Welcome Drinks: First Irish Pub in Singapore

The evening of September 16th was a memorable prelude to the much-anticipated FarCon Asia. Held at a chic, informal venue - Molly Malone's Irish Pub. The Welcome Drinks set the perfect tone for the innovative discussions that would follow. This event - FarCon Asia is a first of its kind outside the US, was not only a continuation of the success seen in Los Angeles, but also a vibrant introduction of the Farcaster ecosystem to the Asian community.

The co-hosts - Takocast, Jam along with Blockbeats greeted the guests with lovely plushies. Tables in the pub were laden with an array of beverages, where guests were invited to mingle and fuel up for the evening!

It's great catching up with old friends and URL connections.

Stepping into the Arts House in Singapore on September 17 was like walking into a vibrant future where digital and real-world connectivity blend seamlessly. It was first time FarCon Asia is held, marking Farcaster's first major event outside the United States.

The energy was palpable, fueled by the anticipation of a community meeting face-to-face, many for the first time, after fostering relationships URL to IRL (In Real Life). Shoutout to the Farcard/Mintclub team who printed FarCon Asia NFC networking cards for all attendees with a farcarster identity ("FID"), and used the IceBreaker's platform to connect.

The event commenced with an enthusiastic crowd, ready to dive into the intricacies of the Farcaster ecosystem. The registration process was smooth, setting a positive tone right from the start. I caught attendees walking around wearing an tako (octopus) cap, getting sticker-tattoo and snapping photos with both new and old friends. It was a lot of fun!

The hosts put up TV monitors to showcase profile of builders, creators and projects. This was the IRL plan for those community members who could not make it to FarCon Asia - how thoughtful!

Refreshment was also available throughout, which kept the attendees' energy level high!

The co-host (Tako, Blockbeats and Jam) opened the conference with welcome speeches that set the intellectual tone for the day. Many people were awed to hear that the event is fully covered by the co-hosts without any external sponsorships, to maintain the experience where FarCon Asia remains cosy, chill and for the community to network with each others!

I had the pleasure of discussing hosting a fireside chat with Jesse Pollak, founder of Base, was enlightening. We discussed the foundational principles of Base and its role in bringing more people onchain, offering insights into how blockchain can enhance digital interactions in meaningful ways.

Jesse revealed that Base and himself has plans to go on a tour. They will head to India next, then Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines. It will be a three-week global tour to communicate with developers in different places and understand how Base can support them and help them achieve greater success!

Jesse also shared the areas he sees tremendous growth - in the payment and stablecoin sectors. The payment sector has established itself as a major application scenario, especially the stablecoin payment business driven by the US dollar stablecoin. He feels that there is an importance to put more non-USD denominated stablecoins on-chain, such as the Singapore dollar, the Euro and Nigerian Naira. There needs to be emphasis on the user experience, builders should not change everything people know about money, or make them use a whole new currency, instead help users get ten times better globally availability and access to financial services than what exist today. This will make the network and technology very valuable.

This was swiftly followed by a second fireside chat hosted by Ted with Dan Romero, co-founder of Farcaster. Dan delved into the core functionalities of Farcaster and its strategic roadmap. His passion for creating a platform that prioritizes user experience was clear. Dan spoke about the massive growth of Farcaster user base in 2024, with about 700,000 registered users, and all of them paid to onboard. Later during Q&A, I asked Dan if he would ever consider removing the USD 5 sign up fee. Dan responded that the fee does help to deter massive amount of bots from flooding the platform, so he would not remove it, but they could look to reduce the fee in future.

Dan shared that the team is focused on two things: first by increasing the number of daily active users in the protocol, which is mainly achieved through our ongoing Warpcast application-related initiatives; second is another set of initiatives around the protocol layer, which aims to enable developers to use the system development layer to build any application they want, gain access to the social graph, and reach the growing Farcaster protocol user base. Overall, the Farcaster team is working to make it easier for others to develop applications with social features, all based on cryptographic APIs and infrastructure.

Ted asked about the "Lego blocks" for developers, and mentioned Takocast, which is a client built on top of Farcaster. Dan responded with a clear framework having three levels: 1/ permissionless dataset and API services, 2/ easy content distribution, 3/ go beyond the permissionless use of the social graph and content distribution and then go further and build more functionality on the Farcaster data.

One major takeaway in Dan's fireside chat is what makes the users in Farcaster different from other platforms - Authenticity. While it is encouraged for project or company to have an account, he said that people still want to hear from the individuals behind. Dan shared how he would speak to the community through his personal account instead of warpcast, he stresses on the important "to be yourself" and let people know who you are. Perhaps this is how Dan successfully onboarded early users for Farcaster and continue to grew a fanbase.

Both Jesse and Dan were posted questions in relation to the Asian users or builders.

Jesse affirmed that there is no doubt that Asia is now a hot spot for on-chain innovation. He has seen many American developers leave the United States and come to Asia because there is a lot of innovation here. Jesse highlighted two points about Asian builders. First, they have accumulated alot of experience in building applications. However, the next generation of super apps is that they will be open, which means that they will share the same open data set, and many different people can build super apps, and they can use the same basic network, and then continue to improve and perfect it through competition. Second, there are many strong cultural leaders in Asia who are very aware of mainstream culture and are thinking about how to bridge these cultures to the on-chain world. He feels this kind of cultural insight is a very important.

On the other hand, Dan shared that those who build applications outside of the United States, they will have a better understanding of local market or regional needs. A good example is our translation function, which can serve markets such as China and Japan. So, I think the most important thing is to create some communities on the network that are not necessarily geographically centered, although there will be overlap and interaction between these communities, but ultimately this will have a huge impact on the overall development of Farcaster and service providers. He also shared his appreciation for the Asian team (Takocast, Jam and Blockbeats) for hosting the Farcaster Asia 2024, including being shocked by the cofounders who flew into Los Angeles just to share the progress with him.

Overall, the Asian community forms an integral part of the Farcaster and Base strategy going forward, which is culturally and technically different from those in the west.

After a refreshing lunch break, we were treated to a series of panel discussions that were nothing short of a deep dive into the future of decentralized social network and community-building.

Panel 1: Building Decentralized Social Networks featured powerhouse panelists including Jane Lippencott from A16Z Crypto, Nader from Eigenlabs, Suji from MaskNetwork, Tony from Tako, David Toh from Mirana Ventures, and Rapolas from Zee Prime Capital. The panelists debated the nuances of privacy, the scalability of decentralized networks, and the hurdles in adoption, setting a thoughtful tone for the day. They explored the challenges of ensuring these networks are accessible while maintaining privacy and security. The discussion emphasized the delicate balance between innovation and user protection.

After the first session, the guests poured in to network with the panelists. It was a rare opportunity to connect with superstar panelists that many in the audience were looking toward.

Panel 2: Building on Farcaster for Tomorrow shifted the focus towards the practical aspects of developing on the Farcaster platform. To from Farcards, Nine from Symmetry, Ramit from Farhouse, mentats.eth from Lum0x, Yuki from Checkin, and Liang from Degencast shared their pioneering work and expectations for future developments.

mentats.eth from Lum0x from Lum0x came with a wizard hat and magic wand!

Panel 3: Foray into Onchain Social was particularly intriguing, with insights from Pigi from Taiko, Sarah from BNB Chain, Yawn from StepN, Terence from Humanity Protocol, Sean Lee from Mantle Network, and Cheryl from Dragonfly discussed strategies that could leverage blockchain technology to revolutionize social interactions online.

Panel 4: Memes & NFT brought a creative twist to the discussions, with speakers like Andrei Grachev from DWF Labs, Giulio Xiloyannis from Pixelmon, Clement Chia from Imaginary Ones, Alice Chen from Story Protocol, Spicy from Yuga Labs, and Juliet from New Tribe delved into how digital art and memes are shaping online cultures and creating new economic paradigms.

Panel 5: Let's Jam Together was the perfect finale, focusing on the creator economy. Gregarious from Snickerdoodle, Jack from Blockbeats, content creators Gracie Hartie and 0XLuo, and myself from Jam. This discussion was focused on how decentralized platforms can empower creators by providing tools for better engagement and fairer monetization strategies. Before this panel, Snickledoodle released a 118-page research report on Farcaster. Gregarious told the crowd TL;DR skip to the last page's summary, and everyone laughed. On a serious note, the report is very comprehensive and lays out the state of matters for Farcaster, which can be accessed at https://snickerdoodle.com/reports/farcaster-2024. Interestingly, the largest user pool is in Asia:

IP and content protection was a topic, where panelists were divided. Jack from Blockbeats felt that materials are being copied frequently and there is no easy way to protect them. Gregarious disagreed, saying there is a need to protect the content, especially since audience knows how to authenticate the content. The future of social network protection is conducted by the followers, with less reliance on central authority.

Gracie, an OnlyFan content creator told her story of unhappiness with web2 social network platforms like instagram, where she had to deal with censorship and opaque rules of engagement. She has turned to telegram to continue her business where she engages with fans. When asked what will help her move to new platforms like Farcaster, she shared that it is new and like telegram, she is trying new platforms, but the user base and income potential must be lucrative enough for her to make a serious move.

In contrast, a popular content creator on Farcaster - 0xLuo, shared with the audience how he has made money posting stuff and earning from numerous early opportunities and airdrops on the platform. 0xLuo is well known creator for picking up projects on Farcaster, to provide an introductory analysis for his followers.

As the panels came to an end, it is a wrap for FarCon Asia 2024. The attendees took home good memories, useful knowledge and new friendships.

As the panels concluded and the crowd began to disperse, the air was filled with a sense of accomplishment and anticipation. FarCon Asia had not only met expectations but exceeded them, fostering a community ready to take on the challenges and opportunities of decentralized social networks. The event was a catalyst for change, setting the stage for Asia to play a significant role in the global Farcaster community. The sense of community and shared purpose was stronger than ever!

In the days that followed, we bonded over local delicacies, while we got to know each other better. I organized dinners that involved Singapore's famous chili crabs, a feast that foreigners all heard of, before they even landed. The crabs were juicy and nothing shy of the goodness that we experienced at FarCon Asia.

The Singapore experience isn't complete without tasting the fruit of king - Durian! You either love it or hate it, but no one left without trying the fruit. This is the spirit of builders, We may not like it, we may get it wrong, but we keep trying.

Apart from good food, we had other fun activities such as morning run around the Singapore Marina Bay!

FarCon Asia 2024 was a milestone for the Farcaster community. The connections made, ideas shared, and visions crafted here are sure to echo through our efforts as we strive to build the next generation of social network! Farewell for now, until the next event brings us together!

The exact location at 57 Windward Avenue was kept relatively secret, only known to the organizers and attendees. After arriving in Los Angeles, our team went to the summit venue and found a cafe across the street - Menotti's. We met Dylan (@dylsteck.eth) and other attendees. People were wearing Farcaster purple tops and even DEGEN Fedora hats! The atmosphere was relaxed, no one was trying to sell any projects, just genuine connections.

A pre-event “Sunset Welcome” warmed up attendees and facilitated the distribution of FarCon passes. These NFC-enabled passes, issued by IceBreaker, allowed attendees to easily connect with each other using their phones.

We estimated that around 300 people attended the event, including Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero, Messari CEO Ryan Selkis, and a16z partner Sriram Krishna. There was no stiff atmosphere around these people, everyone was just having fun while enjoying food and drinks. We took the opportunity to connect with old friends as well as the guests we had invited over the next few days!

The Cult Of Farcaster Begins

We kicked off the FarCon Summit back at 57 Windward Avenue. The courtyard was packed with attendees, eager to hear from the key opinion leaders in the farcosystem. Many attendees came in attire that had Farcaster elements, such as the signature purple color or purple fedora hat. It was nothing like the usual crypto or web3 conference, people turned up in costumes, the gathering was almost cult-like!

The crowd was largely builders oriented with high quality creators and investors among them. The energy level was off the charts, sending good vibes through the courtyard.

Stalls were set up around the corner, distributing and selling merchandise, even Coinbase was selling coffee.

Everyone cheered as the event kicked off with a keynote by co-founders of Farcaster - Dan Romero (@dwr.eth) and Varun Srinivasan (@v). They were dressed in purple wizard costumes, reflecting the fun, spontaneous and community-driven culture. It was unlike any other conference that you have attended before, where founders came in t-shirt jeans or suited up. The energy and fun level are unparalleled!

The duo shared their journey in creating Farcaster, where Dan made hundreds of calls in the beginning to onboard users onto the platform. Currently, Farcaster has about 47,000 daily active users and over 357,000 users onboarded (according to farcaster.network). They recalled how the launch of Frame led to an exponential onboarding of users because it was the first time users could click and interact with a cast, for a transaction to take place.

Dan shared casually that he created the keynote slide on an Uber ride, which had three key points that they will focus on: 1) Grow with crypto, 2) Create cozy corners, 3) Make more legos.

I caught up with Dan off-stage, on his thoughts around the development of the creator economy. We also discussed how Jam and Tako protocol can have a deeper partnership with Farcaster, by onboarding more users in Asia.

Keep Building On Base. Target To Bring On The Next Million Users!

Jesse Pollak, Creator of Base and Head of Protocols at Coinbase spoke at the event as well. Jesse  encouraged people from all over the world to bring their expertise to build on base, do what they love and he believes the products will get better! He remains committed to bringing the next million users onchain, and highlighted that Onchain Summer is coming soon!

Nearly 1 million new crypto tokens were created last month, a number that is twice the total created on Ethereum from 2015 to 2023. New tokens are dominated by tokens on the Base chain, which has experienced tremendous growth under Jesse’s influence.

In addition to FarCon, we spoke with Jesse about the success of Jam and Tako protocol’s recent Base and Farcaster meetups in Hong Kong and Dubai. It was very inspiring to work with Jesse. He expressed his support and looked forward to our next event.

EGEN’s founder, Jacek (@jacek), shared his thoughts on DEGEN and his current work. His focus is mainly on the practicality of L3 DEGEN, highlighting its potential use outside the Farcaster network and even in real-life payments. This is an interesting angle because this attempt may introduce DEGEN beyond Farcaster and into the hands of other cryptocurrencies or Web2 users, driving the adoption and value of tokens, while DEGEN was originally just a meme.

I mentioned earlier to share why the access to FarCon is highly sought after, the reason is that this event is so cool, unlike any other conference. The speakers and key opinion leaders were approachable off-stage, while attendees could chat to them as peers.

In addition to developers and creators, we saw many high-quality VCs and investors at FarCon, including Matt Huang from Paradigm, Jane Lippencott from a16z, Mike from 1confirmation, and Eliqian from multicoin capital. Everyone came together to work together to promote growth and build the Farcaster community. At the conference there were no clear distinctions between customers and users, suppliers and vendors, only members of the Farcosystem!

Lights On. Onchain and Onskin!

The day ended with an after-concert party where attendees enjoyed the music. There were drinks and stalls offering fun activities around.

One of the stalls offered live tattoos, such as the Farcaster or DEGEN logo. The attendees were equally full of spontaneity and participated in the tattoos like true degens.

The event was both fun and inspiring, and lived up to its uniqueness for the participants.

The Creator Economy

One of the highlights at FarCon was the “Creator Economy on Farcaster” summit organized by Jam and Tako protocol, along with co-host DEGEN. The event focused on the current state and future of the creator economy. We invited many well-known developers and creators to share their insights on the panel topics.

Before the panel discussion began, attendees were surprised to enjoy local favorite In-N-Out Burgers and Tacos!

It was so good, that the Fox at Metamask raved about it too! 

The topics included,

Panel 1: How Decentralized Social Networks Empower Creators

Panel 2: Redefining Creators’ Economy and SocialFi

Panel 3: BUILDers building & Communities in Farcaster

The panelists, a mix of creators and developers, shared their experiences joining Farcaster. When asked about the future of Farcaster, Colin from Paragraph said that he hopes that user wallets can be personalized when connected to any product. Aneri from Coinbase summarized the meeting and said that by 2029, their goal is to attract 1 million developers and 1 million users onchain!

Colin also announced that Paragraph is taking ownership of the Mirror product. They raised USD 5 million from USV and Coinbase Ventures. The team is thrilled to accelerate their mission of fundamentally changing how creators build & grow direct relationships with their audience.

Another hot topic was the tipping model and the future of SocialFi. Alex Kwon (@ace) defended the tipping mechanism in Farcosystem, saying that the general consensus is that as long as you tip for a certain value, the offline character is just a game point that can be exchanged for entertainment. Alex Masmej (@alexmasmej.eth), founder of Drakula, added that tipping in DEGEN is positive, and the lightweight element makes it easier for creators to accept. 

DEGEN founder Jacek (@jacek) responded that he hopes the reward game will last longer, until 4 years later, when users can win 1% of the total token supply. He mentioned that there may be potential changes in the reward allowances and mechanisms around DEGEN. In addition, he is considering using DEGEN on L3 and potential use cases outside of Farcaster.

When asked about building community in Farcaster, developers and creators alike said it can be a little complicated, but authenticity is key. Tim (@tldr) said the idea is to create real conversations and respond to things you find interesting. Follow others and they may follow back and continue these interesting conversations.

I wrapped up the session by sharing how Jam is building the onchain instagram and broke USD 10 million in transactions within the first 72 hours of launch. We are supporting creators through directly guiding them and providing grants to empower their growth in Farcaster.

Builders Must Hack!

During the summit period, builders were invited to join FarHack. A three day hackathon that focused on building applications for Farcaster users. It was high pressure as there was little time in between hacking and various events going on at FarCon. 

FarHack came to an end and results were announced. The room with FarHack was packed with over 200 people who came to see the top 10 projects selected by judges. There was a vote by FarCon attendees and the crowd chose the FarHack winner, “Memecaster”, via frame by @eth_call. The team that bagged a prize of 1 ETH!

Memecaster helps users easily create memes by uploading an image and selecting text. Even though some people thought it wasn't the most innovative product, people voted for it. This shows the spirit and culture of FarCon, it's not always the most efficient that wins, it can be the most fun that wins! 

After the hackathon, the builders were exhausted and we saw them taking a well deserved break. Below is a photo of @sinaver. Kudos to them all for working hard around the clock to deliver a product, the FarHack team deserved a break.

A Conference That Truly Builds Communities

During FarCon, there were many events held by various communities. There were sports events like surfing and a 5K beach run, as well as a builders brunch and photo walks, and even a Pickleball tournament.

All Good Things Must End

Jam and Tako protocol hosted a dinner for our guests at Marina Del Ray to celebrate the success of FarCon and the Creator Economy Summit. We invited creators, builders and investors to enjoy a great dinner at sunset.

Meanwhile at Santa Monica beach, other attendees were there to enjoy the sun and sandy beach.

Farewell & Look Forward

Each day at FarCon was filled with a variety of activities designed to promote networking, learning and enjoyment, ultimately blending professional and social interactions to provide a platform for active builders and creators in the Farcosystem. The community atmosphere was great. Interactions with high-quality builders and creators brought us insights and strengthened our confidence in building and further exploring decentralized social networks within this ecosystem.

It has been an amazing experience at FarCon, where people went from url -> irl. We had the opportunity to meet in-person with many creators and builders that we worked with before. We said our goodbyes, and look forward to connecting more people with Farcaster and building the future of decentralized networks together! 

Our team will be focusing on preparing for the next event and building the ecosystem. During our meetups in Asia and the Middle East, we found that people had a huge interest in Farcaster and decentralized social networks. We intend to combine the experience gained at FarCon and bring the same experience to Asia. 

The Asian market is relatively new to Farcaster in terms of product adaptation. There is a considerable gap between market demand and what the current ecosystem can support, especially in terms of language and user experience. Tako protocol is focusing on addressing this market gap and moving towards a more inclusive community. If you are interested to participate or know more about our product, reach out to us!

Social Connections:

• Website: 

  • https://jam.so/ 

  • https://tako.so/ 

• Twitter

  • https://twitter.com/Jamfrens 

  • https://twitter.com/TakoProtocol

• Telegram: 

  • https://t.me/Jamfrens 

https://t.me/TakoDevCommunity