First day on Farcaster! 

Wanted to share my thoughts on how I think web3 social will look like. It's something we've been thinking a lot at Zapper and seems fitting to post here.

It's a very easy trap to fall into. We take existing models and apply them to this new technology. The problem is that we fail to account that the foundation is completely different. That a new foundation allows for completely new and unique products to be built.

I keep thinking of ways to break into this "new social product" territory, away from Twitter, Discord, Telegrams. And I've realized I was thinking about it the wrong way.

The blockchain is a social coordination tool at its core. 

A token is a social contract between owners. 

Your on-chain activity is a way for you to broadcast your digital identity.

It particularly struck me when I was talking to people in the line at the Forgotten Runes party at NFT NYC. The basis for all my social interactions in that line was rooted in the verifiable fact that we both owned a wizard.

I eventually came to realize that practically every connection I've made in web3 is rooted somewhere to an on-chain social dynamic.

Where I think a lot of social products in web3 go wrong is where they think that the social graph is something to be "put" on-chain.

The social graph IS already on-chain, it just needs better tool at surfacing the different nodes that allow people to create connections.

These nodes are the things you did, the tokens you own, the NFT communities you are a part of.

In web2, we had no means to connect people unless they posted content. UGC was what allowed for social graphs to exist. Without content acting as nodes, you have no connections.

The difference now is that instead of using strictly content to connect people, we use immutable and transparent pieces of their digital identity. And I strongly believe that's how social applications get going in web3.

Relationships needs trust to succeed.

In the web2 world, we can craft the illusion we want, we are the smiths of our own content. The bedrock of social relationships quickly crumble when you realize it's on a bedrock of fragile and propped up identities.

In web3 you have much more to go with when building these bonds. Bonds that can act as a precursor to economic opportunity.

When we think about web3 social, what first pops to mind? The usual reflex is to think about a decentralized Twitter, Discord or Facebook. We tend to all be pretty skeuomorphic when building on a new technology. What was first shown on televisions? Theatre.