removing the cost for real users to join and contribute to the network is an existential problem farcaster needs to solve

most people don't pay for social media - doesn't matter if it's $1 or $10 - it's not something they're used to

this is also an existential problem for apps building on farcaster

If you remove cost, you have infinite spam.

If you gate sign ups, it's not permissionless.

Warpcast has tried a couple of large, reasonably scaled experiments with free sign ups and the long term retention rate is basically 0.

Forgive me, but I believe Farcaster works better as a niche social network, specifically for artists, crypto enthusiasts, creators in general, and like-minded users. Competing with the major players would be impossible unless it introduces a groundbreaking innovation, similar to how ChatGPT can challenge Google