So. Farcaster. Crypto. Pet rocks?

Yeah, this week was a lot.

Bitcoin hit ATH. ETH and SOL weren’t far behind. Portfolios? In the green. Bags? Packed. Farcaster? Quiet, but not the bad kind. More like the tension before a launch. Builders are clearly heads down. Mini apps still rolling out. Feels like something’s coming.

Welcome to the pilot drop of Read Me Weekly. It’s chaotic, fast, borderline addictive. Blink and you’ll miss the next launch.

Let’s get into it.

Dash dropped channel video feeds and teamed up with Patricia Lee for a $600+ campaign in /science. If you’ve got the brains and camera, go earn. Meanwhile, Newt Powers is making us all feel empowered with straight-up documentary-tier science videos.

Operating System launched a new mini app and continues to be the quiet powerhouse of clean design and solid infra. You’ve probably used something they’ve built without even realizing it.

Clanker v4 is here. Static and dynamic fees, sniper auctions — all the toys. Plus Clankline by RCH, your PnL-powered leaderboard for bragging rights.

Mikadoe introduced Farlance, a freelance alert system powered by your Farcaster skill tags. Basically, TaskRabbit with reputation baked in.

Remix launched Snap Apps. Think: your fave farcade game, but now it’s a standalone mini app with its own icon. Remix is going from game zone to distribution beast.

Ruburi unleashed Pet Rock Life. Yes, a virtual world where you play as a rock. Bertwurst formed a cult. Their mascot is a sausage. We’re not making this up. The lore is already deep. The rocks are alive.

Farmini.link by Daoleno turns any URL into a mini app link. Don’t ask how. Just know it works and it slaps for growth.

Farcaster Pro subs are now monthly and giftable. Lennix and Jay made it possible through their respective mini apps. Buy and gift (simp) responsibly.

Also: openMiniApp(). Apparently one mini app can now open another. Do I fully get it? No. Did I see the word "mini app" and know it mattered? Yes. Devs, do your thing.

N is launching a gacha-style NFT platform to fix what she calls a broken model. She’s not wrong. Mid collections, zero fees, no dopamine. Solution? Think Pokémon packs: buy a pack, open it, reveal rarity, sell it back instantly. All fully onchain. Fees to creators forever. Community extensible. Closed alpha's done. The people want more.

Matcha added hover previews to their token search. One look gives you charts, liquidity, security score. Honestly? Addictive.

Gigbot hits Android. If you’re running ops from your phone, this is your new command center.

Based Merch dropped at based.works. 400 limited items: shirts, hats, and collectible cards. All NFC-chipped, all Base-native, all unlock rewards and NFTs. Made with 9dcc. Drip meets onchain clout. Fashion meets farming.

July 16. Save It. “It’s time for a new day one.” That’s the signal from Base. My gut says we’re getting TBA. The Based App. Or something that finally opens the Farcaster floodgates. Whatever it is, DAUs are gonna spike. Don’t miss the livestream. Or do, and just lie about being early.

Let’s talk tipping.

Tipn kicked off Season 1 with a bang. You can now tip straight from the TIPN treasury by casting <### $TIPN>. 2% of the total supply will be distributed over 4 weeks, and if you're consistent and strategic, there’s a bonus pool waiting at the end.

Tipn also teamed up with Ruminations of Quotient to handpick engaged users and Farcaster accounts with strong wagmi energy for Season 1 allocations. Translation: if you’ve been tipping intentionally, casting with soul, and vibing with the culture you’re probably on the list. If not, it’s not too late. Show up, show love.

Noice ran an airdrop of 2B $NOICE, asking people to quote-cast and tag creators they vibe with. Market cap jumped from $5M to $6M.

Noicebot handled eligibility replies. If you were in, you'd get a heads-up, and see $NOICE land in your eligible wallet(s) a few seconds later. Clean.

They also worked with Geoff Goldberg from Social Forensics, Openrank, and Quotient to make sure rewards didn’t go to coordinated spammy accounts, just the real ones. Payouts ranged from $10 to $2,000, with nearly 2,000 people qualifying (including me — yes, I'm flexing).

There’s still 18 billion $NOICE left to be airdropped. This was just the pregame. Also, they support Arbitrum now.

DEGEN, never one to be left behind, has something cooking. Jacek teased a new DEGEN mini app dropping next week, and while there aren’t many details, my gut says we’re looking at a spicy v2 of the DEGEN dashboard. Maybe raindrop tracking, token locking, clout points, who knows. But let’s be real, it’s Jacek. He might just flip the whole meta and ship something we didn’t even know we needed. Either way, prep your wallets and your ego, something chaotic and extremely DEGEN-coded is on the way.

I don't know, but something definitely feels like it's brewing on the horizon. Maybe it's the calm before a launch. Maybe it's seasonal depression in July. Maybe everyone's just out touching grass (a crime, because we don't touch grass in these parts). Farcaster's been a little too quiet lately, but not in a dead way, in a 'we're plotting something' kind of way. Mini apps keep dropping. Builders keep building. There's just enough smoke to believe a fire’s coming.

Anyway, that’s it for the pilot drop of this newsletter. Until the next one… or not. Depends on whether I get distracted by my rock in Pet Rock Life. Stay clanked.

- kyle patrick