The trenches have arrived on Base

Base, Coinbase's layer 2 solution, is often admonished by crypto natives for its lack of degeneracy. Yet, by every conceivable metric, Base's growth has been meteoric. With nearly $2.7B bridged to their network and Ethereum-native functionality, Base seemed to have everything except that special sauce that makes crypto degens foam at the mouth. But that might be about to change...

Bot swarm

Pundits have made claims about the narratives that will drive crypto forward into Valhalla and beyond for the better part of this halving cycle. One such claim is that AI and blockchain will have a symbiotic connection; our digital compatriots' preferred currency will naturally tend toward digital. Unsurprisingly, this hypothesis is proving true before our very eyes in real-time. The rise of AI has dominated the last couple of years. ChatGPT took the world by storm; Nvidia has done nothing bu...

The Farcaster Paradox: A Platform in Search of Its People

As Farcaster grapples with declining metrics and internal strife, a deeper story emerges about the future of web3 social platforms. Despite outpacing competitors in funding and technical innovation, Farcaster faces a paradox: can a platform be ahead of its time technically while struggling to meet contemporary social needs? This analysis explores the tensions between technical achievement and user adoption in decentralized social media, and what it means for the future of web3 communities.

From Inside Farcaster Dev Day

Farcaster Dev Day was an intimate, invite-only event that brought together developers deeply invested in the network's future. As a relative newcomer, I felt a mix of excitement and nervousness - classic imposter syndrome - knowing I'd be rubbing shoulders with Farcaster OGs and creators of essential ecosystem tools. Still, I was thrilled to participate, network with exceptionally talented builders, learn about Farcaster's future, and make new friends (the delicious food was a bonus). While t...

Minting the Renaissance

Patronizing the arts is of great importance. Art is as important as language in the annals of history. It illuminates the moments in time wherein the artist existed and provides a subjective but often unfiltered perspective on events. Without major patrons throughout history, we might never have known the true nature of things as they were in the earliest reaches of human civilization. The internet has tarnished this behavior to a degree in that media consumption is often free, and if it's no...

Balancing Ideals and Practical Growth

Dan Romero on WarpcastI often see people Farcaster isn't "sufficiently decentralized". You're free to define what "sufficiently decentralized" means to you, of course, but how we think about it is laid out in Varun's blog post. https://imagedelivery.net/BXluQx4ige9GuW0Ia56BHw/a90fe4fe-303c-4814-1c56-d73678954c00/original https://www.varunsrinivasan.com/2022/01/11/sufficient-decentralization-for-social-networksFarcasterFarcaster promises a "sufficiently decentralized" protocol with various bas...

Revitalizing Digital Tastemaking

I have spent the last couple of years collecting, curating, and analyzing the digital art market. I am perhaps one of the few collectors who came from the physical world of collecting. After having amassed what I would consider a significant portfolio of works from a diverse array of artists, only to be robbed of more than half my collection, I sought solace in the world I knew best - blockchain. The digital art world promises immutable provenance, unlimited portability, and a new medium upon...

How to Develop a Farcaster Frame for Moxie

MotivationUnlike most social apps, which hoard data and capitalize on the network effects brought about by their users, Farcaster enables...

The free mint phenomenon

Recently, low-cost minting has taken the web3 art space by storm. The phenomenon gained momentum with XCOPY’s time-limited mint of digital flies titl...

The decaying orbit: a collector's journey

Digital art has a problem. Perhaps there's a solution somewhere out there.TL;DRTraditional and digital art funnels vary in significant waysHow and wh...