Farcaster is an open-source protocol built on Optimism, the L2 secured by Ethereum. The project was kickstarted in 2020 by former Coinbase employees, Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan and raised $30M.
After an initial invite-only mechanic which saw participation via organic social graphs, Farcaster transitioned to a paid model in 2024, with users paying a one-time sign-up fee of $5 which also acted as a bot-prevention scheme. The sign-up fee includes the rental of storage units that limits users to 5,000 casts for the year.
In the backend, Farcaster has a hybrid onchain/offchain architecture to scale the network. Some data is stored onchain, while others are stored offchain for higher efficiency.
Interest in the decentralized social media (DeSoc) use case has been building in the public consciousness for a while, with an increasing awareness of how our data and privacy cannot be left under the single control of centralized web2 social apps like Meta, X, and Instagram.
Apart from data breaches, under concerning issues include censorship – how profiles can be shut down or erased – as well as how our content and data can and have been sold to third parties such as advertisers for profit that does not directly accrue back to the user.
As an alternative, social network disruptors such as friend.tech, hey.xyz, Drakula,app and Farcaster are leading the new wave of social disruption, onchain. Does anyone remember Steemit?
The attraction of these deSoc or SocialFi networks is that they also feature interesting and engaging social incentives such as a profile marketplaces and tipping that add a financialized dimension to the social graph. For example on Farcaster, good content is rewarded in DEGEN while for Drakula.app it is BLOOD, which can be traded for DEGEN.
On these dapps, users actually own their content and data, and can easily port their accounts between different clients such as Warpcast or Supercast without deplatforming risk. In fact, anyone can build a Farcaster client, and are encouraged to!
The beauty of an interoperable protocol like Farcaster is that it can interact seamlessly across compatible networks and smart contract protocols, such as ENS, and Safe! Imagine controlling multiple social apps through one unified social ID/account that you own – that’s what Farcaster aims to do.