Social Network Minds Raises $10 Million for Decentralized and Encrypted App

The social media website Minds, which focuses on free expression and privacy, has raised $10 million from tech freedom organization Futo to develop a decentralized and encrypted app.

VentureBeat reports that Minds, the crypto-focused social network, has raised $10 million from tech freedom organization Futo to develop a decentralized and encrypted social network and messaging app.

Futo is owned by Yahoo Games founder and WhatsApp seed investor Eron Wolf and is dedicated to tech and policies that give control of computers and the internet back to the people. Many other social media networks, including Facebook, mine user data for ad purposes while Minds focuses on user privacy and uses open-source technology.

Minds is a crypto social network with an instant messaging chat app allowing users to communicate in real-time. It has grown to more than 14 million users since it received a funding round in October 2018.

Minds CEO Bill Ottman told Breitbart News: “It’s promising that big tech is mutually despised by both the left and right, but for slightly different reasons. Our goal at Minds is to bridge that gap and find the common ground while always remaining grounded in the principles of open source, privacy, decentralization and free expression.”

He added: “Both sides object to the overreaching surveillance (so let’s do something about it!) but there’s serious debate about how to handle speech. A minority of free speech advocates on the left definitely exist, but much of the left is pushing for increased censorship to handle misinformation and controversial speech. Regardless of whether or not this sentiment comes from ‘a good place’, the empirical evidence and numerous peer-reviewed studies show that censorship often causes an increase in violence and polarization, pushing extreme ideas into darker corners of the internet where they can’t be combated. ”

The latest round of financing for Minds capitalizes on previous funding from Medici Ventures, the blockchain subsidiary of Overstock.com that recently partnered with Pelion Ventures. Minds also introduced Mind Chat, a decentralized, end-to-end encrypted global communication app with secure video conferencing and file-sharing earlier this month.