Farcaster as a high signal & the growth of bootstrapped builders
Picked at the Farcaster meetup, but felt all along the week, it feels like iykyk - Farcasters know each other, people develop appreciate to fellow caster and have similar access to early alpha and new primitives. People on Farcaster could
Unmatched good vibes of builders in the Farcaster ecosystem. Met Carlos (Terminal), Wijuwiju & Annoushka (Interface), JPren & (Frens) , Jack (Checkin), Samuel Huber , Marissa, Justin, George and many more - despite all of them have their own project and are active on other socials - there's a special vibe for folks you met ON Farcaster, and i didn't feel it in any other social network i used before.
Raising vs. Bootstrapping
Farcaster makes it easier for builders to bootstrap their build journey before or instead of seeking external capital from traditional funding sources. quick iterations and direct relationships with your community of users makes it much easier to test hypothesis and collect feedback. Community support to builders and creators becomes much easier.
I met investors during the week and the appetite to deploy is back. On the other hand, investors do appreciate when the pitch is adjusted to the post-hype era, and know to recognize and distinguish between hype to substance.
zkTLS, DataDAO's and the future of data ownership
It's probably me, but zkTLS are gaining more mind share and more people are learning about the opportunities they bring, especially as it comes to onboard web2 brands and users.
For me it was exciting cause it feels like my vision for DataDAO's from a hackathon project back in 2020 (read more here) finally comes all together - the technology is here, the narrative is well accepted and we see it in action with project like Vana leading the way.
Why is it so exciting? Because we are getting closer to a mass migration of data ownership from platforms to individuals. It is not far from now that we will see a vampire attack that provide users with crypto incentives to go and own their web2 data and take control of it.
I had some fascinating conversations with Harsha and Madhavan from Reclaim who are probably the most advanced zkTLS provider, and I'm looking forward starting to implement some of the ideas we discussed
Oh, and by the way - this idea for how Covariance could leverage zkTLS in bringing web2 credentials into play has got me a small ETH prize, as part of a bounty. Bounty goes to the Covariance treasury, and anyone who wants to help put a POC in place is welcome to reach out!
Monetize expertise!
@GoldenbergLior
x.com/GoldenbergLior…
@GoldenbergLior
x.com/GoldenbergLior…
A Go To Network platform where members can attest on their knowledge, expertise & network using zkTLS, and leverage the value of their network to help early stage web3 projects grow and get rewarded for the value created
Built on @base & @reclaimprotocol
@0xcovariance
Built on @base & @reclaimprotocol
@0xcovariance
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I won't go into the details of zkTLS and the novelty it bring to new ways we can unlock data silos and break the walled gardens of web2 platform. Please check this repo we published just before Devcon:
Covariance Reputation Repo
A repo of tools, projects and companies building for the future of on chain credentials and sovereign identity
RepuRepo is a resource hub and project repository of projects building around reputation, attestation and on chain credentials. We've added research section where you are welcome to explore this rabbit hole, and add your resource or projects you ran into the repository
Memecoins
Memes are going through the same cycle previous cycles themes went through. From novel idea, to radical abuse, to innovative new business models
ICO - New fundraising tool --> radical scam --> New capital formation & democratization of access to capital
NFTs - On chain property → turned PFP crazy → NFT as a core primitive in on chain identity, IP and art.
Memes → Let’s have fun onchain —> Pump & dump —> Memes as a new financial primitive
Memes are essentially an attention game. the ones that drive the best attention drive the most capital and are lasting longer, potentially bootstrapping new cults, movements and communities. But what if we looked at that part of the game as only what fuels them, and by splitting roles - legit projects, builders, creators - can enjoy a new funding mechanism let ppl get what they want, and have the risk level they wish to have
Options are a financial instrument that allow anyone to sell/buy a strategy
Leverage lendiMeme as a a new financing primitiveng markets like Gearbox, or structured products platforms like Cega and others had introduced strategies where each user can limit the risk level they are exposed with, while giving away some of the upside. this means each investor type has a different risk reward
Organizing Covariance first IRL event!
Devcon 2024 was exciting because it was also the first IRL covariance Event we've hosted.
Present and Future of Go To Market · Luma
Present and Future of Go-to-Market: From Sales Outreach to On-Chain Credentials, Attestation & Reputation Web3 GTM is rapidly evolving from traditional...
I'm writing a separate post on the vision I shared there, but sharing some takes aways about organizing the event.
Impressed by this GTM panel at Devcon - it covered the current challenges of DAOs, how human behavior shapes attention economy, the psychology behind donations & how to improve nonprofit efficacy. Feeling inspired - thanks @GoldenbergLior for putting it together 
Few thoughts and learnings I'll take into account for the next time we host an event:
If you’re doing it by the end of the week - expect low turn out rate as ppl are already tired of the full week
Registration vs. show up rate - would be ~10%
Consider distance and traffic - the farther the event, don’t expect many ppl to make the effort to get there
Networking vs. content- good content + speakers are a multiplier vs. a generic networking happy hour.
Hosting a meetup during a conference - try collaborating with a bigger organization or ecosystem - they have the fixed cost of the venue/production company they already hired, and holding events in their venue is a win-win - more ppl get to their venue and the brand is getting more visibility
POAPs - always fun and a good memory to have.
Events at the end of the conference week - people are tired, so chilled atmosphere and good content is much more appreciated than another cocktail party.
The venue setup matters - If you want ppl to mingle don't have chairs ready for the content part
Shout out to Starknet and the event team for a well organized operations they ran during Devcon week.
ENS launching NameChain
I visited the ENS booth at Devcon to learn about the latest announcement of ENS to launch their own chain. I must admit I came really open to understand why ENS has decided to go the route of launching it's own chain vs. using another general purpose chain, but tbh the only justification is got out with was more flexibility, and the part that could not be said but obviously is there - more income stream through sequencer fees.
Being earlier at the Unichain event, it does feel like that when a brand has a strong enough presence and name, it's a pretty expected move to do.
I think like everything in crypto, some things will be getting into a "steady state" over time, and in the mid-term we'll see again defragmentation of a lot of functions that ideally would be consolidated.
Prioritize depth over quantity
As you get longer in the industry (and older i guess) , you find yourself less drown to exclusive networking and constant lookout to meet new people. The beauty of building your own reputation and trust with your network, is those new introductions and interaction are flowing over to you, curated and filtered by your network of trusted friends, colleagues and partners.
We talked a lot about on chain reputation and credentials this week. I believe we will see the power of these unlock in the coming years, as more tools are built to help us build our onchain profile, grow it, and utilize it.
Wrapping Up
ok, wrapping this up and shifting focus to build again. lots of new opportunities to explore and now it's all about FOCUS!
If you find any of the topics above interesting - I'm always up to jam and geek out !
If you want to build cool stuff around Farcaster x Reputation x zkTLS x DataDAO -> hit me up!
LFB!
Lior
