This Monday, the blockchain based social media network Minds.com announced a massive partnership with Medici Ventures, a subsidiary of Overstock.com. According to a press release, the social media startup has received a $6 million Series A investment from Medici. In addition to the large investment, Overstock.com founder and CEO Patrick M. Byrne will also be joining the Minds board of directors. In a statement, Byrne said:
“There has been increasing excitement in recent years over the power of blockchain technology to liberate individuals and organizations. Minds’ work employing blockchain technology as a social media application is the next great innovation toward mainstream use of this world-changing technology.”
Bill Ottman, Founder and CEO of Minds, says that Byrne will be a great fit to the team because of his support of blockchain technology and internet freedom. Ottman said:
“It makes perfect sense for Patrick Byrne to join Minds’ board of directors. He understands the critical nature of using blockchain technology to help real people as it pertains to the increasingly urgent issues of user rights, privacy and Internet freedom. He shares our strategic vision, and we welcome his voice on the board.”
Minds has been growing in popularity this year, as the dominant social media platforms have begun banning the accounts of social activists and independent journalists. Ottman told TechCrunch that the site has also seen an increase in users due to government censorship in many different corners of the world. Ottman explains:
“In June 2018, Minds saw an enormous uptick in new Vietnamese of hundreds of thousands users as a direct response to new laws in the country implementing an invasive ‘cybersecurity’ law which included uninhibited access to user data on social networks like Facebook and Google (who are complying so far) and the ability to censor user content…The rise of an open source, encrypted and decentralized social network is crucial to combat the big-tech monopolies that have abused and ignored users for years. With systemic data breaches, shadow-banning and censorship, people over the world are demanding a digital revolution. User-safety, fair economies, and global freedom of expression depend on it – we are all in this battle together.”
Last week, dozens of high profile independent media organizations in the US had their Facebook and Twitter pages unpublished simultaneously, despite the fact that they had good reviews and many had well over a million followers. Over 1000 pages were taken down in the purge, and many of those organizations have found new homes on Minds.
Medici has been making big moves since Byrne sold 774,303 shares of Overstock.com for over $20 million dollars last month. Earlier this month, CryptoGlobe reported that Medici was making a significant investment in a company called VinX. VinX is a blockchain startup that is hoping to integrate this new technology with the wine industry.
Just last week, tZero, Patrick Byrne’s securities token exchange, officially launched their token on the Ethereum blockchain.
