Dear Subscribers,
I'm still playing with the form for this newsletter, so week-to-week it might look a bit different. If you have any feedback, my direct casts are open and my ego isn't bruised too easily. My friend kugusha.eth suggested I try not to ramble on at such tedious length, so I tried to cover a broader range of topics in brief this week. Why did I listen to kugusha? For one, she lives in Paris, a cultured and romantic city which is obviously far cooler than any of the various provincial exurbs I've squatted in across America this year.
Thank you for your support, kugusha, if there are any complaints regarding this letter I hold you fully & legally responsible for issuing refunds ❤.
Degen
Degen’s first post-staking airdrop went live this week. Obviously our favorite tipping token is down bad, but (don't crucify me) I’m beginning to see signs of an emergent tipping renaissance across the feed. Season 7 had 7,000 unique tippers, according to Jacek, solid vindication for the move from Open Rank & engagement allocations to the lock-to-tip model. This hasn’t translated into positive price action yet, but big ships turn slowly.
Microsub
Downshift.eth has reported increased adoption of his automated tipping product, microsub, at least one piece of convincing evidence that the Degeconomy is still producing.
Microsub lets locker's automatically distribute their daily tipping allocation to pre-selected users. Downshift frames these auto-tips as acts of patronage, support for people who deserve it, for whatever reason. Microsub users can still tip normally, and at the end of each day their remaining allocation is divided equally between whoever they've chosen to support. This makes it easy to tip some people routinely. Daily tips of 500-1000 $DEGEN add up over time, and I see Microsub as a way to ensure meaningful tips to select recipients throughout subsequent seasons.
Microsub just announced support for Hamchain, and I anticipate the service to grow in popularity given how simple it is to set up (head to microsub.me to check it out). The entire Microsub user journey post-signup happens via direct casts and in replies to casts. You can add or remove users from your list of recipients in a few moments, and the flow actually feels much simpler and more natural than most frames I’ve used.
If you're reading this downshift, lease allow me to write you an angel check. No strings attached I just want a piece of future profits in perpetuity.
Nook
Kartik announced the release of nook.social, a Farcaster review, tracking, and sharing app. It’s basically Letterbox’d or GoodReads for Farcaster. Last month, Nook sunsetted their alt-client, citing difficulty in user acquisition given Warpcast's monopoly. Nook.social is their first release since moving away from building a client, and was well received. Users can review anything on the webapp, or by simply using the "nook" composer action in Warpcast. I’ve enjoyed getting a hint of some of my FC friend’s taste when they post little reviews of movies or books, and I’m glad to see more expressive composer actions leaning into expressions of opinion, taste and personality.
Speaking of composer actions, Warpcast now supports 20! Personal favorites are nook, magi meme generator by Leo5, and payflow by sinaver.eth.
Swaye
Swaye launched a closed beta of their new product, “user generated prediction market[s] with uncapped upside,” last week. Confession, I gave Spenser money because I think he's a talented founder and I think prediction markets as we know them today (presidential elections) will gradually cede ground to Swaye-style social markets over time. Swaye's new app is a shift in approach for the platform, and treats prediction markets more like token trading than before. I've enjoyed playing around with the closed beta (invite codes: IVE432, 7ILMXB), my best trade so far was in the US vs. China Olympic gold medals market, where I longed China against biased, patriotic liquidity flooding into America shares with an overconfidence typical of us burgers.
On Swaye, you can buy or sell shares at any time until market settlement. Markets are resolved by their creators, so social trust is involved, and when a market finalizes all the liquidity from the losing bets is used to buy the winning shares. 12 hours post-settlement, trading resumes and the winning shares are liquid again, becoming what are essentially meme tokens. Markets are time-bound, bets win or lose, but post-settlement users have to sell their tokens to realize gains, as the winning token remains tradeable.
We haven’t seen this happen yet, but if a prediction market gets high volume and adoption, users could in theory carry the buzz of being right forward and treat their shares like any meme token with unlimited upside. I imagine the majority of winners will dump their shares post-settlement to realize profits, but can also see a scenario where a prediction market captures tons of attention, justifying turning a winning bet, or community of betters, into something more.
Pray that China keeps winning golds, I have money on the line.
Swaye markets are topical, hyperlocal and fun. Examples include:
Will @scottiepippen launch a shitcoin?
Will Warpcast ship reverse-chronological feeds?
Will MOXIE surpass 100k holders in August 2024?
Will Jesse Pollak go bald for Onchain Summer?
Right now there is 5.59 ETH total in markets, impressive considering the app isn’t open to the public yet. I’d like to see more casual, low-stakes /skininthegame on the feed, especially if we’re going to simp as hard for Polymarket as we have been.
Pray that China keeps winning golds, I have money on the line.
Network Highlights
Unrelated to our silly tokens, Ray wrote a thread on the political situation in Venezuela in a reply to dwr.eth. Its worth a read if you are curious about what has been going on with the recent contested election. I'm very glad to see people sharing their political views and opinions on Farcaster more casually and frequently.
Zinger hosted a “late night crew” spaces on buttrfly, which moved over to tavern after some initial technical difficulties. Attendees included brian kim, yb, matthew, ildi, six, jtgi, kartik, colin, geoff, kia, jp, michael pfister, welter, and many more. It was my first time staying up late enough for the 10pm chat and it was great. Good reminder that all the smart, cool builders on here are trying to figure out solutions to the same problems we all talk about: how to improve channels? how to leverage decentralized channel moderation? how to onboard more users? how the fuck can we promote more, better content? What are the best solutions for Farcaster content discovery?
Late night crew is a weekly call, every Wednesday at 10pm EST, and the gang’s goal is to “try every new Farcaster app and practice what we preach in decentralized social,” according to six. It’s a cozy corner if I’ve ever seen one. I plan to try and attend regularly.
User samo.eth tried to give v and dwr some startup advice, pleading with the well-capitalized team to put some of those Paradigm bucks towards marketing. V said “bad startup advice, unfortunately,” and Dan reminded samo that “in consumer social, product is marketing.” Samo also suggested that Dan assemble a braintrust and organize dinners where investors talk shit about Warpcast, a suggestion which “came across as patronizing.” Guess it’s hard to give unsolicited advice to extremely successful founders these days.
Rainbow co-founder Mike Demarais assembled a bunch of degens to come to Keccers’ rescue after learning that Kia had misled her into moving to Austin without a car, or a budget to buy one. Keccers has been braving a gauntlet of unhoused psychonauts walking around Austin, a driving city, so Farcaster users gave us one of those occasional, beautiful moments of generosity that crypto produces every so often, and crowdfunded a Toyota Camry for keccers, plus projected maintenance costs.
Moxie
Moxie launched this week, and I'v been researching and writing a lot about it. I couldn't fit my Moxie-takes into this newsletter without making the damn thing way too long, so I plan to release a special "Moxie Guide" weekend edition covering everything I think subscribers should know about earning Moxie rewards and bidding on Fan Tokens. Expect it Saturday, a little bonus to the regular weekly newsletter.
Keep winning, son, I know you
Proxy
