EM, creators.

On June 7th, Res Ipsa and Humpty hosted Official Channels Day — a moment of reflection and vision-casting for one of Farcaster’s most beloved features. What started as a lightweight alternative to hashtags has become a defining primitive for community onchain. But where do we go from here?

Dan Romero, Co-founder of Farcaster, joined us to unpack the current state of Channels, why they matter, and what’s next.

Let's get into it!

They started as a hunch. The first few channels — like Purple and Farcon — were simple tests to break out of the Ethereum monoculture and experiment with interest-based spaces. The results? Powerful. Suddenly, people weren’t just posting; they were building micro-communities.

“We were hoping to get people talking about topics beyond the monoculture… and it ended up working out pretty well.” — Dan Romero

Watch the full interview on YouTube:

At first, channels just looked like hashtags with a fresh coat of paint. But then something happened: community leads stepped up. Moderators emerged. Norms were shaped. Channels became homes. And with that, a new kind of responsibility emerged — running a channel started to feel less like posting and more like… founding a business.

“Running a community… it’s not just creator work — it’s entrepreneurial work.”

Power users want deeper controls: moderation tools, roles, analytics, even gated access. But newcomers? They need simplicity. That tension has made channel UX tricky to scale. Dan admits: the Farcaster app can’t (and maybe shouldn’t) solve this alone.

“People want innovation and features for channels — but they also want the core app to implement and maintain them. That creates tension.”

There’s a common misconception floating around: if the app manages it, it must not be decentralized. Dan clarified: channels are decentralized at the protocol level (thanks to FIP-2 and Snapchain), but their names and metadata are still app-level… for now.

“The misconception is that channels aren’t decentralized. They are — at the protocol level. What’s not fully decentralized yet is the metadata.”

The next big sprint? Pushing channel configuration fully into the protocol, so anyone can build on top.

Dan laid out three potential paths:

1. Simplify — Keep the main app focused on reach; make channels a lighter experience.

2. Open Up — Let third-party builders like Cura run wild with advanced tooling.

3. Disentangle — Treat channels more like open infrastructure. Let niche apps own the depth. Let Farcaster app own the breadth.

It’s clear the Farcaster team is leaning into decentralizing further — not less.

While discovery is improving with LLMs and topic clustering, Dan emphasized what machines can’t replicate: vibes. At the end of the day, channels aren’t just about content. They’re about belonging. Identity. Intentionality.

“AI can help you find people. Channels help you find your people.”

Farcaster isn’t building the next Twitter. It’s building something different. Something protocol-first. Channels might just become the “smart contract” layer for people — portable, programmable, and composable. And the people building on them? They're not just users. They're creators. Entrepreneurs. Architects of the new internet.