Farcaster

I think it's really important to lean into the onchain interactions that are happening between users. 

Your working theory (as I understand it) to onboard new users is interesting content. I believe that onchain interactions are a rich source of highly interesting social content that is basically not being surfaced at all in the app today. 

Here's a specific example: I'm in a groupchat with @zinger that we're using to trade. The man is an animal. It's engaging to watch him enter and exit positions. That wallet is probably connected to his Farcaster account. 

Why can't I see that activity on his profile? It feels like a slam dunk and a huge differentiator to other social networks. 

Show me when someone sends ETH to someone else. 
Show me when someone mints someone. 
Show me when someone is up 10,000x on a meme coin. 
Show me when someone uses some new DeFi protocol or makes a loan. 

There are apps attempting this, but w/o Warpcast's reach or eng chops. Eat their lunch. 

It's all there in the open!

Some chatter on this, especially around the “eat their lunch” phrasing

My perspective as a user: 

Warpcast has a difficult role to play: as the largest product on the Farcaster protocol, their actions will drive the majority of new user growth

Along the way, there will be other apps that emerge to fill gaps in the Warpcast value prop. Scheduled casts, onchain actions, real time chat, etc

As those features are validated by users, the Warpcast team is then faced with a choice: integrate these features into the main app (thereby stimulating growth), or intentionally avoid building it to reduce competition with ecosystem partners 

The rub: if Farcaster doesn’t significantly grow, then all ecosystem apps will likely die anyway due to lack of sufficient users. 

My personal framework around this topic is less vibes driven and more realpolitik; as an app builder, you have to be prepared for your great feature idea to be copied as soon as it’s proven to be successful with users.

Building /bright-moments - minting onchain art IRL | /purple #15 | FID 129 #magikarp

/ted | exploring the onchain frontier | surfing @ venice, ca | eating @ gjusta / gjelina

i've had a few conversations since this post that have convinced me SIWF is a bigger issue than i thought re: user growth independent of warpcast

> how most crypto ecosystems work 

but most crypto ecosystems don't work? or at least, not by traditional measures of success (dau)

i think my comment struck a nerve because the vibes or tone were off. which is fine; the point was to spark conversation about a topic that isn't really discussed

but the history of social ecosystems is not great for 3rd party devs. that's the whole FC value prop -- protocol features & data can't be rugged. but that doesn't extend to the app level, and the team has been clear about that. anything at the app level is fair game imo. builders are smart -- they just want to be told the truth and have clear expectations.

this reads as if there’s a binary option A or B, but that’s a fallacy.

there’s at least an option C, which is how most crypto ecosystems work — which is together.

if we’re going to encourage competition, then at least allow other apps to actually compete by enabling sign in with farcaster (instead of warpcast) and opening read/write direct cast APIs. otherwise it’s just a platform and not a protocol.

I wonder if there is a model where sherlocked apps get the idea ‘bought’ by Warpcast. Essentially Retro funding for effort - they have the treasury to do it. Fundamentally all alt apps need to have a different value prop that filling than holes in Warpcast that any reasonable user would expect. In the meantime as you say it’s holding back adoption.

Follow to get the best of Farcaster using @mbd - AI Recommendation Engine for Web3. @a16zcrypto css23. Ex-ML Lead @Chainlink. Ex-Sr Data Scientist @AWS.

i think if facebook integrated the farcaster social graph that would be the best possible outcome for the protocol, no?

fwiw, i'm not advocating for the team to actively try to copy ideas, nor do i think they have a record of doing that. i'm simply pointing out that if something fits within the warpcast value prop, and another app in the ecosystem proves that it has traction with users, then it's fair game to integrate it into wc, especially if it's something that has discussed many times before but not prioritized (e.g. integrating onchain data into the feed)

the whole reasoning behind "good opportunity for another client" is that there are plenty of ideas warpcast can't or won't go after because it's not a fit for the wordcell style twitter app. but if you're building an app that directly competes with warpcast you should probably expect competition eventually

Hey @phil please consider this: what if Warpcast was not the largest app in the ecosystem anymore. Imagine Zuck comes in and build a client or integrate FC into Threads, and starts eating everyone's lunch… client diversity is something to strive for if you believe in decentralized social, otherwise all the app builders will just leave and we're back to square 0. I am not saying it is not competitive but just pointing that the wording stuck a nerve exactly because it is quite discussed between builders already (not less).

I mainly write code and read books. Sometimes I take pictures. I wish I’d write.

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Well, not quite

There is an important balance in ceding non-essential features to other products

Otherwise you risk burning the developer ecosystem and stunting funding if startups are reluctant to build for fear of being rolled over

It’s a balancing act

If Warpcast grows, Farcaster grows. That’s the gist of it. Anything else isn’t important.

Is "Realpolitik" also an English word or are you German?