Hoping for the best for Farcaster as a decentralised social network.
Seeing the large fund raise a couple of years ago, then the founders pivoting, and now exiting even before the pivot is executed, I’m bittersweet.
But it’s for the best if the social protocol is freed from the trading focus of its previous owners
I still believe in “Connect your Wallet”
Embedded wallets are convenient for many users, but they bring back the centralisation. We need to keep a decentralised alternative.
External wallets are the embodiment of self-custody: your keys, your identity, your control. Same as carrying a physical wallet with ID and cards, a (mobile) digital wallet can go with us across apps and in the physical world, with our credentials, assets, and decentralised identities.
Embedded wallets create fragmentation. I want to reuse my wallet(s) everywhere, and avoid scattering my identity across dozens of app-specific wallets managed by third parties.
The UX critics are fair but external wallets are not outdated. Without sacrificing the web3 principles, their UX can be improved with the latest innovations: smart accounts, session keys, batching, gas sponsorship, passkeys, etc.
(I acknowledge centralisation aspects in being a mobile app, or using passkeys, etc. Still a good trade off)
Embedded wallets ARE centralised, providers acknowledge this. Privy reconstructs the SSS on their server, they run on AWS exclusively (AFAIK), you have to trust them to do good with your key, and I’m sure they’ll do. But it is the definition of centralisation .
Embedded wallets are not bad. It’s a valid tradeoff for mainstream onboarding.
But apps should give the choice between external or embedded. Don't force one model and don’t make the external wallet a “thing of the past - like it’s 2020”
Tired of people criticising Web3 while dismissing the actual ethos. Web3 is about sovereignty, self-custody, control, optimising intermediaries, resisting censorship, avoiding centralisation. Who’s against that?!
Web3 UX sucks? Fair. Building disruptive infrastructure takes time but calling devs lazy is disrespectful. Go build it yourself then.
Trying to figure out the content/creator coins thingy, I built this mental model:
It’s about monetisation, but the main question has been: how can creators make actual money without selling their coins and looking like they're rugging? Well, don’t sell
The main income stream is the 0.5% perpetual trading fee you get every time someone buy OR sell your content coins, distributed as ZORA (or ETH?), so you can sell this as you please. $1k daily volume across your content = $5/day = $150/month
The better the content, the more engagement, the more trading, the more fees. The better your creator reputation, the more attention your content has = flywheel as they say.
I bet the feed algo is partially based on that
These are coins. Traders gonna trade. Non-traders can show appreciation by “tipping” = actually buying a share they’ll keep, benefiting from the upside, potentially selling later
It is still an attention game, but the monetisation is more direct than via likes, followers, ads and sponsors
@rainbow wallet with DeFi positions, Polymarket and Hyperliquid integration is pretty cool. Great job @mikedemarais.eth
When Farcaster integration? 😀
(Not a fan of the colourful vibes but I respect the brand)
Appreciate the baseposting experiment but the @baseapp.base.eth feed algo is clearly not yet showing me content I like.
I have to go back to the Farcaster app to read things I’m looking for (thanks to the channels btw)
The whole @aave drama is very polarised. Can we be nuanced?
Decentralisation is good and DAOs are a means to that end. Ethically they should somehow legally own their IP.
At the same time, the founders and a focused team are the best to continue the vision and move the project forward.
Pushing inaccuracies and aggressive narratives like calling Aave Labs “parasite” or “scammers”, or even simply downplaying their fundamental contributions to all versions of the protocol is actually hurting the DAO credibility.
I’m tired and disappointed by the @aave drama discussion. Misleading arguments and narratives on both side.
Credibility is a result of objectivity and accuracy.
Yet many life experiences taught us you can’t always trust a single press, whether it’s the system’s fault or yours. A double or triple press cost nothing and adds conviction and confirmation into the action.
You can also argue that pressing repeatedly is not because you think it will go faster in the short-term but to send a signal to the User Experience analytics monitoring so they can improve their performances in the long-term
The Aave proposal is fair but risky. Some want blood, so if it passes, they won’t stop at the brand IP, they’ll want to kick Aave Labs out for power, and I don’t think that’s good for Aave’s future
Why I created a creator coin 👇
- not sure to be honest … hype
Probably won’t change my behaviour, I’m not really a content creator. I read a lot, like often, reply sometimes, post rarely.
Not sure I get the content coin thing. You buy a post and so what? They call it trading, so … you sell it later.
A post in a feed is so ephemeral, who’s gonna buy share of a 1-month old random post?
All that drama on FC and I’ve never spent so much time on it. The social works!!
Much more interesting to me than trading posts and clanker tokens or whatever it’s called
I’m here for the social.
I’m here because of the promises of the protocol.
Because a decentralised social network is needed as much as decentralised finance. Farcaster is the closed we’ve had. I’m just hoping there are still developers working on it.
Since I set up @tipn I’ve been hitting the like button much less. I guess my subconscious is mindful of my token balance and some posts I would have happily liked before don’t deserve a tip, but I’d still want to give a like.
Are the “extension” buttons still a thing? I’d love to have a USDC Tip button, but everything looks shady in there
