River Protocol acquires Llama to power decentralized governance

River, an on-chain encrypted messaging protocol, has acquired Llama, a Founders Fund-backed smart contracts platform for decentralized governance.

The acquisition will help River buttress its governance across its ecosystem, with the protocol integrating Llama’s open-source smart contracts technology directly into its various platforms.

According to a blog post detailing the transaction, leveraging Llama will allow River’s stakeholders, including node operators and space owners, access to built-in tools that will bolster governance mechanisms.

For instance, node operators or space owners can now submit proposals related to protocol changes, with secure and transparent voting.

“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 launched in March 2024, introducing a protocol that sought to transform the development of messaging apps. The smart contracts platform, which operates as a layer-2 blockchain, offers compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

River smart contracts on Base allows the protocol’s space creators to handle features such as pricing, and gate access.

Llama meanwhile allows protocols to leverage its governance and access control platform for various governance goals. These include managing smart contract operations, treasury, protocol parameters, and emergency functions.

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

River seeks to make inroads in a messaging app market that’s currently estimated at over $200 billion. According to Ben Rubin, the developer of the Towns platform on River, there’s massive potential for “private, ownable and monetizable group chats.”

Dominating the messaging apps market today are WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, WeChat and Discord. Experts say decentralized is the future.