# Farcaster: the Platform Disruptor By [New Economic Revolution](https://paragraph.com/@abundance) ยท 2025-06-02 --- Farcaster is not just a social media platform - that's just _one thing_ you can do on this protocol. At its core, Farcaster is a decentralized\*, censorship-resistant identity layer. And because of that it's a platform disruptor! Instead of Airbnb storing your data and getting 15% of owner/guest fees, Farcaster can be the trustless layer where owner/guest reputation is stored (and done in a way that's much harder to manipulate). The Farcaster-based platform can then provide the same service (connecting owners & guests) but without the middleman fee. Anyone can then build additional services on this open source platform to help connect owners and guests (or provide additional functionality to either), thus completely transforming the industry and giving power back to its users. Farcaster can do the same to connect Uber or Lyft driver/riders, Amazon buyers/sellers, Spotify creators/listeners, etc. Since a key benefit of these centralized platforms is the (reputation) data they store on users, the Farcaster open graph can provide this reputation data and may be more credible and transparent at doing so (it can even provide the data while maintaining user privacy, with the help of zk-proofs). All these centralized platforms (and many others) can therefore be disrupted and (potentially) built as transparent, open source platforms on top of the Farcaster open graph. For now Farcaster is mostly focused on trying to disrupt social media. It is not terribly successful at that because it mostly clones the interface elements, and algos of X (all the way down to the verified checkmark design). Unfortunately, this focus on social media is also undermining Farcaster's growth and adoption. Instead of expanding our Total Addressable Market we're shrinking it. Instead of the network surfacing apps, tools and platforms that expand the ecosystem's capabilities, we're forcing contributors to play by the algo rules of engagement-based social media. This makes about as much sense as making the same contributors play by the algo rules of hosts/guests on Airbnb; "You built something that massively benefits the network? Great. We'll help surface your contribution to the network if you stay at a few more Airbnb homes and get more positive reviews from them." How is this an effective growth strategy for the network? Conflating Farcaster 'the protocol' with Farcaster 'the social media platform built on top of the protocol' limits people's perspective on what can be built on Farcaster. Surfacing user contributions to the network based on engagement disincentivizes builders from developing open source apps and products that benefit the whole network, and drive them to build engagement-based apps and products that extract value from it. Instead of Farcaster disrupting other platforms, Farcaster is now mostly disrupting its own growth potential. We need to reverse this trend! --- *Originally published on [New Economic Revolution](https://paragraph.com/@abundance/farcaster-the-platform-disruptor)*