At the beginning of May 2024, one of the most coveted conferences - FarCon 2024, focused on decentralized social networks took place at Venice Sign, Los Angeles. FarCon was organized by Farcaster, one of the fastest growing decentralized social networks. During FarCon, Tako protocol and Jam, along with co-host DEGEN organized a Creator Economy Summit. Having been through FarCon, I will share in this article why the access to this event is highly sought after!
The exact location at 57 Windward Avenue was kept relatively secret, only known to the organizers and attendees. After arriving in Los Angeles, our team went to the summit venue and found a cafe across the street - Menotti's. We met Dylan (@dylsteck.eth) and other attendees. People were wearing Farcaster purple tops and even DEGEN Fedora hats! The atmosphere was relaxed, no one was trying to sell any projects, just genuine connections.
A pre-event “Sunset Welcome” warmed up attendees and facilitated the distribution of FarCon passes. These NFC-enabled passes, issued by IceBreaker, allowed attendees to easily connect with each other using their phones.
We estimated that around 300 people attended the event, including Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero, Messari CEO Ryan Selkis, and a16z partner Sriram Krishna. There was no stiff atmosphere around these people, everyone was just having fun while enjoying food and drinks. We took the opportunity to connect with old friends as well as the guests we had invited over the next few days!
The Cult Of Farcaster Begins
We kicked off the FarCon Summit back at 57 Windward Avenue. The courtyard was packed with attendees, eager to hear from the key opinion leaders in the farcosystem. Many attendees came in attire that had Farcaster elements, such as the signature purple color or purple fedora hat. It was nothing like the usual crypto or web3 conference, people turned up in costumes, the gathering was almost cult-like!
The crowd was largely builders oriented with high quality creators and investors among them. The energy level was off the charts, sending good vibes through the courtyard.
Stalls were set up around the corner, distributing and selling merchandise, even Coinbase was selling coffee.
Everyone cheered as the event kicked off with a keynote by co-founders of Farcaster - Dan Romero (@dwr.eth) and Varun Srinivasan (@v). They were dressed in purple wizard costumes, reflecting the fun, spontaneous and community-driven culture. It was unlike any other conference that you have attended before, where founders came in t-shirt jeans or suited up. The energy and fun level are unparalleled!
The duo shared their journey in creating Farcaster, where Dan made hundreds of calls in the beginning to onboard users onto the platform. Currently, Farcaster has about 47,000 daily active users and over 357,000 users onboarded (according to farcaster.network). They recalled how the launch of Frame led to an exponential onboarding of users because it was the first time users could click and interact with a cast, for a transaction to take place.
Dan shared casually that he created the keynote slide on an Uber ride, which had three key points that they will focus on: 1) Grow with crypto, 2) Create cozy corners, 3) Make more legos.
I caught up with Dan off-stage, on his thoughts around the development of the creator economy. We also discussed how Jam and Tako protocol can have a deeper partnership with Farcaster, by onboarding more users in Asia.
Keep Building On Base. Target To Bring On The Next Million Users!
Jesse Pollak, Creator of Base and Head of Protocols at Coinbase spoke at the event as well. Jesse encouraged people from all over the world to bring their expertise to build on base, do what they love and he believes the products will get better! He remains committed to bringing the next million users onchain, and highlighted that Onchain Summer is coming soon!
Nearly 1 million new crypto tokens were created last month, a number that is twice the total created on Ethereum from 2015 to 2023. New tokens are dominated by tokens on the Base chain, which has experienced tremendous growth under Jesse’s influence.
In addition to FarCon, we spoke with Jesse about the success of Jam and Tako protocol’s recent Base and Farcaster meetups in Hong Kong and Dubai. It was very inspiring to work with Jesse. He expressed his support and looked forward to our next event.
EGEN’s founder, Jacek (@jacek), shared his thoughts on DEGEN and his current work. His focus is mainly on the practicality of L3 DEGEN, highlighting its potential use outside the Farcaster network and even in real-life payments. This is an interesting angle because this attempt may introduce DEGEN beyond Farcaster and into the hands of other cryptocurrencies or Web2 users, driving the adoption and value of tokens, while DEGEN was originally just a meme.
I mentioned earlier to share why the access to FarCon is highly sought after, the reason is that this event is so cool, unlike any other conference. The speakers and key opinion leaders were approachable off-stage, while attendees could chat to them as peers.
In addition to developers and creators, we saw many high-quality VCs and investors at FarCon, including Matt Huang from Paradigm, Jane Lippencott from a16z, Mike from 1confirmation, and Eliqian from multicoin capital. Everyone came together to work together to promote growth and build the Farcaster community. At the conference there were no clear distinctions between customers and users, suppliers and vendors, only members of the Farcosystem!
Lights On. Onchain and Onskin!
The day ended with an after-concert party where attendees enjoyed the music. There were drinks and stalls offering fun activities around.
One of the stalls offered live tattoos, such as the Farcaster or DEGEN logo. The attendees were equally full of spontaneity and participated in the tattoos like true degens.
The event was both fun and inspiring, and lived up to its uniqueness for the participants.
The Creator Economy
One of the highlights at FarCon was the “Creator Economy on Farcaster” summit organized by Jam and Tako protocol, along with co-host DEGEN. The event focused on the current state and future of the creator economy. We invited many well-known developers and creators to share their insights on the panel topics.
Before the panel discussion began, attendees were surprised to enjoy local favorite In-N-Out Burgers and Tacos!
It was so good, that the Fox at Metamask raved about it too!
The topics included,
Panel 1: How Decentralized Social Networks Empower Creators
Panel 2: Redefining Creators’ Economy and SocialFi
Panel 3: BUILDers building & Communities in Farcaster
The panelists, a mix of creators and developers, shared their experiences joining Farcaster. When asked about the future of Farcaster, Colin from Paragraph said that he hopes that user wallets can be personalized when connected to any product. Aneri from Coinbase summarized the meeting and said that by 2029, their goal is to attract 1 million developers and 1 million users onchain!
Colin also announced that Paragraph is taking ownership of the Mirror product. They raised USD 5 million from USV and Coinbase Ventures. The team is thrilled to accelerate their mission of fundamentally changing how creators build & grow direct relationships with their audience.
Another hot topic was the tipping model and the future of SocialFi. Alex Kwon (@ace) defended the tipping mechanism in Farcosystem, saying that the general consensus is that as long as you tip for a certain value, the offline character is just a game point that can be exchanged for entertainment. Alex Masmej (@alexmasmej.eth), founder of Drakula, added that tipping in DEGEN is positive, and the lightweight element makes it easier for creators to accept.
DEGEN founder Jacek (@jacek) responded that he hopes the reward game will last longer, until 4 years later, when users can win 1% of the total token supply. He mentioned that there may be potential changes in the reward allowances and mechanisms around DEGEN. In addition, he is considering using DEGEN on L3 and potential use cases outside of Farcaster.
When asked about building community in Farcaster, developers and creators alike said it can be a little complicated, but authenticity is key. Tim (@tldr) said the idea is to create real conversations and respond to things you find interesting. Follow others and they may follow back and continue these interesting conversations.
I wrapped up the session by sharing how Jam is building the onchain instagram and broke USD 10 million in transactions within the first 72 hours of launch. We are supporting creators through directly guiding them and providing grants to empower their growth in Farcaster.
Builders Must Hack!
During the summit period, builders were invited to join FarHack. A three day hackathon that focused on building applications for Farcaster users. It was high pressure as there was little time in between hacking and various events going on at FarCon.
FarHack came to an end and results were announced. The room with FarHack was packed with over 200 people who came to see the top 10 projects selected by judges. There was a vote by FarCon attendees and the crowd chose the FarHack winner, “Memecaster”, via frame by @eth_call. The team that bagged a prize of 1 ETH!
Memecaster helps users easily create memes by uploading an image and selecting text. Even though some people thought it wasn't the most innovative product, people voted for it. This shows the spirit and culture of FarCon, it's not always the most efficient that wins, it can be the most fun that wins!
After the hackathon, the builders were exhausted and we saw them taking a well deserved break. Below is a photo of @sinaver. Kudos to them all for working hard around the clock to deliver a product, the FarHack team deserved a break.
A Conference That Truly Builds Communities
During FarCon, there were many events held by various communities. There were sports events like surfing and a 5K beach run, as well as a builders brunch and photo walks, and even a Pickleball tournament.
All Good Things Must End
Jam and Tako protocol hosted a dinner for our guests at Marina Del Ray to celebrate the success of FarCon and the Creator Economy Summit. We invited creators, builders and investors to enjoy a great dinner at sunset.
Meanwhile at Santa Monica beach, other attendees were there to enjoy the sun and sandy beach.
Farewell & Look Forward
Each day at FarCon was filled with a variety of activities designed to promote networking, learning and enjoyment, ultimately blending professional and social interactions to provide a platform for active builders and creators in the Farcosystem. The community atmosphere was great. Interactions with high-quality builders and creators brought us insights and strengthened our confidence in building and further exploring decentralized social networks within this ecosystem.
It has been an amazing experience at FarCon, where people went from url -> irl. We had the opportunity to meet in-person with many creators and builders that we worked with before. We said our goodbyes, and look forward to connecting more people with Farcaster and building the future of decentralized networks together!
Our team will be focusing on preparing for the next event and building the ecosystem. During our meetups in Asia and the Middle East, we found that people had a huge interest in Farcaster and decentralized social networks. We intend to combine the experience gained at FarCon and bring the same experience to Asia.
The Asian market is relatively new to Farcaster in terms of product adaptation. There is a considerable gap between market demand and what the current ecosystem can support, especially in terms of language and user experience. Tako protocol is focusing on addressing this market gap and moving towards a more inclusive community. If you are interested to participate or know more about our product, reach out to us!
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