Farcaster Bridging the Gap

Farcaster represents a significant advancement in social media platforms, offering credible neutrality, composability, and potential creator rewards. However, its adoption faces a crucial challenge: bridging the gap between Web3 principles and mainstream user preferences. This discussion explores the disconnect between the innovative features of platforms like Farcaster and the priorities of average users, proposing strategies to overcome this divide.

Web3 platforms like Farcaster excel in areas that are revolutionary from a technological and ideological standpoint. However, these strengths often don't align with the immediate priorities of mainstream users:

• Web3 Platforms Offer:

  • Credible neutrality

  • Composability

  • Potential for creator rewards

• Mainstream Users Prioritize:

  • Entertainment

  • Information

  • Engagement on their posts

Web3 has a lot to offer in as much as it can create a better experience, but mainstream audiences want those better experiences. They aren't interested in learning about the principles and investing in what might be. They just want to be where everyone else is. While these differing priorities create a fundamental challenge for Web3 platform adoption, they also intersect with a more nuanced issue: the evolution of social currency in the digital age.

Traditional social platforms have long relied on likes and interactions as a form of social currency. Web3 introduces a new dimension by bringing real and imaginary financial elements into the mix. However, striking the right balance is crucial. Monetary gain must remain secondary to primary social interactions, or the platform risks losing its core value.

If users feel that others are interacting solely for financial gain, it can degrade the quality and authenticity of social interactions. This is a balance that many platforms in Web3 struggle to maintain.

Many Web3 social platforms currently lean more towards "Fi" than "Social." They essentially function as finance games wrapped in social trappings, where the financial aspect becomes the primary focus. While this can be entertaining for some, it's not a sustainable model for broad adoption.

For these platforms to achieve lasting success, they need to attract and retain users who are primarily there for the social aspects, with the financial elements serving as an enhancement rather than the main draw. This shift in user base and motivation is crucial for long-term viability.

To bridge Web3 experiences to mainstream audiences, platforms need to rethink their approach:

1. Lead with traditional social currency, not digital tokens. The primary reward for participation should be social engagement and recognition.

2. Create experiences that are inherently engaging without relying on financial elements. The core functionality should be satisfying even if all token-related features were removed.

3. Implement what could be called a "Social in the streets, crypto in the sheets" approach. This means designing for satisfying social experiences first, then integrating crypto elements subtly to enhance, not dominate, the experience.

The key is to develop an experience that doesn't exist primarily for the blockchain but is made better because of it. Users should be able to enjoy the platform fully before they even discover that wallets or tokens are involved. While these bridging strategies offer a general framework for Web3 adoption, applying them to specific platforms reveals unique challenges and opportunities. Let's examine how these principles might play out in Farcaster's case, and what that could mean for its future trajectory.

I don't presume to have this figured out, but as framed, it's possible that the wide ranging appeal we see in Web2 is just not a possibility for a Farcaster client. The benefits of it may require some of the friction. Currently the cost of Farcaster usage is about $1 USD/month. This includes gas fees for account creation as well as for storage social data like posts, reactions and profile info. The fee also serves as an impediment to spam. It just can't be credibly neutral without the decentralization and the resulting fees.

The advertising supported business model allow for lower friction of use potentially allowing those platforms to be everything to everyone. Individuals using the application aren't paying for the service but instead the advertiser is in order to reach those individuals. Mainstream audiences don't care about how a service is provided. They don't want to have to learn. So while crypto natives commonly understand the nature of open protocols and digital ownership and the costs they include, someone like my mother or sister is not and they aren't trying to learn about it. A Farcaster client could sponsor it themselves but only if they have some other business model that makes that possible.

Success for Farcaster and its clients just may look different than the social networks that have come before it.

While this discussion focuses on Farcaster, the general challenges it faces are relevant to any project trying to appeal to a broader audience. The key to mainstream adoption of Web3 technologies lies in emphasizing the value desired by people who aren't inherently interested in the technology for its own sake. At the same time, blockchain products cannot compete directly with their Web2 predecessors. They are different animals with different strengths and weaknesses. As builders and consumers, we have to remember that as we define what success looks like.

As a space, we've certainly made a lot of progress recently. Coinbase's smart wallets and Privvy's embedded wallets have helped many projects diminish friction in their experiences. There are many examples of big improvements.

• Coinbase's free USDC transfers on the Base layer 2

• MoshiCam's integration of the Coinbase smart wallet and the Farcaster network

• Zora's creator focused marketplace and new mobile app

• Warpcast and all the Farcaster apps

We see these as the great achievements they are because we know what came before. Mainstream audiences don't care about what came before. They only care about what is today and we still aren't there yet.

Future success in this space depends on creating experiences that are inherently engaging and satisfying, with Web3 elements serving as enhancements rather than the primary focus. By leading with user-desired value and integrating blockchain features seamlessly, platforms can bridge the gap between Web3's potential and mainstream adoption.