The Props Project is intended to empower the people who help digital communities thrive, and create better alignment between app developers and their users. Props’ open-source infrastructure creates a decentralized network of apps operated by independent developers, who share an underlying token, benefiting from collective network effects. Props abstracts blockchain’s technological and regulatory complexity for apps, enabling them to easily plug Props Tokens into any app in the network, in order to grant their users unique benefits and a financial stake in the very networks they help grow. Props is backed by Union Square Ventures, Venrock, Comcast Ventures, Zeev Ventures, and others.

The Props Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) guides the development of the Props open source code and tooling, evengelizes for the Props Network and is responsible for awarding grants to developers, app operators and content creators that adopt Props. The Props project was started in 2017 by YouNow, a live streaming app with 50 million registered users. YouNow launched one of the first digital-currency based two sided economies in the US in 2014, and sold over $75M worth of digital currency to its users, sharing the majority of its revenue with content creators. YouNow was also the first app to integrate Props, followed by five other multi-million user apps that have been integrating Props.