How Decentralized Social Network Farcaster Hopes to Eventually Get to One Billion Users

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In the two weeks since Farcaster introduced its Frames feature that allows developers to easily add mini apps to users’ posts, the decentralized social network has become the talk of Twitter, now X, and increased its user base by ten times, according to co-founder Dan Romero.

Romero joins Unchained to discuss why Frames has become so popular, the philosophy behind Farcaster and its client Warpcast, why the crypto component behind Farcaster is being kept to a minimum, how Apple’s new Vision Pro could lead to the creation of a 3D social network on Farcaster, how he and his fellow co-founder’s background at Coinbase helped shape their decisions about building Farcaster, and his vision for eventually getting Farcaster to a billion-plus users.

Show highlights:

• What Farcaster is and what problems it’s trying to solve
• How and why Farcaster uses blockchain technology in the background
• How you can use ENS (Ethereum Name Services) for your handles on Farcaster
• How the recovery of accounts works on Farcaster and what the security implications are
• What Frames is and why it’s significant for developers and creators
• What’s controlled by the protocol vs. the client
• What Dan imagines could be built with the new Apple Vision Pro
• Whether there’s potential for better economics and ways to monetize content in Farcaster
• Why Farcaster is on Optimism, an Ethereum Layer 2, and whether it could be moved to another network
• How they are working to build a more decentralized network
• What the future of Farcaster and Frames could look like
• How Dan’s background at Coinbase shaped the way in which he decided to build Farcaster
• What the strategy is for scaling the platform to the numbers more associated with Web2 social media

Thank you to our sponsors!

• Popcorn Network
• Polkadot

Episode Transcript

Guest:

• Dan Romero, Co-founder of Farcaster
  • Coinbase’s Pragmatic Crypto Culture by Dan Romero

Links

• Unchained:
  • Bounties to Build Frames on Farcaster Are Growing Rapidly
  • Farcaster’s User Base Skyrockets Nearly 500% After Frames Launch
  • What Is SocialFi? A Beginner’s Guide
• The Chopping Block: Is Farcaster the Web3 Social Layer?
• Dan’s ideas for Farcaster

Farcaster architecture

• Architecture
• Onchain password reset mechanism
• Why Farcaster Frames are important
• The layers of Farcaster
• Farcaster charges “rent”