This article introduces Farcaster, a decentralized social network protocol that addresses the monopoly and privacy issues of Web2 social media, allowing users to control their data through decentralized identity and storage, and supports developers in building Web3 social applications. The article analyzes its potential as a leader, its connections with Base and Ethereum, the $180 million funding growth, and support from industry leaders, while also pointing out challenges such as slow user growth, high churn rates, and content management conflicts.
Every day we shout about Web3 and decentralization, but where is the impressive application that truly lets everyone experience what Web3 is, just like ChatGPT, where people immediately understand what AI is once they use it? Merely shouting slogans and discussing theories is useless. This is the most criticized aspect of Web3. There is indeed some truth to it; explaining crypto assets, DeFi, and NFTs to people doesn't resonate with them, it's too abstract. If there were a decentralized Twitter, a decentralized TikTok, or a decentralized blog, these are the real Web3 applications that people want to see.
Indeed, in the world of Web2, the core issues of social media have always existed—platform monopolies, privacy breaches, user data misuse, and even accounts being banned at any time. People desperately need a platform where they can voice their opinions anytime, a social media that won't delete posts or ban accounts. This is the protagonist we are discussing today: Farcaster.
What is Farcaster? How does it solve these problems?
Farcaster, a decentralized social network protocol, directly addresses the core pain points of social media. Its goal is not only to create a decentralized Twitter but to build a social network that users can fully control. In Farcaster, all social data is owned by the users; your identity and your content will not disappear due to changes in platform policies. Users have complete control over everything.
The underlying protocol of Farcaster is based on a decentralized identity verification system, ensuring the uniqueness and immutability of each user's data and information. It completely frees itself from the control of traditional social platforms through decentralized identity (DID) and decentralized storage. Most importantly, Farcaster is not just a decentralized social platform; it also allows developers to build more social applications on top of it. In other words, it is not just a decentralized product; it is a platform for producing decentralized products, similar to a layer, serving as the foundational layer for all decentralized social networks.
Getting to the point, Farcaster has not issued a token yet. I believe this project should be a big deal, currently the leader in decentralized social, in an independent track, with no competitors in sight. It is closely aligned with Base; when we discussed Base earlier, we saw that all their various activities were published on Farcaster, and their official website has a direct entry to Farcaster. Base is currently the leader among Ethereum Layer 2 chains, with industry leaders backing it, especially Vitalik Buterin, who is very active on Farcaster, sharing first-hand information directly on Farcaster. Elon Musk even called out Vitalik on X, asking why he left X, and many leaders from crypto projects are also active there. With ample funding, having raised $180 million, the founder mentioned during a live stream a few days ago that there is still $170 million in the account with no place to spend it, and the team currently consists of only 14 people, with investors like a16z, Paradigm, and Coinbase, representing absolute top-tier capital.
I have been paying attention to Farcaster for quite a while; I downloaded and registered at the beginning of the year. A few months have passed, and besides the advantages mentioned above, I have also noticed some issues that I want to share. The development speed is too slow; when I registered, the platform had over 400,000 users, and now it has only reached 720,000, with a high user churn rate. Many people leave after using it once or twice, including myself, for various reasons that I won't discuss for now. Additionally, as a decentralized platform, the content on it tends to be more unrestricted, leading to a lot of spam, which the platform has to manage. Of course, this management is only at the front end; the content itself is already stored on-chain, so we don't need to worry about that. However, this brings up the issue of centralized platform regulation, which is the paradox of decentralized social networks. I hope the project team can speed up their progress, solidify their stance, and reach a new level.
I've said quite a bit already, as we will be interacting with three projects next, all of which are relatively simple. One is a decentralized Twitter called Warpcast, which is a product developed by Farcaster itself, and the other two are ecosystem products: one is an NFT-based social media network called Drakula, and the other is a decentralized blog called Paragraph. Now, let's begin the interaction.
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