why ham chain instead of using degen chain? what is the justification for spinning up a separate L3, bootstrapping liq, etc?

As more Layer 3 chains come online people will start asking "why do we need another layer 3?" and the answer needs to be "because this exists on it and it enables these new things to be built that can't be built on this other L3, or L2, or L1". In our case this is onchain tipping. Tipping will be built into the chain enabling developers to build new applications on top of the tipping infrastructure that will also power Floaties. We are working with the Syndicate team to accomplish this.

Originally I wanted to launch Ham chain as an ETH aligned layer 3 that could help scale Floaties, used ETH as the native gas token, and supported $TN100x and the HAM ecosystem. As a builder I've always preferred to build on chains that used ETH as gas. We will use sequencer fees to buy and burn $TN100x.

are the 2 main platforms you are focusing on twitter and warpcast? what about tg/discord?

From a technical point of view, Floaties can be enabled on any social media client that has an API. Right now focus is Twitter and Warpcast. But remember Warpcast is built on Farcaster and ANY new client that is built on top of Farcaster will automatically have Floaty support.

I'm also bullish about a native Floaties client built on top of Farcaster running on Ham chain. More on this later. But what might a decentralized process of sending Floaties right to your friends through an app might look like?

how big is the team? and are you guys hiring?

3 bros (product/design/engineering) and a couple based advisors. not hiring but always down to talk to based individuals.