Alexis Ohanian’s firm Seven Seven Six has partnered with Solana Ventures on a $100 million initiative to develop decentralized Web3 social media projects. 

Reddit Co-Founder Funds Solana Web3 

Solana just took a step closer to becoming a decentralized social media hub.

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian made an appearance at the Solana Breakpoint Conference in Lisbon today, confirming that his venture firm Seven Seven Six has partnered with Solana Ventures on a $100 million initiative geared towards decentralized social projects, such as social media built on Solana.

There are hopes that this initiative will further the Web3 movement and help create decentralized versions of current web architecture. The goal of Web3 is to minimize centralized control and allow for ownership, creation, and direction by the community of users themselves. Raj Gokal, COO of Solana Labs, said of the fund launch: 

“Web3 turns users and creators into owners and stakeholders, a change that can’t come soon enough to social media. Social media in the metaverse will be a collection of millions of self-sufficient communities, and there’s nobody better to help great teams build that future than Alexis Ohanian.”

Ohanian’s firm’s stated focus is on people, culture, and community. He claims that Solana’s high-performance blockchain provides “an unprecedented opportunity to fuse social and crypto in a way that feels like a Web2 social product but with the added incentive of empowering users with real ownership.” FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has also touted Solana’s technical capabilities upon the announcement of his exchange partnering with Solana Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners for a $100 million Web3 gaming initiative. 

During a Monday discussion at Breakpoint, Bankman-Fried said that decentralized social media “could be absolutely huge,” while also highlighting Solana’s high throughput capabilities that make it ripe as the blockchain of choice for social media. 

Disclaimer: At the time of writing, the author of this piece held BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.