Mask Network and its Bonfire Union funds hits $100 million milestone to further support decentralized social protocols

Yahoo Finance

Mask Network(Mask), the leading decentralized social network protocol, has announced it will launch the second fund of its venture arm, the Bonfire Union, marking a total of US$100 million for two funds since its establishment in 2022.

The goal of Bonfire Union is to strategically invest in decentralized social networks and infrastructure. To date, more than 120 projects have joined the Mask Network ecosystem under the banner of Bonfire Union, including some of the fastest-growing Web3 projects such as RSS3, Lens, and Scroll.

“Mask Network has been actively contributing to and supporting the decentralized social network community through a series of grants and donations,” says Suji Yan, the founder of Mask Network. “With the new fund, more initiatives can get our support.”

Founded in 2017, Mask aims to build a user-friendly bridge from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 decentralized apps. It has grown into a Web3 social conglomerate investing and building decentralized social apps, developer tools, protocols, and creative content to empower more people to join the Web3 world. The Mask team runs the largest collection of Mastodon instances, with more than two million users. In November 2023, Mask Network’s affiliate Sujitech LLC donated US$100,000 to Mastodon, the largest single donation that the non-profit decentralized social media platform has received to date, according to Mastodon CFO Felix Hlatky.

Mask has launched 3 rounds of the Web3 Social Ecosystem Grant since 2021, supporting about 100 projects with excellent Web3 innovations. In December 2023, Mask established a non-profit entity, Mask Network Academy, which provides financial and technological support to the world’s top universities and journalism programs with the goal of promoting Web3 research and story-telling.

Furthermore, Mask Network and its social aggregator app, Mask X -Firefly App (Firefly), have jointly launched a US$10 million builder initiative dedicated to further accelerating the development of all decentralized social protocols through subsidy.

Mask launched Firefly as a social aggregator app for Web3 natives. In April 2023, Mask made its first significant acquisition with the team behind RARA, a social curation protocol for NFTs. “Mask is one of the few teams who are thinking about how big Web3 can really be, “said Lawson Bae, Founder of RARA and Head of Growth at Firefly.

“The time is ripe for more talented and dedicated innovators to come together and build Decentralized Social for the future,” says Suji Yan, the founder of Mask Network.

With the newly established US$10 million Decentralized Social Initiative, Mask Network and Firefly are calling for decentralized social protocols and builders worldwide to join the cause of building a truly free and open Internet.