The $degen token launched via Ethereum's BASE layer two blockchain in Jan 2024 on Farcaster protocol. This established primitives like tipping in a thriving ecosystem of what was then around two to four thousand active artists, hackers, and developers.
The period since has been characterised with exceptional growth at the token [degen], protocol [farcaster], and blockchain [base] level. The seemingly exponential utility of a decentralised social graph is being leveraged by a talented raft of builders to craft creative applications and clients that mimetically proliferate the network.
Build the next generation of the internet
Data Layer: Farcaster serves as the Data Layer, responsible for storing user handles, casts (equivalent to tweets), and reactions (likes and recasts). This data is facilitated through Hubs, a distributed network of servers storing and validating Farcaster data.
Application Layer: The Application Layer consists of Clients and Frames, front-end interfaces enabling users to leverage interactive experiences. Frames are interactive applications built with the apps framework, allowing developers to create customized applications.
Smart Contracts: Farcaster utilizes smart contracts to govern interactions within the network, from posting content to social engagements. This introduces a layer of programmability and customization to social networking.
Read articles by Japneet Singh Anand and Steve Froehlich for more on this but what we're seeing is an open social graph combined with a cambrian explosion in tooling and onchain infrastructure unlocking a builder extravaganza the likes of which was last seen at the advent of the internet, then again with mobile phones.
For degen week + base onchain summer (two hackathons aka buildathons) leovido.eth & papa aka papajams.eth built a Tip O' The Hat (TOTH) tool.
In Season One of TOTH a community campaign (initiated by 0xen) galvanised casters to pool their tips together daily to confer their aggregated tips upon individuals or teams with the most impactful contributions on farcaster.
"over $1m awarded so far to artists, developers, builders, humanitarians, journalists, film makers & entrepreneurs spearheaded by the TOTH initiative"
Papa, Funding The Future On Farcaster And Beyond With Degen
Previous TOTH implementation:
Casts would be nominated in a group chat (easily missed)
Voting would happen on an ad hoc basis via emojis or comments (hard to track)
Ratified by individuals (kenny or 0xen) with urls shared thereafter (drop-offs in participation)
Season Two (V1) features:
Nominate casts in frame (the night before + morning of TOTH)
Vote between top three nominated casts (power badges only, daytime)
Ratified for distribution by @papa, @leovido.eth, and a trusted council (evening)
This daily cycle repeats alongside an auto-tipping feature
When a TOTH winner is selected/confirmed every subscribed donating user will autotip 85% to the winner and 15% to TOTH for operations/rewards to participating nominators & voters.
Potential V2 features discussed here.
View/cheer for the project (open source code) on devfolio (onchain summer) here.
On the Solana blockchain, the BONK memecoin initiated a successful campaign called Bonkmas rewarding the community for trying out several decentralised applications (dapps) including BONKbot, Exchange Art, MoonBoiUniverse and others. This catalysed adoption, onboarding, and usage with the breakout success of dapps like Bonkbot that generated $10m in fees in December 2023 over the course of the campaign.
Earlier in September 2023 Solflare, a Solana blockchain wallet, had announced an integration with Metamask, a leading wallet for most other blockchains, via a feature called "snaps". To drive its usage they undertook a campaign focused on exploring solana dapps and minting NFT artwork which resulted in the number of users onboarded to Solana via MetaMask Snaps surging from 108,000 to over 500,000 by April 2024.
BLAST, a different Ethereum layer two blockchain which was only launched in February 2024, focused on rewarding users and marketers of their dapps with points/gold to catalysing onboarding. This sparked remarkable growth to becoming the second largest Ethereum scaling solution by TVL per DeFiLlama.
For TOTH season two, we are experimenting with this dynamic and celebrating the plethora of apps integrating degen, powered by farcaster, and/or built on base.
Farsuite: www.farsuite.xyz
Farapps: www.farapps.vercel.app
The aim is to use the power of aggregated tips, alongside a decentralised governance infrastructure predicated on the open social graph, to strengthen incentivisation and reward mechanisms for dapp usage as well as onboarding.
For six weeks from July 11th users are rewarded daily via TOTH for leaving reviews & creating guides to decentralised applications built via farcaster, base, and/or degen. An end of season awards event is envisioned to honour contribution.
Viable platforms: youtube, drakula, twitter, tiktok, instagram, lens & farcaster.
Youtube example: Custodial and Non Custodial Wallets by Hamster Kombat
Instagram example: Ponke memecoin on Solana
Soft Launch
From July 4th to July 11th we soft launch and experiment with the format of the campaign, soliciting feedback from the community as to its implementation.
During the soft launch, participants are encouraged to explore and engage with any of the below dapps built on Farcaster, BASE, and/or degen. Pick a favorite from the featured dapps and create personalized guides or reviews. This slightly unstructured to see the kinds of guides made tailored to specific interests and preferences.
Week One
Use a combination of the following Farcaster Clients
Warpcast: Flagship decentralized social media platform for Farcaster.
Wildcard: Degen-focused Farcaster client with native token economy.
To create guides + reviews for these Content Creation and Monetization dapps
Jam: SocialFi platform for monetizing Farcaster posts.
Drakula: Onchain social network for buying/selling creator tokens.
Yoyo: Platform for collecting and trading internet artifacts.
Zora: Multichain minting platform for creating and collecting onchain.
Moshicam: Mobile app for creating artistic photos with community-created borders.
Paragraph: Writing platform for onchain newsletters and publishing.
Mirror: Decentralized publishing platform for web3 content.
Unlonely: token-powered live streaming.
Week Two
Use a combination of the following Farcaster Clients
Warpcast: Flagship decentralized social media platform for Farcaster.
Supercast: Feature-rich Farcaster client for power users.
To create guides + reviews for the following Gaming dapps
Farfantasy: SocialFi trading card game built on Farcaster.
Perl: Onchain social arcade with mini-games and predictions.
Words3: Infinite onchain crossword game.
Base Paint: Collaborative painting platform on Base layer two.
Farcards: Farcaster-first, frames-focused card collecting experiment.
Scoop: Card game built on Farcaster with community rewards.
Uncuts: trading card game on farcaster competing for $degen
Week Three
Use a combination of the following Farcaster Clients
Warpcast: Flagship decentralized social media platform for Farcaster.
Clubcast: Farcaster client for Creator Clubs with gated content.
To create guides + reviews for the following Audio dapps
FarHouse: Audio spaces for Farcaster.
Degen Radio: stream music NFTs, create onchain playlists, on Degen Chain
Catalog: 1/1 music NFTs & onchain radio station
Soundxyz: multi-edition music NFTs & community
SiBorg: Web3-based Spotify-like application for podcasts.
Streamz: Community for artists and music fans on Base.
Sonata: Music discovery platform on Farcaster with rewards.
Week Four
Use a combination of the following Farcaster Clients
Warpcast: Flagship decentralized social media platform for Farcaster.
Terminally On Farcaster (TOFUI): Terminal-based Farcaster client.
Memecaster: Farcaster client with built-in tipping features.
To create guides + reviews for the following finance and trading dapps
Ape.Store: Memecoin launchpad with instant trading and fair launches.
Serious.market: Launchpad for memecoins on Base with bonding curve model.
Wagmi Fairlaunch: Token launch platform with Uniswap V3 integration.
Degenpad: Initial Tips Offering (ITO) launchpad on Degenchain L3.
Bolide: Robinhood-style dapp for trading memecoins on Base.
Farterminal: Launchpad and index for Farcaster channel native tokens.
And use a combination of the following Farcaster Clients
Warpcast: Flagship decentralized social media platform for Farcaster.
Yup: Social aggregator for multiple decentralized platforms.
To create guides + reviews for these community rewards & engagement dapps
OttoDAO: Platform for funding public goods and communities.
Skill Issue: Onchain livestream lootbox app with community spaces.
Rounds: Community reward system for contributors.
P00ls: Platform for creating and distributing creator tokens.
Hypersub: NFT subscription platform for recurring revenue.
Week Five
Use a combination of the following Farcaster Clients
Warpcast: Flagship decentralized social media platform for Farcaster.
Recaster: Customizable iOS Farcaster client.
To create guides + reviews for the following Utility and Infrastructure dapps
Checkin: Onchain-to-IRL primitive for location-based experiences.
Fluidkey: Privacy-enhancing tool for managing onchain funds.
Automod: Moderation tool for Farcaster channels.
Kiwi News: Curated news feed for the decentralized tech community.
Receipts: Platform for tracking fitness pursuits onchain.
Intelligent: Farcaster analytics tool for profile management.
Ponder: Survey tool integrated with Farcaster protocol.
Buoy: Real-time keyword search and monitoring application.
Layer3: interactive on-chain experiences (quests) for exploring web3.
Bountycaster: Bounties and services on Farcaster
POIDH: onchain non-custodial bounties + collectible NFTs
Week Six
Use a combination of the following Farcaster Clients
Warpcast: Flagship decentralized social media platform for Farcaster.
Nook: (Development stopped, now open-sourced)
To create guides + reviews for the following Attention Marketplace dapps
Alfafrens: App for private channels and group chats.
Lunchbreak: Expert and influencer marketplace on Base.
Spotlight: Attention network built on Farcaster.
Time.Fun: Platform for tokenizing and trading time with creators.
Rolodex: Internet-native contact app for Farcaster users.
And use a combination of the following Farcaster Clients
Warpcast: Flagship decentralized social media platform for Farcaster.
Kiosk: Farcaster client focusing on web3 community engagement.
To create guides + reviews for the following social browser and explorer dapps
Interface: Ethereum-native social app for browsing crypto events and artifacts.
Roam: Onchain multichain social browser for wallet tracking.
Degen Jeeves: Smart wallet companion app for exploring dapps and games.
Farquest: Farcaster client with quests and learning features.
As dapps enter the ecosystem we would envision building out the tool to enable more features. Key criteria: active on farcaster | built on base | powered by $degen.
The recent seed club demo day showcased the calibre of apps coming soon.
LISA: collective ownership of physical (museum quality) art starting with just $1
Chipped: NFC chips in press-on manicures connected to all your socials
Fora: marketplace
Unofficial: social browser for discovery and personalisation of open networks
Sidequest: use tokens to reward physical world actions and gamify reality
xhibit.ai: community-run AI-enhanced style (fashion) discovery platform
Moreover there are builder communities springing up globally emphasising the accessible, composable, and interoperable nature of this substrate.
to casts that are based. 
#BuildOnBase 
Feedback, participation, learning and share are necessary, but not sufficient, steps on the road to bringing the world onchain.
Happy to do our part.
Farcaster @papa — https://warpcast.com/@papa
Lens @papajams — https://lenster.xyz/u/papajams
Twitter @papajimjams — https://twitter.com/papajimjams
Papa —Berlin Blockchain Week 2024 — Dappcon '24
Over 100 subscribers
589
/tipothehat update - now 11k+ $degen committed daily to TOTH creators and growing - created a walkthrough for participating in TOTH s2 here: https://paragraph.xyz/@papajams.eth/tip-o-the-hat-season-two-dapp-guides crafting guides for dapps powered by base | farcaster | degen dm me to join the TG 💜
updated @kenny
For posterity First day of the /tipothehat with @leovido.eth soft launch done - signers don’t seem to be working, @rish helpful as always, workaround in progress (sign in with @neynar) - attempt at a guide marred by sound quality, needs to be more exciting: https://warpcast.com/papa/0x90278b1b - Got some creators down to make guides too @nhp @mr1sonny11 @yussuf - nominations & voting worked, @nikolaii.eth in the lead - more guides to come today, hopefully better quality🤞🏾 - telegram group of OGs super useful for feedback the first time, hard to get peeps back 😁 https://paragraph.xyz/@papajams.eth/tip-o-the-hat-season-two-dapp-guides?referrer=0x55a5705453ee82c742274154136fce8149597058
i'm taking notes of the process. it takes time
Ok
Stoked to soft launch TOTH S2 tomo https://paragraph.xyz/@papajams.eth/tip-o-the-hat-season-two-dapp-guides Daily Rewards For Awesomeness 1. Nominate a cast in frame: https://toth-frame.vercel.app/toth 2. Vote between the top 3 nominated 3. Earn degen for participating, autoallocate tips (never unused again)
I missed this, just reading it now. 2000 $DEGEN
Thanks mate - fancy joining our tg group of testoooors ?
Really cool stuff!!
Great job! 👌
Error communicating with the server
thanks for trying it out and sharing feedback! Send a screenshot here please and we will take a look @leovido.eth But first, just incase, try refreshing and doing it again first please - fresh tech but old school tactics (switch it off and switch it on) sometimes do the trick 🤠
Do the tips given worth the process ?