INTRODUCTION

I've been a $DEGEN holder and supporter since Day 1. I care deeply about this community and its direction. After listening to Jacek and Colton in a few X spaces and the DegenAnniversary livestream, I wanted to pull together my thoughts on a simple strategy for the future of $DEGEN.

The following document is totally open for discussion and could, once formalized, be used to motivate and steer the community towards action.

CONTEXT

Summary of some things that are helpful to cover before diving into a proposed strategy:

• $DEGEN launched a year ago out of the fun, games, and experimentation in the /degen channel in Farcaster.

• $DEGEN was distributed to Farcaster users based on their participation within Farcaster, creating strong alignment between its growth and the broader success of the ecosystem.

• $DEGEN exhibited signs of product-market fit with tipping (farmers-aside). Its frictionless tipping system has become an integral part of the Farcaster experience, allowing users to reward each other seamlessly without feeling like they are spending their own money.

• $DEGEN Layer 3 showed signs of life, but after being down for several days in May 2024, builders and users lost trust and withdrew funds. Now, Jacek and Colton have been working on providing proper tooling to restore trust in builders and degens alike.

• Products that expand outside of the Farcaster ecosystem (e.g., X) can gain broader public attention and adoption (e.g., $BANKR).

• Coinbase Wallet will soon begin ingesting Farcaster data, including frames, creating a new intersection between social and financial interactions.

STRATEGY

A Three-Pillar Strategy for the Future of $DEGEN

To build on $DEGEN’s momentum, I outline four key pillars, each with clear objectives, actions, and KPIs.

Pillar 1: Experiment in Farcaster

Experiment and incubate $DEGEN related products within Farcaster & Degen L3

• Objective: Use Farcaster as a sandbox for experimentation, creating new $DEGEN experiences, products, and more.

• Context: Farcaster remains the best testing ground due to its highly engaged, crypto-native user base and recent integrations with major wallets.

• Actions: Organize builders to build on $DEGEN and develop content-based and Vegas-style ideas such as token-gated content, v2 frame experiences, and more.

• KPI: Number of active $DEGEN builders, engagement of $DEGEN products.

Pillar 2: Expand & Decentralize

Expand features that show signs of product market fit to other platforms and communities.

• Objective: Scale and decentralize successful $DEGEN-based products beyond Farcaster to platforms like X, Reddit, and TikTok.

• Context: Products that have shown signs of product-market fit (e.g., tipping) could a) expand to other platforms (X, Reddit, etc.), reaching a broader audience & b) be decentralized to allow other communities to use these features

• Actions:

  • Launch MVPs of PMF features (social tipping, raindrops(?)) on X, Reddit, and other platforms.

  • Decentralize PMF features (social tipping) so that other communities could leverage them

• KPI: Engagement rates across platforms, community feature adoption.

• Note: $DEGEN could still be Farcaster-first, offering multipliers for using Farcaster over X or other platforms.

Pillar 3: Grow the DEGEN Community

• Objective: Strengthen the $DEGEN community by fostering organic growth

• Context: Community engagement is the backbone of $DEGEN. Sustained growth requires both retaining existing members and onboarding new ones in fun and rewarding ways.

• Actions:

  • Continue exploring ways to leverage new Farcaster features (e.g. wallet) to distribute $DEGEN

  • Continue to build awareness and a home for the $DEGEN community through $DEGEN aligned experiences

• KPI: Growth & retention of $DEGEN-holding wallets

CONCLUSION

$DEGEN is uniquely positioned to be the leader in decentralized social experimentation and can continue to push the boundaries of decentralized social engagement.

This strategy simplifies the path forward by focusing on experimentation, decentralization, and community-driven growth, ensuring that the $DEGEN community has a clear roadmap to build, expand, and thrive. By executing this approach, we not only reinforce $DEGEN’s role within Farcaster but also position it for success in the broader decentralized social economy.