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.

This acquisition will help Llama support River’s governance across its ecosystem with the protocol integrating open-source smart contract technology directly into various platforms.

Leveraging Llama will allow River’s stakeholders, including node operators and domain owners, to access built-in tools that will strengthen governance mechanisms, according to a blog post detailing the transaction.

For example, node operators or domain owners can now submit proposals on protocol changes through secure and transparent voting.

“In short, this acquisition clarifies the ability for each community to automatically distribute their own fully on-chain DAOs with a treasury system. Through this framework, members can discuss and decide how to allocate funds and manage their communities,” River wrote in his blog post.

In March 2024, River implemented a protocol aimed at transforming the development of messaging applications. The smart contracts platform, which operates as a Layer 2 blockchain, offers compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

River smart contracts in Base allow the protocol’s domain creators to manage features such as pricing and gate access.

Meanwhile, Llama allows protocols to leverage the governance and access control platform for a variety of governance goals. These include managing smart contract transactions, treasury, protocol parameters, and emergency functions.

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

River aims to make headway in the messaging app market, which is currently estimated to be worth over $200 billion. According to Ben Rubin, developer of the Towns on the River platform, there’s huge potential for “private, ownable and monetizable group chats.”

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