Trend-farcasting

I am questionably qualified to give much of an opinion about Warpcast. As I’m writing this, I have nearly 1.5 months of Warpcast usage under my belt, and I spent most of my time at the IRL Writeathon (graciously hosted by @adrienne) asking other attendee’s how they use the platform.

If I learned anything from the Writeathon, it’s that our passions are powerful (even if we don’t fully understand where they’re taking us). I wanted to write down my understandings and predictions for Warpcast, in 10 or so years, because I identify as a futurist maxi. I’m always looking forward to the newest new thing, and I love working adjacent to tech because that’s where the world’s most interesting problems are being discussed. It has occurred to me that I’m a bit of an outlier (I’m a very non-technical builder, in a very high-technical space) but my special sauce is paying close attention to the invisible energy that makes tech adoption either happen or not. This energy, lovingly referred to as “the vibe”, is everything… the relationships we form, the identifies we ascribe to ourselves, the exchanges we pursue, the impressions we collect and give, the personalities we run towards or away from, the culture and subcultures we engage with… you get it. The vibe is what makes up the lived experience surrounding a piece of technology.

If you can cultivate the right vibe, you can cultivate the future.

There’s three vibrational potentials that I feel Warpcast putting out into the world. If we tune in to these frequencies, this is the present and future chain of effects I foresee. I’m no psychic nor power-user, but I’m writing this with my eyes clear and heart full.

One of the most intriguing qualities of Warpcast is its "open source, build-as-you-want" ethos, which creates a blue ocean for builders to innovate and craft unique experiences. Builders want to make integrations or tools that cater to people’s needs, and the area where I’m seeing a lot of attention coalescing is tools for bridging offline experiences with online spaces. The examples I’ve seen range from photo-sharing apps, selling merch, creating and sharing events, and even personal, IRL milestones… and it’s just the tip of the iceberg for what could come next. I think the market for these on<>offline apps is bigger than most might have anticipated, but it makes a lot of sense for a community of early adopters. Early adopters are highly open-minded, and require high high high trust signals from their environment (nascent industries tend to be high risk, and being able to distinguish promising opportunities from potential scams is a necessity). The reigning supremacy of conferences and hackathons as a critical touchpoint for web3 start ups only proves my point (and consider the countless origin stories beginning with, "I heard about it, I was curious, I went to a [hackathon, event, party], and I was hooked"). These offline events foster deep, meaningful connections that are the mortar for long-term relationships, and eventually, mission-driven evangelists for your project.

This trend, that web3 audiences have an intrinsic need for authentic connection that hasn't been met by crypto-native apps, finds a home on Warpcast. Content is rewarded based on its quality, and I predict that the experiences that will be ranked favorably will be the ones that happen when we all gather somewhere together. As more of us find, create, and participate in cool events, we naturally inspire others to join, contributing to a virtuous cycle of engagement and growth. I further predict is that this approach could be a highly effective onboarding ramp for the non-crypto native user. Facebook originally gained traction by spreading organically on college campuses—people saw their friends using it, became curious, and decided to download it themselves. Tinder also initially gained traction from offline provenance: the founders sponsored an event where admission was contingent on people downloading the app, which was their gateway to earning one of their first cohorts of daily active users. I would love to see Warpcast double down, and invest its resources in micro grants for people to host IRL events. These events could be strategic with plus-ones (i.e., to RSVP for the event, you should use Warpcast, and if you don't have it, you either need to get it or be someone’s plus-one). By embedding Warpcast into the fabric of real-world interactions, the platform bridges the gap between the abstract promise of “decentralized social networks” and the lived experience of “I went to this amazing event, had a great time, and met cool people, all thanks to this incredible space that I want to be a part of”.

The current plight of being an influencer today is that it’s quite burdensome, and the amount of time it takes to constantly create new posts, stay relevant, and keep up with the pace of social media is either a 1.5x-full-time job, or completely impossible. Interestingly, Warpcast offers an alternative pathway for garnering engagement. First, is by posting to the feed, which functions similarly to Twitter and provides a stream of real-time updates. The second is by engaging in the channels. These channels are most similar to subreddits, allowing users to form organic communities around a personal brand, or a shared interest. I think the channels that will ultimately be the most successful will be the ones around niche topics, and moderated by a small group of people. Splitting the responsibility of moderating a channel, getting people to engage with your content, is way more sustainable than when it's resting on the shoulders of one lonely creator (see also: metalabel’s entire thesis). If channels are managed by multiple people, they’ll shift the focus away from a lone genius to a shared vision, and when Warpcast does eventually start to monetize, I think these channels will be the first places that brands look to for partnerships. Channels have all the best qualities of a micro-infleuncer, they are made up of people with strong relationships to niche-based communities, based on something authentic, like personal beliefs. These partnerships will reinforce multi-player creative coordination, which will further decentralize what we know today as “influencers”.

The last thing I’m predicting is based on the current crisis facing legacy social networks – enshittification. This happens when the value that is created across a whole ecosystem is constricted to the few instead of freely circulated by the majority. The opposite of enshittification would have to be the free-movement of goods and value through an ecosystem, the rising tide that lifts all boats. This is where the founders have a choice to make: do they want to go down the path of enshittification (hopefully, not) or do they want to hard fork? Assuming they want to fork, they will need to make sure the value of the network can freely circulate, which would look like algorithms optimized for synchronicity. Synchronicity, in this sense, is matching between proclivities and interests, fostering a community where needs and wants flow naturally between participants. In my personal life, I call this “small favors culture”. In small favors culture, we aren’t embarrassed or afraid to ask each other for help (a ride to the airport, a cup of sugar, and office to host a hackathon) instead of just taking an uber, ordering instacart, or booking a wework. Small favors culture is peer to peer, in action. It stands in contrast to the scarcity mindset that ultimately enshittifies a network, and it can flourish with the right social engineering. "Likes" are a very good example of how this has been applied in the past... they are completely artificial, yet they hold measurable power over our behavior.

What would it look like for small favor culture to find a home on Warpcast?

• People connecting with others who share their passions, facilitating meaningful conversations, and exchanging small favors with each other. The market cap on where this can go is people’s abilities, their skills, and their imaginations

• Algorithms that focus on hearing and responding to needs, rather than dictating them to us

• “Small favors" becomes it’s own currency (this one is a stretch, but hey… $FAVOR)

We all crave meaningful connections, and we know there’s more to life than chasing power badges. This platform could become a space where technology enhances our ability to connect and support each other, ensuring that the value generated by the community is shared and celebrated by all its members.

When I went around the table at the IRL Writeathon and asked everyone what they liked most about Warpcast, every answer included some version of "it has high signal." To the best of my knowledge, Warpcast cultivates this "high signal" through its integration of on-and-offline content, niche communities centered on shared interests, and the potential for a vibrant "small favors" culture.

As someone who has spent much of their career crafting content strategies, I, Jordan (regular human), often find myself ironically detached from the platforms I specialize in. My passion has always been to share and discover meaningful content with the cool people I meet, both online and offline. Today, it feels like the “social” in social media is drowning in an overwhelming tide of "media," in a way that feels irrevocably broken.

Warpcast has more of its future ahead of it than behind it. It has the potential to recapture the magic of the early, more golden era of the internet. It's more than just a new platform; it represents a paradigm shift in how we connect online, fostering a decentralized network built on mutual aid, shared interests, and the collective energy of its community. This, ultimately, is the future I envision – technology that empowers authentic human connection, not just mindlessly chasing vanity metrics.

@jovianbrowne: For always putting inspiring ideas in my brain. Thank you for all your work and the knowledge you've shared with me about building safer and accessible virtual spaces, weaving affirmative cultural messages, and building new worlds alongside our partners

@adrienne, @jayce, @jessjay, @timcox, @jachian for answering my silly questions and teaching me what a frame is

A post that inspired my initial direction for this essay

The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok. Or how, exactly, platforms die

Social Media is Dead

I have been trying to implement small favor culture in my own life, by clearly stating what I want to give, and receive from those who intersect my work.

My give: This essay, as a contribution to The Writing Hackathon. I loved @adrienne's call to action, that the future is designed by storytellers, and her emphasis on our role in these very technical spaces.

My ask: There’s only so deep I could go with the turnaround of one week, and my own limited exposure to Warpcast. If you agree with what I’m saying, help me validate it! If you disagree, please tell me why. If you want to pick my brain about anything else, find me on the red-est corners of the internet ✌🏽 - JLR