gm everyone, and I hope you are having an excellent weekend so far!

Don’t forget that today is the Season 2 $degen drop!

I wanted to write a quick piece on some things I've seen and experienced in my short time (only around 2 months ish) on Farcaster so far. I get a lot of messages asking me for the best way to increase $degen allowances, to get followers (hate that term), to engage with people, etc.

So here's what I have to say about that.

The first thing you have to understand is that Farcaster is NOT X. Many things that fly on X or CT are kind of looked down upon on Farcaster - I’ve found things like sarcasm, ripping people, “engagement farming,” etc, don’t get nearly the reception that people expect coming over for the first time. This post from Tervo in his newsletter is a great example of why that is.

Simply put, Farcaster really did start out (and largely still is) as a place for serious builders/creatives. And if you’ve been around crypto any length of time, you know there is occasionally some in-fighting between the “traders and builders,” so to speak. Recently, this has been changing, as people more on the left side of the curve (like myself) make the switch to Farcaster. However, like Tervo mentioned, there is a specific etiquette here on Farcaster, and that’s something we should respect.

Just like when you travel to a different country you should be respecting their norms and trying to speak in their language as a sign of respect, so should you respect the norms that have been on Farcaster far before our arrival.

As I mentioned above, these are things like:

• Being kind to people by default

• Being genuine and engaging

• Not posting low-effort posts/replies

• Avoiding engagement farming

Speaking of being genuine, I’ve been in crypto for 12 years, and I can tell you unequivocally that many of the people on Farcaster (especially the bigger accounts) are very smart and can smell the BS from a mile away. If you come here with the wrong intentions (how do I make money by farming $degen???), you will be sussed out and ejected from the social hierarchy. I’ve seen many big follower CT accounts try to make the switch over to Farcaster and fizzle out very quickly - if you’re not willing to put the time in to build up your reputation organically, then why should anyone else waste time interacting with you?

The best way to build up a following, I have found, is to be as genuine as possible and interact (reply) with people as much as you can. Pick a few channels that you want to focus on (that match your interests) and reply, reply, reply. Work your way towards being a recognizable name and even top caster status - but do keep in mind, this is not necessarily how you increase your $degen allowance per se, and therein lies the rub.

With the incentive that $degen provides for people to come over to Farcaster, it’s a fine line between doing things “the right way” and doing them “the wrong way.” Read this post I made the other day on the $degen ecosystem for a little more information on that if you’re not already aware.

In terms of the $degen/farcaster ecosystem and how they work together, there’s a few issues at play here:

• The way to increase your $degen allowance “is determined by several factors, with a primary focus on recent reactions to your original casts.” You can find the exact formula here.

• Because you receive more $degen allowance by reactions to original casts, it incentivizes people to post things that get a lot of engagement - let’s take a giveaway for example.

• However, most people view giveaways as spammy and generally scroll past them (myself included) - unless they are of somewhat significant monetary value, a physical item that people want, or a trade for goods/services (custom PFPs by a legit artist, for example)

You have this very fine line where the types of things that get the most engagement are also viewed as engagement bait, automatically turning people off on your account/posts, especially in a place like Farcaster. At the same time, unless you are a builder/creator (of which we now know many people incoming are not), you are somewhat hamstrung when it comes to increasing your allowance, leaving these methods as the “easiest” and most accessible way to increase your allowance. So what are you to do as the average joe?

As I said above - it’s a fine line. There really isn’t anything wrong inherently with a giveaway, for example, but it’s important that you aren’t doing anything low effort or giving away something that nobody wants. If you make an NFT of some low effort AI art you made, you have 100 followers, and you expect people to tip you $degen and interact with your post, you’re probably not going to find much luck. On the other hand, that means you are probably somewhat forced to give away something of legitimate value, which not everyone has the ability to do.

So, ultimately then, how do you balance being genuine and engaging, allowing you to build a good reputation for yourself, when there are incentives to also post what traditionally would be known as engagement bait (which would probably detract from your reputation)?

Well, I certainly am no expert, but here’s how I kind of view it, and here is my recommendation to most newcomers.

• The first and most important thing you should be doing is replying to people and genuinely engaging them. This doesn’t mean low effort “gm” only, but literally responding to their posts, asking questions, finding out about them, asking about their art, their hobbies - whatever they are posting about.

• As you engage with people and they realize you are genuine and here for the right reasons, they will naturally be attracted to you (who doesn’t like good vibes), and probably end up following you, liking your posts, supporting you, etc.

• You turn around and do that exact same thing - continue to reply, support those who support you, etc.

• The more you reply, the more followers you get, the more engagement you get on your original casts.

• The more engagement you get on your original casts, the more your $degen allocation goes up.

Notice, however, that there is no shortcut here. To tie it all back together, if you’re not willing to put the time to get to know people and support them, then why should anyone else waste time supporting you?

It ultimately all comes back to one thing:

Reply.

BFG

gm everyone, and thanks for taking the time to check out this newsletter - if you missed my primer on Farcaster from the past week, check it out below:

Today, though, I want to dive a little bit more into $degen and why it’s been so instrumental in the success of Farcaster to date. As always, this is from the viewpoint of someone who joined just a bit over a month ago, so take what I say with a grain of salt, and always DYOR (that’s the teacher in me - always use multiple sources). It’s also worth mentioning that I have a bag, both from people kind enough to tip and also from buying on secondary.

As I mentioned in the previous newsletter, $degen is what seems to fuel (compliment, really) social interactions in the Farcaster space.

Degen is basically the currency of Farcaster that makes the world go round - people are constantly tipping it to each other - “lmao good post, 3000 $degen.” The cool thing is that you not only can receive tips from people, but you also get a use it or lose it allowance every day (if you qualify, which you can by reading the FAQ here) to give away. You don’t get to keep any leftovers (and it also doesn’t come from your own received tips), so it really incentivizes people to out, talk to others, and spread the love.

Low effort posts usually don’t get much $degen, so once again, if you’re just farming and people spot you, you’re gonna get rekt.

From one of the team members themselves:

If you use Reddit, you’re probably familiar with their karma system. This time around, imagine that the karma has a USD value, and it recently just broached .02 US.

Truthfully, I’m not generally a fan of “points systems,” as really it usually just means that we are the ones getting farmed for our liquidity instead of the other way around. The $degen team, however, has flipped that entirely on it’s head. These points have a value assigned already, along with a release schedule.

Not only that, but the main way that $degen is distributed is via tips from other users. There are LP contributors, of course, but even those rewards are getting reduced.

The beauty of this design is that instead of most of the token going to farmers and people with huge pockets like normal who can afford to dump ridiculous sums into LP positions, tokens are instead distributed by the community, for the community. The only way you are going to get $degen tips on Farcaster is if the people like your content, creations, or whatever it is you have to say. The result is two fold:

1. The distribution goes to people who are actively contributing to the ecosystem instead of detracting from it (deserving)

2. Most people who receive these tips are community members already who believe not only in the $degen ecosystem, but Farcaster/Base itself - instead of people farming and dumping, most people I know who receive tips hold and accumulate because they believe in the mission

If you’re at this point, you probably are wondering how you get to participate in the fun. Getting $degen is one thing, but giving $degen is even better. Importantly, you need to meet this most basic criteria to start:

You can also check out this Dune link for the actual formula to increasing your tip allowance.

Every day, you get an allotment of $degen (once you’re eligible) that’s use it or lose it. It doesn’t come from your own received tips - it resets every 24 hours. Really, you should make your personal mission to zero out your allowance every day - otherwise, you’re burning free money that could go to someone deserving.

For more detailed information, however, I highly recommend checking out Wake’s Tipping Guide below. This is basically the holy grail of $degen tipping information.

Overall, $degen is an extremely unique coin that many are treating as a proxy bet on the entire Base/Farcaster ecosystem - and you can probably see why. The recent price action supports this as well. Distributed in possibly the most fair and mission-aligned method you could think of, I’m extremely bullish on the future of $degen, and try to add whenever I can (and sometimes it costs me, please don’t let me trade anymore).

I hope this newsletter helped you understand the $degen ecosystem a little bit better - but you can always feel free to reach out with any questions!

Feel free to check out my Substack as well!

Have a great one!

BFG

I've been using Metamask since literally the day it came out but recently have been running into more and more issues or concerns (I probably use 'concern' too loosely). On one hand, wallets are super sticky - in a place rife with scams, it's hard to trust a new service with your money. On the other, however, it's important to stay up to date as new tech comes out - and at the end of the day, I want to protect myself as much as possible.

Ultimately, this led me to move to a new wallet - Rabby - which was a very uncomfortable thing to do for me initially when you are talking about a space that takes advantage of people every day. For the first few days, every time I would check my balance I'd hold my breath and hope everything was there - this isn't anything against Rabby, either, but if you've been around long enough, you know how it is. However, after using it for around a week, I'm happy that I made the switch, and I would encourage anyone else still using Metamask to consider doing so as well. I don't have any relationship with Rabby, by the way, I just like to talk about things I use and/or enjoy, as you all know. Of course, if you use Coinbase wallet or something, you may already have your wallet of choice. I personally haven't used it much, so I cant speak to it with confidence.

So why am I glad I made the switch? A few reasons. Feel free to visit their X page here, by the way - and as always, double and triple check that even I linked the correct link. You should always verify things yourself.

Multi-Chain

Rabby supports a lot of different chains, and it gives you a super easy overview of everything you own on any given wallet - regardless of which chain it's on. This is my garbage hot-wallet by the way, so don't look here for alpha (many tokens in here were airdropped to me as scams), but you can see how cool and easy it is.

My favorite part, though, is that it automatically switches network for you as needed. You don't need to mess with swapping RPCs or manually inputting them anymore.

Security

The real reason I am enjoying Rabby, however, is the much improved security experience. First, before you even go to sign any transaction, it will show you common flags (you've never sent to this wallet before, for example). It won't even let you go through with the transaction unless you acknowledge these security concerns first.

Second, it will simulate the transaction for you and show you EXACTLY what you will be sending and receiving. Instead of just blind-signing something, now you get to see the exact assets that will be moving. So if you go to "claim" something, and you suddenly see the transaction simulation show you that all of your NFTs are going to leave your wallet, you can stop that before it happens.

MEV Protection

If you're new, you may not know exactly what this is. But sometimes when you send a transaction with a certain amount of slippage set, for example, bots can frontrun your transaction, buy a token cheaper, then sell it to you at the higher end of your slippage. Technically, you agreed to this, but bots and people take advantage. MEV protection prevents this from happening, and you can turn it on when you go to send a transaction.

Not all wallets are made equal, and I'm sure different use cases call for different things - for example, I still use Phantom for Solana. But overall, I'm glad I took the plunge to try out Rabby and hopefully end up protecting myself from being taken advantage of. If you have been debating making the swap, I would encourage you to check it out. As always, make sure you confirm the links and extensions you are downloading come from the official source.

Bitfloorsghost

It’s time that you get on Farcaster/Warpcast.

Now, before we start, keep in mind that you may see me, or other people, use Farcaster/Warpcast interchangeably. Think of Farcaster as the rails behind the scenes of your e-mail services, and Warpcast as gmail. Most of us use the Warpcast app to participate on Farcaster. So, when you sign up using the link above, you’re signing up for your Warpcast account. It costs 5 dollars or so which some people seem to balk at, but if you are so ingrained in the crypto community that you are reading this letter, that’s probably (hopefully) not you.

With that being said, let’s get into it.

What is Farcaster?

As always, I’d like to direct you to the source first - feel free to do your own reading here and that way you don’t fall subject to my own biases.

Overall, however, think of Farcaster as a decentralized “public social network similar to Twitter and Reddit. Users can create profiles, post "casts" and follow others. They own their accounts and relationships with other users and are free to move between different apps.”

For those of you who have used Reddit before, it’ll have a familiar feel. Instead of just “tweeting” out to the general masses, on Farcaster, there are channels - which you can think of as subreddits. You pick the channel you want to send the message in and go from there. You can subscribe to as many of you like ofc - some of my favorites are /replyguys, /wearesoearly, /itookaphoto, etc.

Why use Warpcast over X?

This is probably the #1 question people have - and in a space where we have all been burnt so many times on “the next social media app” (think Threads), why should you make the jump when all these other ones haven’t worked out?

First, I’d like to state that I joined Farcaster only a little over a month ago, so I certainly am not some expert, and I definitely don’t portend to speak for the community or anything like that. However, I think you’ll find that the fact that I only joined such a short time ago and am enjoying it so much only adds to the credibility of my claim that you should be on Warpcaster over X right now if you’re in the crypto space.

The Friends

One of the biggest things that stands out when it comes to people migrating from X or other social media over to Farcaster is how common it is to hear people talk about the amazing friends and connections they are making - especially just starting out as a smaller account. I’ve been on X for about 4-5 years now, and in that time have amassed a not-too-shabby 11,000 or so “followers” (I hate that term tbh). It’s been a lot of grinding, a lot of getting ignored, and even now it’s hard to get heard on a site that doesn’t always prioritize the best contributors on the platform (not that that’s me).

In the 1 month + I’ve been on Farcaster, I’ve already reached about 7,000 followers (once again, hate that term - I prefer friends), and it’s been a result of doing absolutely nothing different than I already did on X.

Now you might be saying, well of course you can get a lot of followers - you have plenty on X, they just migrate over. Well, that’s where you’re wrong, kiddo. I’d venture that a vast majority of my followers on Farcaster didn’t even know of me before I made the swap - so different is the community. But instead, the reason I feel like I’ve made a lot of connections here is due to one of the best draws of Farcaster overall - the community is much more intimate, insular, and genuine.

Similarly, people who are coming from X with lots of followers - if they aren’t in the trenches replying to people and being genuine, they usually fizzle out pretty quickly. The Farcaster crowd is just different. If you’re just there to extract value, farm followers, etc., you probably won’t qualify for a Power Badge and your posts will probably not get much attention.

Being straight up, 100% honest with you guys - I’ve had more fun in the past month I’ve been on Farcaster than the past 12 years in crypto, and it has nothing to do with money (although that is fun, too). I’ve made more connections and what truthfully feels like more lifelong friends by being a replyguy here than all the years I’ve been on X. I think if you ask around you’ll find I am not in the minority on that.

The Building

There is so much happening on Farcaster at all times - the signal to noise ratio is way better. One of the coolest things taking place on Farcaster are “frames.”

What’s a frame? Let’s just consult the official documents themselves:

A Frame lets you turn any cast into an interactive app.

It’s a standard for creating interactive and authenticated experiences on Farcaster. Create polls, live feeds or interactive galleries inside Warpcast or any other FC client.

Frames extend the OpenGraph standard and turn static embeds into interactive experiences. The diagram below shows the difference between a standard OG and a Frame OG inside Warpcast.

For example - in this frame, I can check my $degen balance by simply clicking a button in my feed:

Or, perhaps you want to mint an NFT directly to your wallet without exposing any information or signing anything at all:

Frames are one of the first things that really drew me into Farcaster and showed me that this wasn’t just your normal “new crypto social media app” flavor of the week.

Frames are a game changer.

The Projects

If you’ve been hanging around even CT for the past few weeks/months, you’ve probably heard about $degen tipping and Onchain Gaias. If you were on Farcaster/Warpcast, though, you probably have already gotten a fat $degen airdrop, and you also probably minted Onchain Gaias for free (floor currently .88 eth).

Did I mention my airdrop from season 2 is worth 23,000 US dollars now?

Did I also mention that small accounts like me and Tervo on Farcaster outearned what some huge accounts (like our friend Ansem) earned on X in a few months when they have 35x the followers? Or that Threadguy outearned himself even?

New social media apps do need incentives to pull users, and I’ll wait while you think of a better one than something like that.

Degen

Degen is basically the currency of Farcaster that makes the world go round - people are constantly tipping it to each other - “lmao good post, 3000 $degen.” The cool thing is that you not only can receive tips from people, but you also get a use it or lose it allowance every day (if you qualify, which you can by reading the FAQ here) to give away. You don’t get to keep any leftovers (and it also doesn’t come from your own received tips), so it really incentivizes people to out, talk to others, and spread the love.

Low effort posts usually don’t get much $degen, so once again, if you’re just farming and people spot you, you’re gonna get rekt.

For more information, check out the official site:

Onchain Gaias

Last but not least, Onchain Gaias - the brainchild of Ciniz and Anton Marrast - was born on Farcaster/Base. In fact, you couldn’t even mint one unless you did it through a frame by having a Warpcast/Farcaster account.

As one of the earlier (or at least, more vocal) supporters of this project, I have an endless amount of things to talk about in regards to it - enough that it should get its own newsletter to explain it all, to be honest. That will be coming out shortly.

In the meantime, what you should know is that it was a free mint available to people on Farcaster who collected Ciniz/Anton’s NFTs that you could mint through a Frame (again, for free). The floor has now risen to .88 as of this writing as people are desperately seeking a native Farcaster PFP - and it’s going to be much more than that.

Check out this great quick explainer to get a basic idea of what is going on:

Click above!

As I mentioned above, I’ll be putting out some more content soon with more specific information on some of these Farcaster projects - Degen, Onchain Gaias, etc. In the meantime, I can’t recommend enough that you sign up and start making some friends. Hopefully I’ll see you over there.

BFG