2024.06.18 - 27 minutes ago Shared to Web3's social network, decentralization and anti-censorship are one aspect, but if it is to meet the needs of Web3 users, the core still needs to revolve around transactions.
As a social protocol with a valuation ceiling of 1 billion US dollars and many first-tier investors such as a16z and Paradigm, how is Farcaste developing now? Are ecological applications really playable? What are the innovations in the ecosystem?
With these questions in mind, I recently experienced more than 50 Farcaster ecosystem applications, and I would like to share them with you:
1️⃣My Farcaster Ecological Exploration Experience
2️⃣Views and thoughts on Web3 Social
3️⃣ Explore the essential data dashboards of the Farcaster ecosystem
🎩Farcaster Ecosystem Exploration Experience
1️⃣My biggest feeling is "interconnection": one set of identity can be used in various clients; although each client has different focuses, the content I care about is also interconnected, and I feel familiar wherever I go, without having to build an account from scratch.
2️⃣Farcaster is quite open: users can add "action" widgets, and they can click on the widgets next to each post, for example, to count how many $DEGEN rewards the post has.
There is also a "Frame" applet that can be inserted, which allows users to directly access various functions and services without leaving the Farcaster client, such as games, minting NFTs, claiming airdrops, subscribing to news, shopping, and voting. Later, you can even add on-chain functions such as one-click swap. This greatly enhances the scalability of the Farcaster client, making the application more diverse and the user experience smoother.
3️⃣The tokens of Farcaster ecosystem are also interoperable, making "consumption" more convenient. For example, $DEGEN can be used in clients such as @perl_xyz @Jamfrens, and posts can be rewarded or social assets can be bought and sold with $DEGEN. This is also good for some clients that have just started and have not issued tokens. New clients can have a set of circulating currencies to use first; and these tokens can also gather ecological consensus to a certain extent.
(Btw, the "Happy Beans" on the Farcaster official client @warpcast_ - $warps is still centralized and not on the chain. The official also said that it will not correspond to future earnings. So, does $DEGEN or other tokens have the opportunity to obtain pricing power in the Farcaster ecosystem? For example, let users form a consensus on "$DEGEN standard".
4️⃣ The content is more vertically segmented and of higher quality: users can choose channels they are interested in, such as memes, founders, fitness, etc. The average quality of content on Warpcast is higher than that on Twitter, which is related to the quality of the initial users who joined.
For ordinary users, when the platform was just launched, it was difficult to keep up with the flow of content, so most of the OG users who joined at the beginning were influential. I found that many OG users rarely posted on Twitter, but were very active on Warpcast, including Farcaster's founder @dwr.
🎩Other thoughts on Web3 Social
1️⃣ Most users don’t care what is being built, but whether it is easy to use, interesting, and can meet their needs. Even the underlying protocol needs to have its own application end to allow users to experience the underlying value - so the 20 people in the Farcaster team spent more than a year to build the official client Warpcast; @TakoProtocol is building the top-level application @Jamfrens while building the social Infra.
2️⃣Web3 social networking, decentralization and anti-censorship are one aspect, if it is to meet the needs of Web3 users, the core still needs to revolve around transactions - such as @friendtech's mechanism for buying and selling keys; @interfacedapp's content is centered on the on-chain dynamics of the accounts you follow. Users can see what tokens the people they follow have bought and can directly swap them in the app. To put it bluntly, it still has to make users make money and have a wealth-creating effect. $DEGEN During the period of explosive popularity, the number of posts on Farcaster also increased significantly.
3️⃣ The combination of social networking and memecoin, as well as DeFi, will lead to more ways to play. For example, now you can stake a certain user on @alfafrens and share their revenue. In addition, in terms of customer acquisition, it may be possible to directly combine the user's on-chain and off-chain activity to give initial points/airdrops.
4️⃣The channel in the Farcaster client is a good channel for project community building, because it can be combined with incentives to generate UGC, and combined with the Frame applet to have richer gameplay. For example, when $DEGEN was first hyped, users could get airdrop points by posting $DEGEN in the Degen channel; the more interactions a user receives, the more rewards he can give to others; the more popular the post, the more rewards you receive.
5️⃣How open will Farcaster's ecosystem be? As mentioned earlier, Farcaster is an underlying protocol that attracts developers to build on it. I think it is indeed more open and friendly than http://Friend.tech. However, as a link in the ecosystem that can capture relatively more commercial value, the client currently has most of the traffic and functional innovations concentrated on Farcaster's own Warpcast. In the future, how will Farcaster avoid "monopolizing" traffic and product functions while more vigorously supporting the diversified development of the ecosystem? Regarding this issue, I am quite curious about the team's next strategy.
🎩Explore the essential data dashboards for the Farcaster ecosystem
Farcaster Ecosystem Project: https://decaster.xyz
Farcaster overall data: https://farcaster.network
Dune Board:
https://dune.com/pixelhack/farcaster
Meme coin data: https://farcaster.in
Popular users: https://fc.hot100.xyz
