Web3 Community Platform Console Launches Beta to Fix 'Broken' Social Networks

As Elon Musk's Twitter takeover continues to embattle the social platform, many crypto enthusiasts that initially found a home there are looking for an alternative space to grow their community. Enter Console, a blockchain-based messaging platform that hopes to fix some of the issues that plague other social platforms like spam and misinformation and bring privacy and data ownership centerstage.

Founded by serial entrepreneurs David Leiberman and Chris Castiglione, the platform opened for beta testing on Thursday, calling itself the "evolution of group chat" by integrating Web3 tools that allow for greater collaboration between builders and communities.

"Today social platforms are broken,” said Castiglione. “Console puts the power back into the hands of communities. Users control their identity, and communities can leverage this trust to improve coordination and engagement."

Specifically, the platform addresses issues with other social networks like "spam, bots, and sock puppets" by offering features like identity verification through web wallet login and Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains. In addition, Console offers tools that support voting, threaded messages, events, bounties and treasury to help budding crypto communities scale their efforts.

"Web3 transforms the internet into powerful, interconnected and composable Lego, and Console is the base layer for assembling communities," said Castiglione.

According to the company, over 400 artists, non-fungible token (NFT) holders, creators and musicians have already been onboarded onto the platform. Trevor Owens, founder of Crash Punks and Console user, described the platform as "Discord built from the ground up for Web3 communities."

Read more: How to Find Your Community in Web3

The open-source platform calls itself "progressively decentralized, secure-by-design and community-owned." The beta launch is the first stage of the ConsoleDAO, the organization behind the platform aimed at "influencing, contributing to, and sharing in Console’s future growth."

"We see Web3 as a movement that returns the internet back to its roots – to build apps that return the power back to the people," Castiglione said. "I believe that if we’re going to build a more democratic, free internet, then we need to build it on a foundation of tools that respect those values.

Console arrives as the conversation about decentralized social networks continues to grow louder. Though tech titans like Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey have touted alternatives, no blockchain-based social network has yet to fully pry users away from centralized legacy platforms.

See Also: What Is Zion, the Web5 Social Network App?