but also share in the spoils of their online community.

Do you think this concept has potential to dethrone Facebook? Let us know in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Synereo, shutterstock.

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