Farcaster is experiencing a Cambrian explosion of creativity, utility & innovative variety with the applications being built on (and by) its ecosystem. As a sufficiently decentralised social network the opportunities for developers to create unique experiences and tools for its growing user base have quickly accelerated its functionality. It is also exponentially growing more interesting/fun to engage with a high calibre of engaged builders that are experimenting with whats possible. 

anku

@whoisanku

Farcaster is building a social media protocol which is sufficiently decentralized for social applications purpose. Here are some of the interesting infos of what Farcaster has to offer

10

7:37 PM • Oct 17, 2022

I went down the rabbit hole with most apps on the network available from April 3rd 2023 to April 7th 2023, starting with this Github app list by a16z.

Farcaster Applications 

• https://searchcaster.xyz

  • What: Search all casts (posts) for keywords, filterable by popularity & caster

  • How: web application written in Python using the Flask web framework 

  • UX/UI: purple favicon, purple branding juxtaposed against white text

  • Feel: Dynamic, the content is searchable in real time

  • Built By: Greg Skriloff, on farcaster @greg / on twitter @gregskril
    

• https://farapps.farcase.xyz

  • What: Highlighting the best apps and builders in the Farcaster community

  • How: web application written in typescript (compiles to plain JavaScript code). Users can add and update apps themselves in Github by editing the apps.json file. Follow the same structure as the previous apps, open a pull request, and once merged it will be automatically added and deployed

  • UX/UI: White background, with blue buttons  

  • Feel: Static, the apps here don’t change or update depending on new entries

  • Built By: Tiago, on farcaster @alvesjtiago
    

• https://discove.xyz

  • What: Creates feeds (coves) based on interests (e.g. books, podcasts etc)

  • How: keyword search function linked up to farcaster api 

  • UX/UI: white backdrop, pink/black/purple buttons, rankings e.g. trending & new

  • Feel: Real time updates, notifications pulled in automatically from Farcaster

  • Built By: david@discove.app / @df Farcaster / @davidvfurlong twitter

  • Feedback: When I try scroll down a fair bit it snaps me back up to the original search query (and results) preventing you going too far down through older content

• https://alertcaster.xyz (waitlist)

  • What: follow topics, discover conversations on Farcaster via alerts

  • How: Alertcaster Bot replies to matching cast with 'cc @yourusername'

  • UX/UI: simple landing page, purple and white (waiting list)

  • Feel: Notifications of keyword matches inside Farcaster

  • Built By: Andy, @andyjagoe
    

• https://fardrop.xyz

  • What: Create an allowlist of your Farcaster followers

  • How: Type in farcaster username to populate sheet of wallet addresses

  • UX/UI: simple purple, white, black interface, easy download list & merkle tree

  • Feel: Efficient, easy add on is a list of things followers are allowlisted for

  • Built By: Greg Skriloff, farcaster @greg / twitter @gregskril

• https://launchcaster.xyz

  • What: Way to share and discover new projects in Web3.

  • How: tagging @launch in a cast creates an editable producthunt-esque event

  • UX/UI: simple, white background, purple text

  • Feel: Mintable launch pass (free) for access, reddit style boards of info

  • Built By: farcaster @pugson / on farcaster @jayme / on twitter @jaymehoffman

  The Boom of Farcaster's Developer Community

  Farcaster is one of the hottest decentralized social media apps with a loyal user base and a well-built protocol. And in the face of turbulent times at Twitter, Farcaster's developer ecosystem is booming like the early days of Twitter.

  https://mirror.xyz

  

• https://castrss.xyz

  • What: RSS feed for Farcaster based on username

  • How: reader checks for updates that are displayed on a feed list / inbox

  • UX/UI: simple white background, orange text, textbox 

  • Feel: Ports into telegram, feedly, or you can copy RSS / Web Feed URL

  • Built By: Shawki Sukkar, on farcaster @shawki / on twitter @shawkisukkar
    

• https://instacaster.xyz

  • What: indexes all images posted by Farcaster users in an Instagram-like feed

  • How: built on Next.js

  • UX/UI: simple interface and feed of images, no interactivity, read only

  • Feel: a little dry, cooler if organised around popularity/on-chain/tags/keywords

  • Built By: Zach Terrell, on farcaster @zachterrell / on twitter @zachterrell57 
    

• https://pincaster.xyz

  • What: way to save casts, share collections, & explore topics on Farcaster

  • How: built with Ruby on Rails and Postgresql. It uses Graphql and React for the Frontend of the admin dashboard and is hosted on Render. The casts are indexed using Tinybird. The explore and public pages are built with Next.js hosted on Vercel, consuming Pincaster API

  • UX/UI: a little hard to get started for a noob that’s never used shortcuts

  • Feel: empty till set up, needs vid tutorial + example of what success looks like

  • Built By: Carlos Matallín, on farcaster / on twitter @matallo

• https://sharecaster.xyz

  • What: rich media previews of casts sharable on Twitter, Telegram, etc

  • How: Next.js and React, as well as Supabase

  • UX/UI: white & purple theme, links include username, images + cast snippets

  • Feel: love the build in public angle & minimum zeitgeist product ethos (MZP)

  • Built By:  Michael Pfister, on farcaster @pfista

  • Feedback: When I load a sharecaster into medium or paragraph.xyz the textbox that it wraps the content is great but has the potential to evolve and come to life more.
    

• https://bebcaster.xyz

  • What: Communities platform built on Farcaster + BEBverse protocol

  • How: Built on top of Beb (https://beb.xyz/) as a subdomain

  • UX/UI: dark/black with purple buttons

  • Feel: Has been shut-down temporarily, @cryptojcdenton to revive soon

  • Built By: JC Denton, on farcaster @jc @beb  

• https://farcarte.xyz

  • What: Map view of the farcaster community (akin to little atlas)

  • How: Seems you need to mint your location? 

  • UX/UI: Map aligned to location & interests (love) e.g. tennis

  • Feel: Stopped updating circa 3 months ago? IRL POAP link would be cool

  • Built By: dimalaba.eth, on farcaster @dmlb

• https://fcast.me

  • What: Easily link to Farcaster profiles in-app/browser e.g. fcast.me/papa

  • How: linked into apple maps (the legal button goes to their T&Cs)

  • UX/UI: clear explanation, MZP, clean

  • Feel: Does what is says on the tin, no frills, job done

  • Built By: clay, on farcaster @clayallsopp

• https://screenshot-essay-caster.vercel.app

  • What:  Read screenshot essays (alt to twitter threads) posted on Farcaster.

  • How: TypeScript, JavaScript, CSS, Next.js

  • UX/UI: Dark background, purple text, red favicon, 

  • Feel: mention "screenshotessay" in cast, indexer updates every thirty mins

  • Built By: Yash, yashkarthik.eth, on farcaster @yashkarthik

• https://farcasternews.xyz

  • What: Discover top links discussed on Farcaster.

  • How: Currently migrating to the new Farcaster contracts

  • UX/UI: Currently migrating to the new Farcaster contracts

  • Feel: Currently migrating to the new Farcaster contracts

  • Built By: Looks like it's Katsuya - farcaster @kn ?!
    

• https://perl.xyz

  • What: cluster of tiny blogs (mobile only)

  • How: needs mobile number to access + invites for waitlist to write 

  • UX/UI: really clean, fixed number of collectible orbs (kudos) for posts 

  • Feel: Bitesize fully formed thoughts 

  • Built By: on farcaster @ace @peter / on twitter @alexyoungkwon @pkayfire
    

• https://app.yup.io

  • What: Curated content feed of Farcaster, Lens, Mirror, NFTs, Twitter, etc

  • How:  JavaScript  TypeScript  Go  CSS  Swift

  • UX/UI: Light white/grey tones (darkmode available): aggregator interface

  • Feel: Personalisation not yet locked in (wide berth of stuff across many chains/platforms it doesn’t seem to work together), cool idea might be to look at NFT/POAPs in my wallet and serve up related content e.g. for me this would be music and podcasts for instance

  • Built By: nir.th, on farcaster @nir / on twitter @nir_III
    

• https://eventcaster.xyz

  • What: Social & events Calendar built on Farcaster

  • How: mention @eventcaster in farcaster & its automatically added

  • UX/UI: White background, purple font + favicon

  • Feel: Easy to use + feature/support rich: calendar, newsletter, guide, etc

  • Built By: Matthew, on farcaster @matthew & Tiago, on farcaster @alvesjtiago
    

• https://trendcaster.xyz

  • What: Track trends associated with your wallet/account

  • How: JavaScript; TypeScript; CSS; Shell

  • UX/UI: Updated every 24hrs with trending words, profile + cast counts 

  • Feel: Unclear if this is for me personally or for the ecosystem at large, lots of potential here to toggle what time window it covers & monitor the kinds of music, writing, products, profiles etc are popular/trending e.g. What Blur and Gem/Openseapro are to NFTs, Trendcaster is to social graphs

  • Built By: Madhur Shrimal 🔵, on farcaster @madhur

• https://castalytics.farcase.xyz

  • What: Analytics of popular casts + tracking activity on farcaster

  • How: NFT gated API (farlock)

  • UX/UI: white backdrop; black/orange/green charts, blue text/tables, varied!

  • Feel: quirky categories e.g. most replied to, mentioned, commented on users

  • Built By: Tiago, on farcaster @alvesjtiago
    

• https://requestcaster.xyz

  • What: a list of feature or product requests from the Farcaster community

  • How: mention “RequestCaster” or “Request” in a cast (indexed every 30min)

  • UX/UI: wonderful, white background, purple/black text, clear use case & info

  • Feel: Smooth, everything you need on one page, frictionless, MZP

  • Built By: Jack Yeh, on farcaster @jacky / on twitter @jckyeh
    

• https://stochaster.xyz

  • What: “Find a new Farcaster to follow on every refresh” (discovery)

  • How: “We're currently down, but we'll be back soon!”

  • UX/UI: “We're currently down, but we'll be back soon!”

  • Feel: “We're currently down, but we'll be back soon!”

  • Built By:  Cameron Armstrong, on farcaster @cameron
    

• https://www.farcaster.network

  • What: Stats & graphs to analyze protocol-level trends across Farcaster

  • How: N/A built on private Github repository

  • UX/UI: Seamless, compact, dark background with white & purple text

  • Feel: cool random metrics e.g. Market Cap → "Buying Power" which removes illiquid/hard to evaluate NFTs and focuseson liquid ETH + ERC20s to determine the economic power & influence of the network.

  • Built By: Greg Skriloff, on farcaster @greg and Zach Terrell, on farcaster @zachterrell
    

• https://sqlcaster.xyz

  • What: experimental way to explore messages (casts) on Farcaster

  • How: Static frontend, client-side fetching page; auto generated REST API backend accepting SQL queries via ROAPI hosted on Replit.

  • UX/UI: direct and straight to the point, could be warmer, white back, black text

  • Feel: super sparse, LOVE the “i’m feeling lazy” option to get noobs started

  • Built By: Charlie Harrington, on both farcaster & twitter @whatrocks

• https://citycaster.xyz

  • What: telegram groups of farcaster users demarcated by city

  • How: TypeScript, SCSS, JavaScript, React (Next.js) deployed on Vercel 

  • UX/UI: clean, crisp, white background, flag favicons, purple logo

  • Feel: simple, uncluttered, could imagine overlap & integration with discove’s “coves”, farcarte and fcast maps  

  • Built By: Matthew, on farcaster @matthew
    

• https://raycast.com/gregskril/searchcaster

  • What: Not farcaster specific: extension highly recommended by builders

  • How: Basically ChatGPT, for more conversational coding help

  • UX/UI: chrome extension, downloadable application

  • Feel: well funded

  • Built By: Petr Nikolaev @pitnikola & Thomas Paul Mann @thomaspaulmann [twitter @’s]
    

• https://unlonely.app

  • What: Web3 livestreaming platform

  • How: Non-Fungible Clips for decentralized communities

  • UX/UI: Colourful rainbow aesthetic landing page, twitch-esque styling

  • Feel: Vibrant, fun, can pay in creator token to control stream + chat

  • Built By: Brian Guan (br1an.eth) - on twitter @bdguan / on farcaster @briang and Grace White, 0eggs.eth on farcaster @graceon / on twitter @gracewhiteguan
    

• https://purple.construction   

  • What: Nouns-style DAO focused on supporting FC

  • How: goal to proliferate and expand the Farcaster protocol/ecosystem

  • UX/UI: classic characteristic nouns font, daily mint (purple square NFT), treasury with proposals/initiatives that are positive sum   

  • Feel: welcoming 

  • Built By: community

• https://www.alphacaster.xyz 

  • What: DAO experience that combines governance with socials

  • How: advanced features (e.g. voting, mobile app) only available to beta testers currently

  • UX/UI: white background, blue/green/red/black detailing,   

  • Feel: playful, experimental, evolving

  • Built By: Bill Zheng billzh.eth @billzh and @16 (message to become a tester)
    

• https://sealcaster.xyz

  • What: Cast anonymously to Farcaster

  • How: Connect wallet, verify Farcaster access, cast using burner wallet

  • UX/UI:  Deep purple and dark background with white font 

  • Feel: CIA/SPY vibe, love it! Great examples + ZK badges with SealCred

  • Built By: @borodutch
    

• https://paragraph.xyz

  • What: Create, publish and share web3-native blogs & newsletters

  • How: turns subscribers into members via NFTs (audience ownership & community) to supercharge  growth & earning potential

  • UX/UI: intuitive, works well, easy to publish off and on chain + build subscriber base  

  • Feel: not dissimilar from medium or mirror except lots more web3 functionality & experimentation

  • Built By: Colin Armstrong @colin
    

• https://www.hashcast.xyz 

  • What: Find casts on different topics according to tags

  • How: TypeScript, CSS, JavaScript, React (Next.js) deployed on Vercel 

  • UX/UI: different shades of purple background with black text + pfp’s; a little buggy with sometimes slower loads & crashes as it’s so new!

  • Feel: extension of Searchcaster and farcaster-indexer

  • Built By: Satyajeet Pal, farcaster @pal twitter @tripalthreat (“with 🟪 “: possibly means purple DAO funded)

• Airstack.xyz

  • What: Airstack APIs enabling data-awareness + interoperability across web3

  • How: web3 ecosystem integrations, public marketplace of queries and APIs

  • UX/UI: in private developer beta with form for access

  • Feel: slightly foreboding, amazing diversity in the team, excitable

  • Built By: Jason Goldberg @betashop + team
    

• https://jam.so 

  • What: App with read/write capabilities (on iOS, Android & desktop/browser)

  • How: A showcase of airstack tech pulling in data from multiple API’s

  • UX/UI: Darkmode: deep purple theme. Lightmode: white back, purple 

  • Feel: Incredible features e.g. cast with photos/GIFS + longcast.jam.so/jjIT58

  • Built By: Jason Goldberg @betashop and Airstack with True Sparrow.

Tyler Scharf 🦇🔊

@tyscharf

Nice! It's a great community, lots of interesting convos going on. Much cleaner in terms of signal/noise

Go hard the first 3 days, you'll get recasted by the welcome bot for better exposure.

1

2:59 PM • Oct 7, 2022

Thoughts

It's incredible that an app like Jam, which just launched, could feasibly supplant the Warpcast application built by the founding team to explore farcaster. That speaks to the capacity for the developer community here to shape the experience in delightful, unconventional, ways.

Dan Romero

Big update from the @jam team! - 1st general purpose Farcaster app on 3 platforms that can fully replace Warpcast with Log in with Farcaster - Permissionlessly created longcast-works natively in Jam, gracefully falls back to a link in Warpcast (blue bubble / green bubble!) https://warpcast.com/betashop/0xde50ce

https://sharecaster.xyz

This Vitalik take about Farcaster being "too polite" was fascinating too as it speaks to a distinct differentiator relative to twitter. The only way to participate in the ecosystem is to be invited and vouched for (I messaged @dwr requesting access, shared some content, and was swiftly in).

Vitalik Buterin

What do people think of the idea that Farcaster might be *too polite*? Like, people love to rail against the toxicity of twitter, but ultimately it's a PvP MMORPG and lots of people really enjoy the PvP - if not participating, then at least seeing some fireworks in the background...

https://sharecaster.xyz

The a16z connection here is a sound match up with insights gleaned from investments like clubhouse that are directly applicable. Having held stock in many historically important companies (such as Facebook, Groupon, Twitter, and Zynga) they are playing very close attention to social .

On Collaboration

The overlap between Citycaster’s city-based Telegram groups, Discove’s interest-based feeds (coves), and Farcarte’s map view exemplifies the potential for collaboration and integration between Farcaster community-built applications which seek to service similar needs. Through these tools users are able to seamlessly discover and connect with like-minded individuals in their local area, fostering a sense of community and belonging. 

On Personalization

The signal from followed accounts isn’t as high as alternatives - as we’ve learned from the effectiveness of Facebook/Instagram's algorith vs. TikTok's. Collectible assets or AI could offer new engagement avenues for apps like Yup.io and Trendcaster which with this protocol configuration could choose to tailor content based on a user’s on-chain activity, such as their NFT or POAP holdings. This personalized approach might enhance the overall user experience by providing relevant and meaningful content that aligns with each user’s preferences and passions.

On Onboarding 

An onboarding process for newcomers is so useful in ensuring that users can quickly understand and utilize the features of an app (especially noobs like me). Apps like Farsearcher.xyz have a clear and intuitive search interface, accompanied by easy-to-follow instructions and tooltips that guide users through the process of finding content on Farcaster. This focus on user education helps remove barriers for newbies, enabling them to make the most of the app from the start.

Farcaster was launched by Dan Romero & Varun Srinivasan in August 2021 with $30M funding. It sits in a diverse social protocol/graph competitor landscape e.g. DeSo, RSS3, Lens, & Mises.

Papajams.eth

Farcaster @papa [https://www.discove.xyz/@papa]
Lens @papajams [https://lenster.xyz/u/papajams]
Twitter @papajimjams [https://twitter.com/papajimjams]