Today, Purp (the founder of DegenDao) announced that he’ll be dropping a portion of his upcoming $purp tokens to FBI. Previously, Proxy (founder of Proxy Studio) dropped 2% of the supply of ProxySwap tokens to FBI. These are not one-off instances. Base and Jesse continue to support us in our efforts with Base Builder grants. Others have expressed similar interests.
Funnily enough, none of it we asked for. And, all of it came retroactively through our contributions to the Base, Farcaster, and the Superchain ecosystem.
All of it will go back to making FBI a force in bringing the world onchain.
More on this later, but first origin story.
After sunsetting Purple Pay in October, I decided to spend some time alone exploring the onchain economy. Beyond narratives and VC theorists, what were people truly doing here?
In 3 months of seclusion from everything else, and a deep focus on exploring ecosystems and product offerings, I came up with 2 theses for the cycle-
Bitcoin will scale
Consumer social will finally take off
To hedge bets, I spent some time with Bitcoin devs trying to explore a few ideas (Using BTC to secure PoS chains, Bridging between BTC L2s, etc) and some time getting active on Farcaster. I joined Cassie’s inaugural Hunger Games, made friends on FC, and had fantastic conversations. Channels had just come in and I found myself among the top casters on Meme, Founders, and Venture Capital.
Eventually, I was having so much fun here that I decided to bail on Bitcoin and take a more concentrated bet on Farcaster.
Coincidentally, soon after, frames launched and completely changed how the world saw decentralized social networks, albeit sufficiently decentralized.
I saw most frames coming out from the West, and not a single one from India. Despite personally knowing so many incredible builders here. I was surprised nobody was building on what felt like a completely new way to experience the onchain economy and participate in it.
So I dialed Bhadoriya and asked him if he wanted to host a hackathon on Frames. We created a telegram group called Farcaster Builders India, added a few folks we knew who were active on Farcaster, and joked about how FBI was such a cool acronym that it should be a thing.
From a fun hackathon, we pieced together in 3 days to now an organization with a vision to onramp the world on Base and the Superchain.
All in less than 4 months.
We are going so much higher.
Collect this post as an NFT.
Wrote a small note on our beginnings. There's so much ground to cover, all that's happened. Everyone that's contributed and supported. We are going so much higher.
y’all are truly an inspiration. i wanna go faster and higher every time i see your work
Same! Proxy and I are both so pumped to work closely with you
🚀⬆️
thank you for your service 🫡
A big Thanks to you too @jessepollak Your passion has been the source of motivation for everyone here in /fbi.
honestly, higher
higher, together
I’ve worked in consulting and investment banking for 10+ years. Done partnerships and deals at an insane scale. Never have I been this bullish about a partnership. Higher, together.
I agree, but what specifically makes you this bullish?
🔥🔥🔥 role model
Great share! I've have been loving seeing this developed and solidify in-feed to something amazingly impressive, even in this super early stage. Imagining the possibilities and places where you will take it is insanely fun to me. I'll be here to cheer you on, always.
Man! Only the beginning. I am truly psyched by the possibilities. Appreciate you always!
the energy is palpable buenos días
This is awesome bro. You are doing amazing in channeling the passion of building in all of us. This is something which is exceptionally beautiful. Thanks for being the biggest catalyst of this crazy community. ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
It’s us bro! Together. I still remember you getting the FBI channel like yesterday.
India is a sleeping giant.
seen the entire journey of this starting as a telegram group to where it is now, and I know you are just getting started! ↑↑
Higher, together.