This article is aiming for providing basic information about Farcaster and its ecosystem for those who recently started to navigate it.
0. What is Farcaster?
1. A sufficiently decentralized social graph protocol created by Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan, both of whom are veterans from Coinbase.
2. The term "sufficiently decentralized" implies that anyone can read and write data and build apps on it.
3. Vitalik has been shilling Farcaster for a long time, with the protocol also being highlighted in Messari's 2024 research and Variant Name Service research.
4. Farcaster is responsible for storing items such as a user's handle, casts (Farcaster's version of tweets), and reactions (like likes and recasts).
5. Users are free to create clients such as Warpcast on top of the Farcaster protocol.
6. A client serves as an interface for accessing the protocol, similar to how Twitter is to the protocol, and Tweetdeck is to the client, with the current state of Twitter integrating both the protocol and the client.
7. The Farcaster architecture can be divided into on-chain and off-chain components.
8. On-chain: Optimism contracts that perform the following three tasks:
a. User ID registration
b. Storage registration
c. Key registration
9. Off-chain: A peer-to-peer network of hubs that store user data and are interconnected.
10. To reduce costs and improve performance, Farcaster stores most user activity data, such as casts, follows, likes, and profile updates, off-chain, minimizing on-chain operations.
11. As mentioned earlier, Farcaster is a sufficiently decentralized network that allows anyone to read and write data, facilitated by the operation of hubs.
12. Anyone can become a Farcaster hub by running computer software.
13. Hubs download on-chain Farcaster data from Optimism and off-chain data from other hubs.
14. Each hub stores a copy of all Farcaster data accessible through APIs, similar to how blockchain nodes synchronize with each other.
15. Using a hub enables reading and writing data on Farcaster, and anyone looking to build a Farcaster app must interact with a hub.
1. What is Warpcast?
16. Warpcast is nominally Farcaster's wallet and the most renowned Farcaster client.
17. It can be simply viewed as Twitter utilizing Farcaster as its protocol.
18. Beyond Warpcast, various clients leveraging Farcaster's data can certainly be developed.
19. For related information, check the A16Z curated Farcaster clients or the Farcaster applications homepage.
a. Among these, FarQuest is actively accumulating points, known as Farpoint.
20. While Warpcast has introduced Farcaster to the world, the driving force behind Farcaster's rapid growth is Frame.
2. What is Frame?
21. Frame is a new feature of Farcaster, built as an extended version of the Open Graph Protocol developed by Facebook, which is a content standard.
22. It can be understood as a portal within Warpcast that allows users to use apps they've created.
23. In essence, using Frame within Warpcast means seamlessly using App A from within App B.
24. Since its launch on January 27th, Farcaster's DAU has surged, surpassing 40k.
The reason Farcaster has been able to attract so many users through Frame is due to its ability to
utilize user data stored on the blockchain, allowing
anyone to freely create the applications they desire, which can
operate seamlessly within Warpcast without data leakage.
Unlike Web2 SNS where embedding links, photos, and polls is possible, the differences with Frame include:
a. Anyone can utilize user data to set conditions for executing frames.
b. Applications can operate internally.
c. Various derivative activities are possible through a logged-in wallet.
For instance, current examples of Frame's unique capabilities include:
a. NFT pre-minting can be conditioned on specific comments, recasts, likes, etc., and verified for issuance.
b. Playing text-based games or viewing articles in card news format is possible.
c. Ordering cookies with payment through Coinbase Pay or receiving token airdrops is feasible.
These interactions all occur through the simple action of pressing a button. The interaction process involves:
-> Pressing a button sends a POST request with a signed payload to a URL within Frame, which then interacts with other Frames.
-> The signed payload contains a cryptographic hash that can identify which button was pressed and the submitting user, enabling the distinction between bots and real users.
-> This process internalizes the inconvenient CAPTCHA mechanism.
The NFT minting process includes:
-> Developers create an NFT contract and pre-fund it to cover minting costs.
-> When a user clicks the mint button within a Frame, the server finds the user's connected address and issues the NFT from the developer's wallet to the user's address.
-> Incorporating a payment process in this step is also straightforward.
Interaction between Frames is certainly possible.
Another advantage of Frame is that developers can create a variety of applications without worrying about UI/UX, thus building a virtuous cycle of network effects.
The process of building network effects involves:
Farcaster gains popularity based on Frames.
Users flock to the platform.
Since developers can advertise and demo for free on a platform with 35k DAU just by uploading their app to a Frame, there's a strong motivation for Frame developers to create applications.
As more apps are created, more users gather, establishing a virtuous cycle of network effects.
McCormik describes this as "Small Apps, Growing Protocols."
Base, particularly, is the network where transactions through Frame occur most frequently (40%).
By declaring the cost of creating Frames on Base free through the Pimlico policy, Base has shown a very proactive stance.
Although Frame is still in its early stages, with most applications appearing simple and not very intuitive, considering that it has been only a week since their creation, the initial hype is deemed very high.
Should it successfully navigate through this transition period and establish a diverse Frame-based ecosystem, users could engage in numerous on-chain activities within Farcaster itself, eliminating the need to leave the platform and naturally increasing retention.
In addition to the mentioned Frames, the token $DEGEN also plays a role in energizing Farcaster.
3. What is $DEGEN?
$DEGEN, a meme token launched on Base as an ERC-20 token in January of this year.
It has 70% of its allocation dedicated to the community, with a planned inflation of 1% per year starting four years after its launch.
Currently, it is in the midst of its second of three planned airdrops.
Farcaster users are utilizing $DEGEN as tips to express gratitude or to execute specific Frames.
Each user is given an allocation of tips they can provide, with those receiving more reactions (likes, recasts, etc.) per cast being allocated more tips (independently of the DEGEN they hold in their wallet).
Providing tips is straightforward: writing "XXX $DEGEN" in a comment on a cast transfers the amount directly to the user's wallet address without additional steps.
Moreover, various experiments are being conducted, such as limiting the number of NFTs that can be minted based on the amount of DEGEN held.
Although DEGEN's position has not been explicitly defined, it is naturally becoming the representative coin of Farcaster.
However, the utility of tips has clear limitations, prompting speculation about future Frame-based uses of DEGEN.
For example, content that only users holding a certain amount of DEGEN can access, similar to OnlyFans, or the creation of games and roulettes using DEGEN.
4. IMO
The concept of apps within an app, facilitated by Frame, significantly expands the potential of Farcaster.
The platform has the potential to attract many users tired of the simplistic content production on Twitter.
The seamless on-chain expansion from hot topics in Warpcast to Base demonstrates the platform's flexible growth.
With solid backers and founders, along with consistent hype from Vitalik, the project clearly stands out as one deserving attention.
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