The Next Chapter
Farther
3 min readΒ·
Like many Farcaster users, I was swept up in the Degen frenzy earlier this year. Amid the excitement, I kept thinking there was an opportunity for a Farcaster-native token that offered branding and ideas not steeped in degenerate crypto culture, and could appeal more to people attracted to Farcaster specifically for its potential to improve social media.
This was the initial idea behind Farther. I branded as a Farcaster evangelist token, launched by airdropping it to power users, and didn't set an initial price. I explicitly said it had no intrinsic value and let airdrop recipients decide what it was worth.
While I was reluctant to follow Degen's path by launching tipping, the Farther evangelist program (tweet for token rewards) wasn't very effective. It was clear tipping was at the top of the list of things Farcaster users were excited about, so I built a tipping system for Farther. I now believe this was a mistake.
What I'm about to write will likely be obvious to some, blasphemous to others:
In my view, most (all?) Farcaster tipping tokens aren't sustainable. They require massive inflation and create constant sell pressure that can only be temporarily countered during a perfect speculative storm like Degen experienced. Eventually the music stops.
Farther has recently been allocating out about 5 million tokens per day in tip allowances. That's ~150 million per month, which is 15% of the total supply. That might work if the number of holders is quickly growing and nobody is selling, but the majority of these tokens are allocated to existing $farther holders, and the majority of the tokens get swapped for more stable assets as soon as they're claimed.
It doesn't help that there are many similar tipping tokens and Farcaster's active users has declined since Farther launched. Many tippers have been getting marked as spam accounts, which leads them into tip trading echo chambers. This is all the opposite of what I was trying to build with Farther.
All these realizations led to Farther V2, which essentially turns each tip into a bet in a prediction market on the social capital of the recipient. The hope behind this was if tips could be imbued with more tangible value, it could provide a path to fixing the economic model. This was a long shot, but the combination of Farcaster and OpenRank seemed like a fresh design space where tips could be used to boost engagement for underrated users and potentially reduce user churn. If enough of the Farther community bought into this vision, I thought it buy some time to transition to bringing more of the system onchain and make tips paid directly by tippers.
The V2 design has mostly been a success. While not perfect, it has shown good results in only a few weeks. Veteran tippers earnestly giving the most to underrated users outside of the Farther community have risen to the top of the leaderboard.
But I unfortunately overestimated the community's appreciation of the need to fix the economic model. Most tippers simply want to trade tips with each other so they can cash out at the end of each month. All attempts to restrain this behavior has been met with frustration and large amounts of selling (see replies here).
FartherDAO
Despite the trajectory so far, I still think Farther has potential. The community is active, the token still has some value, most of the supply isn't in circulation yet, and the V2 scoring system seems to be working.
But given my increasing feeling of misalignment with the community, not to mention the large amount of time and money I've already spent on the project, I think the most ethical path is to turn it over to the community through a DAO.
This is the plan:
I've already burned the Uniswap LP tokens so liquidity stays permanently locked.
Tip allowances will pause indefinitely after the current cycle, ending tomorrow at 9am PDT.
Liquidity bonus rewards will also stop. The onchain incentive program will continue until its scheduled end (Oct 27, 2024).
Snapshots for August claims will be made within the next two days and claims will go live shortly after. As announced last week, claims will use Sablier airstreams that linearly vest over 30 days.
FartherDAO has been deployed. I encourage developers to review its code (tests here). It uses Governor.sol with minimal changes. It was deployed with a 1-day voting delay, 1-week voting period, and 100k $farther proposal threshold. If I don't receive any messages alerting me to bugs or concerns about the initial parameters, I will send all the treasury funds (except the founder allocation) to it one week from today.
The founder allocation is also being streamed by Sablier, linearly vesting until August 2026.
In the event that the community decides to burn the treasury tokens to remove them from future circulation and wants the same done with the founder allocation, I will do so.
If not, the founder allocation can remain available for someone interested in taking over the project. I'm open to purchase offers that would include all the assets (github repo, database, domain, @farther account, etc).
In the meantime, I can help orchestrate any proposals & votes on how to move forward. I can also post token-gated polls in the channel.
Anyone who knows me knows I'm obsessed with Farcaster and want to do everything possible to help make it succeed. I'm hoping Farther can still be a part of that.
Huge thank you to everyone who believed in this project, especially those of you who have given positive feedback and encouragement along the way.
Its very interesting how large factions of both optimists and skeptics continue to believe AI is "just a tool" and can't/won't replace us. Its literally making advanced discoveries. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01523-z
Hey Giga! You wrote an article about farther before, which included experiences and reasons for failure. I can't find the link to it, if you still have it, can u please share it with me. Thanks!
This one? https://warpcast.com/farther/0x3bbe8fc9
I think that's it! but the frame doesn't work. Can you give a direct link on paragraph?
AI is without contest the biggest technology shit of all of our lives. Everything is going to change. Much more than everyone thinks
what is something you think will change bc of AI that most people are not thinking?
Relationships, education
https://x.com/tokteacher/status/1923729961946579252?s=46 The way I understand it is that itβs using gradient descent to optimize the process or said in another way.
"It's fascinating to observe how AI's capabilities are evolving. While many still view it as merely a tool, its role in making advanced discoveries suggests a shift towards a more autonomous contributor in various fields.
People don't realise that cost/intelligence is about to become irrelevant. 2 types of AI users, those that are victim to it and algorithms that utilise it, doom scrolling etc, & those that are building, experimenting and enhancing their work flow.
August claims are now live on Sablier. As mentioned earlier, they vest for 30 days. The stream must be initiated by you, which you can access by following the link from your profile page.
So I actually really like this stream thing. This is the first Iβve ever seen it. Thanks for showing me something new and cool.
My pleasure! Its really underrated.
Is it fully safe ma'am ?
ma'am is it safe?
What happens after the 30 days? Do I need to go back on Sablier to claim them? Or how does it work? Thanks!
You can withdraw at any time, but since it streams/vests at a continuous rate you will only be able to withdraw whatever has vested when you withdraw. It will reach the full amount by the 30th day after you initiate it.
Ah ok, thanks!
Sorry, but I am super disoriented on the Sablier interface. What button would we need to click to withdraw when the time comes? Thanks!
Vesting had to be done immediately, although it should have been taken over a shorter period of time, within a month or two
It is safe?
Never any guarantees when it comes to smart contracts, but the team is very respected and the protocol has been audited by multiple firms: https://github.com/sablier-labs/audits
bros asking the real questions
Is there a demo how to do it?
When you go to the page, connect your wallet & click this 'check eligibility' purple box. I can post a video if needed.
Thanks @farther Do we disconnect after streaming starts?
my previous wallet got compromised and drained, then i had it changed on warpcast, the address i used for eligibility in tipping was this same one but now iβm being told i canβt access the rewards, that i have to use the compromised one to do so. how can i fix this please?
I'm not sure how the process works exactly, but the stream can be transferred to a different wallet. You will likely need to initiate it with the compromised wallet, then transfer. Stream links: https://app.sablier.com/airstream/0x9cbfe66ef22702cb213c49af4ec633f898689c2a-8453 https://app.sablier.com/airstream/0xde016f22177914979b49cbae00c5c1849ddb0ec0-8453 If you need help, the sablier team is really responsive in discord: https://discord.gg/MjVdMtz2
wasted my time and money to claim only $3 noice!
Such a scam
A suggestion like this from the owner of a project where many people have lost money is really unreasonable and strangeπ
I committed to doing this in attempt to *save* the project after months of selling. But everything I tried just made people freak out and sell more. Explained more here: https://paragraph.xyz/@farther/the-next-chapter?referrer=0x97e3b75b2eebcc722b504851416e1410b32180a3
It was not expected with farther coin π΄π΄ 500$+ lost already @farther
Coin is worthless now thanks to you mate
Anyone dares to explain why I have to wait for 30 days to claim my 2 dollars?... ain't punishment enough? I just want to claim the full amount and move on ... Its like waiting for a slow death.
I think the idea was to keep the price a little bit more "stable". But it just keeps sinking
No one got time for this BS stability .. all these coins are going to new lows and there is no stopping
And my streak is in farther channel π©π
I committed to doing this when I was still holding on to hope that I could fix/replace the economic model of tipping allowances. But then when I tried to restrict tip trading, many people freaked out and sold. That resulted in even less time to better system. Explained it all here: https://paragraph.xyz/@farther/the-next-chapter?referrer=0x97e3b75b2eebcc722b504851416e1410b32180a3
I was one of the very few who still held it down but the fact that YOU didn't listen to anyone and kept on bulldozing and micromanaging how people do things and slowly changing the rules of engagement. By throwing all kinds of curveballs in one season was the straw that broke the camel's back. You might have the best ideas but they were extremely rushed with no consent.. don't blame anyone for selling as we even suggested lock in tokens for allowance to prevent the bleed but of course you ignored that too as you said it is not efficient. The project is dead so it's time to move on and instead of holding tokens hostage with this stream thing just let people claim it right away... I don't get why we all have to wait for the full amount in a month. And yes I read that " The next chapter " and I sold immediately... You just don't listen to anyone and to me that's not leadership. Best of luck on any future project you got down the pipeline.
Yes trueeeee, and we don't know sablier safe or not safe , price hard down and he make rules hard again. I'm confused π
so sorry Chalie. Farther is shit.
I just subscribed to @farther on /paragraph! Check it out:
Done. Thank you dudeπ« Fireπ₯ & π for my dear Lizaπ€
Dearrrr Itβs all your kindness Thank you so much but I donβt have mask allowance to tip you back π Sorry dude ππ»
It doesnβt matter at all; itβs no big deal.π«Ά
250 $WILD For my dearly
Thank you so much dude π«Άπ»
dailyart dailydrawing #3727 . geometric blood drawn
250 $degen
π€π€π€
π x 500
5000 $FARTHER
thank you . unfortunately farther shut down today . https://paragraph.xyz/@farther/the-next-chapter?referrer=0x97e3b75b2eebcc722b504851416e1410b32180a3
O, I guess they paused them already
yes . π . but i do appreciate the gesture . ππΌ
πx300
Oops
i guess weβre done here π https://paragraph.xyz/@farther/the-next-chapter
People are right to call me out for removing Farther from my bio last night. Very dumb move. I did it out of embarrassment. I had genuine intentions and was trying to be as transparent as possible, but in my strongly-held opinion, the value of tipping tokens is a mirage and only sustainable in a bull market (no offense intended to other tipping token projects but I can't lie about this). I should have listened to the voice in my head telling me this before launching Farther, which happened during the latest peak of interest in crypto & Farcaster. (continued in replies...) https://paragraph.xyz/@farther/the-next-chapter
After realizing how unsustainable it was, I tried to build a path to something that could work. Most tippers rejected it and revolted. At that point, the only ethical move I could see was to put the community in control of the treasury and offer to burn the founder allocation. I'm proud of some of what was built (still think the V2 scoring mechanism using OpenRank data has potential), but I made zero money from this. I'm very sorry to anyone who viewed Farther as an investment. I explicitly said it had no intrinsic value from the start, but I take responsibility for creating false expectations. I love Farcaster and hope others can learn lessons from this.
Thank you for your honesty here. Keep experimenting, good luck on whatever your next journey is
Much appreciated Jason. Means a lot.
π«
> I love Farcaster and hope others can learn lessons from this. No harm in trying, of course, the hard work is evident and generally thankless! But to your last point, just because token tipping was new to FC does not mean it was net new. Itβs also important to look at how these things have succeeded or failed outside our narrow garden here as well.
You should be ashamed, and it is another dumb mindless move just like all of your fart her moves You also deleted your last cast where people were calling you out. The amount of mistakes you do instead of just admitting you rugged and work your ass off to compensate Like everyone is calling you, you are just a small man who made a dishonorable exit, and thought that no one will know its you. a brainlet
You worked really hard. Ignore everyone else who is complaining. No one is entitled to free tokens π€·π» You also put in a lot of liquidity to try to make it work. I doubt all the farmers complaining put in any liquidity themselves.
Thank you Sam! The last thing I want to do is contribute to narratives about crypto being full of scams, and a lot of Farcaster users are relatively new to crypto so I understand why they'd be upset.
You are really empathetic and patient and it shows! Please donβt let it bother you too much
Why do you think people here are relatively new to crypto?
It says a lot that the majority of them just dumped their tokens instead of trying to take control of the "farther dao" and work towards making farther what they wanted it to be (which would've ended up with people farming it until it was worthless anyways)
I pinged my group chat on this, but I think they all sold tbh.
Commendable bro. It takes a good man to take ownership of your mistake and address it head on. I donβt have and hard feelings and could clearly see the effort put forth. I also thought the new mechanism was unique and implemented rather quickly too which shows some dev skills.
Thank you for all your efforts in its development, but making decisions about changes constantly without considering the opinions and feedback of loyal users is confusing. And this is the main factor of discouragement and distrust of the users. Such problems exist in any system and we are already seeing it in other projects. IMO, the main reason for the failure of projects is not paying attention to the main users, not market situation! the anger and discomfort of the artists' community, who are one of the most important and key members of the community, proves this. IMHO, it is better to provide conditions for people to send feedback to express their opinions about the problems of the project. At least, this can be useful for future community decisions.
I appreciate that and agree founders generally need to listen to users, but if users are demanding that an unsustainable system with ponzi characteristics continues (ex: extreme token issuance & rampant tip trading), itβs unethical to bend to their demands. Letting it continue just prolongs false expectations.
I completely understand this, I agree that one should not give in to false demands! Because we are facing this problem in the Rare project. But since the goal of the project has been to support art and artists from the beginning, And this makes the users hope for the team's efforts to improve in this direction. Maybe it's a bit hard, but setting the goal to achieve a proper structure should have been set, which I think was not the case with farther, right? I guess the main problem is due to the pressure of farming on the system! In this case, if the rules and goals are not specified from the beginning, it will lead to its lack of restraint in the development path. I think I had not seen any restrictive conditions in Farther's rules! I'm not sure, but this is really important!
I think you handled the entire project and the exit well in a world rife with theft the best we can ask of a founder is honesty it sucks that ppl invested money and time but itβs a good reminder of what we all need to be reminded of: most crypto tokens are a culture of belief with very little true utility
Thanks Jon much appreciated π€π€
Relaunch and take actions on everything what went wrong, you learned alot from past mistakes don't let them become only mistake take benefits from it, don't give up
I actually bought a lot of Farther bc I worked with ur contracts at sound and I was excited that uβd figure it out But it also fine if u decide to not do that. I took a gamble with my money on ur token
honestly agree with you. itβs a tough situation bc something you stated has changed significantly, and itβs hard to move forward without impacting a bunch of people. i think giving it over to the community is a viable path but some protest is to be expected
onwards giga. we live and learn. lego
πππ
For anyone who has been tipping $Farther: The tipping cycle is being paused indefinitely after this season. Read here π» https://paragraph.xyz/@farther/the-next-chapter?referrer=0x97e3b75b2eebcc722b504851416e1410b32180a3
Unfortunate, but timing is everything in the market. This summer has been punishing. Glad they are being so open about their next moves.
True.
1994 $farther
π« Invalid tip from @angelikakollin to @manuwilliams Already tipped recipient during this cycle Please tip undderated users to increase your tipper score! The @hot100 is a good resource. Tip amount: 1994 β¨ Remaining: 1,994 β¨
tip 7000 $farther
π« Thanks Flex! The last "hurray" ? If there is one more allowance tomorrow, you'll get it all. 17100 $units π
β Valid tip from @flexasaurusrex to @manuwilliams Tip amount: 7000 β¨ Remaining: 137 β¨ 7,000 β¨ / 7,137 β¨ (98%) π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©π©
so sad
1000 $farther last oneπ«‘π«‘
Thanks Shoaib! Yep, I am already outβ¦
No worries no we are all out officially
β Valid tip from @psydeffects to @manuwilliams Tip amount: 1000 β¨ Remaining: 4,053 β¨ 4,000 β¨ / 8,053 β¨ (50%) π©π©π©π©π©β¬β¬β¬β¬β¬
Interesting
Thatβs very unfortunate to see this.
Sorry to hear this
FartherDAO: The Next Chapter - Tipping will pause indefinitely after the current cycle - The treasury will be turned over to community control via FartherDAO Please read the blog post for all details and post questions below: https://paragraph.xyz/@farther/the-next-chapter
Reaction video coming soon π«‘
rip him a new one pls david sos
eager to hear this take
this is a shit show always have been you didnt listen to anyone and now its dead... not even gonna compensate anyone or let us get what we earned and jeet it
What most people were demanding was massive amounts of free tokens that they could trade with other tippers. As I explained in the piece, that is a broken economic model. I couldn't continue burning my own money on a broken system. I already spent thousands trying to make it work.
what a dishonorable exit to a smal dishonorable man
in other words, you are an absolute brainlet.
For real haha if you anyways are going to kill it. Why not wait another damn day let us play the last claim π
so basically, your ego is shot ok, sorryβ you didnβt deserve the degen grant you shipped half baked all year. Farther should have continued evangelizing CT if you think a tipping token is deflationary. Literally doing anything or 0 was better than βindefinitely stopping because this isnβt MY visionβ π
down 66% with one announcement Not very βchampioning the Farcaster communityβ of you, not very demure, not mindful
https://warpcast.com/smokingfrog.eth/0x0c6c7294
Can we talk about salvaging the tipping infrastructure? I think there is a strong play even without more $FARTHER issuance. DM'ing you (again!)
wow π smh
I spoke and described ideas in DM at the first day. I'm sure they would work and involve more people in Farther. The second part is not to distribute the farther to those who now have 0 allowance, but to block it. Why did I and some others have to pay more than $250 to get the allowance, while others are just given out and it's not banned. And the third point is to take the degen model as a basic, as you wouldn't want, but it works, blocking and vesting
Seems like a sincere effort, hopefully you go farther in the long run as a result of this experience, and the same for many others who participated as well, even if it does not seem like a good outcome for anyone as of now, you never know how it all works out
Bro people bought 100k farther for 1000$ now price is 10$, just because of this guy arrogant this Project went to drain
@teledildofonics
well, that was stupid of me to buy into instead of locking up my degen, smh thanks for the heads up yo
ππ«π«