Web3 has long longed for a blockchain-based consumer app that may attain escape velocity and deliver crypto to the mainstream. Farcaster hopes its network will do it.
Crypto-native users seldom have a smooth onboarding process. I tested Farcaster, a decentralized social application network, and it went smoothly.
Account setup takes four minutes. Farcaster populated my feed to avoid cold starts. I followed 60 accounts by the time my account was active, perhaps because I selected interests beforehand. I have one follower; follow me here.
To allow more people to sign up faster, Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero said on X that it doesn’t accept crypto wallet signups. “Mobile-first, no wallet, no crypto—Web 2.0 onboarding is the best way to do that.”
Today, Farcaster is a network with apps. Warpcast, a platform like X or Reddit that lets users create postings, or “casts,” mint NFTs, claim tokens, and transact, is Farcaster’s main application.
Over time, Farcaster should improve. Anyone can construct a data-reading and writing program on Farcaster because it’s public and decentralized. According to its documentation page, users own their accounts and interactions with other users and may switch applications. Protocols and decentralized networks that allow other apps to build on their technology usually do this.
The application is a decentralized, public environment, so builders and users may construct apps that enable social media-like activities.
Rapid growth
In 2020, former Coinbase workers Romero and Varun Srinivasan created Farcaster, which didn’t develop quickly. Romero said Tuesday that the network has witnessed 10x the rise in daily active users (DAU) in the previous 14 days, suggesting the co-founders are right.
Due to Frames, a crucial app upgrade that turned each “cast” into an interactive app, Farcaster now has over 61,500 DAU.
The day before Frames launched, January 25, Dune Analytics user Pixelhack reported 2,200 DAU on a seven-day trailing average for Farcaster. At the time of publishing, Farcaster had about 140,000 users, a small number compared to traditional social media networks. The crypto wave is powerful by crypto standards.
The graphic below shows Farcaster’s moment:
On January 26, frames were released to allow users to do on-chain or off-chain tasks without leaving Farcaster.
For crypto users, this is huge: no more switching apps to complete a transaction. Romero claimed on X in late January that its ecosystem-integrated authorization method reduces security issues and is “not spooftable.” As the network expands, hackers will test that claim more often.
For the normies, Farcaster offers a Web 2.0-like experience on Optimism, a layer 2 blockchain that scales the Ethereum network.
The app requires a U.S. phone number for free sign-up, $5 for an in-app purchase, or a friend who may pay $3 for your invite. Some may find the payment annoying, but Farcaster is trying to stop bot behavior on other social networks. Users can publish a limited amount of “casts” on the network’s apps, which may restrict bots’ reach and efficacy under crypto postings on X.
The software is decentralized and includes crypto capabilities, so users can buy warps, its in-app currency, to “perform a variety of onchain and warpcast-specific actions,” including forming a Farcaster channel to connect folks with similar interests together. Annually, that costs 2,500 warps ($25). Web3 and other applications have employed rewards-based tactics to increase adoption, such as offering 50 warps to friends who join via your link.
The app’s strategy varies from other Web3 social apps and is working. Aave’s Lens protocol or Friend.tech focused on using blockchains and Web3 technology for social interaction, while Farcaster hopes to focus on Web 2.0 strategies with blockchain capabilities like data control, application interoperability, and no censorship.
Warning stories
Farcaster is growing quickly, but we need more data over a longer period of time before we can call it a winner, let alone anything that might impact mainstream crypto acceptance. Thus, several crypto-friendly social ventures have risen and fallen swiftly.
Friend.tech witnessed a fast rise in transactions and growth in August, but within weeks, Dune analytics by user cryptokoryo showed a drop. Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, and others have numerous accounts, but how many users continue to visit them daily when the initial enthusiasm dies down?
To maintain momentum, networks and initiatives must provide fresh updates, apps, and tools to interest people. Previous Web3 social network studies show that the core loop must be more than conjecture to endure.
Romero remarked on X that Frames’ on-chain capability is now only accessible for Ethereum-connected networks, but the founders have teased compatibility for other blockchains like Solana. “People want it. So we ship, he said.
