Farcaster is dead. Long live Farcaster

How and why I stopped using FC. PS: I might get back in

I discovered Farcaster at the end of 2022.

And it felt… different, but I left. Because it was too early, too dev-focused and extremely obtuse. Even so, it still felt like there’s something there that could grow to have an impact.

But I came back in Feb 2024. 👀

Got to 4k+ followers, got to know the ecosystem in the process. Loved it to the max and spent most of my time there. But I left because I was disappointed by the (lack of) vision of the biggest 2 teams in the eco: Farcaster/Warpcast and Degen.

But I’m thinking about going back.

Anything changed? Nope, those teams and products are still going their way. But I’ve realized the people I met there are the huge win foe me: the misfits, those tired of the spam/bots/drama of CryptoTwitter, those wanting something /better, the good guys (not good fellas 😅).

I don’t see how tech-only teams can survive in a (crypto) world focused on community and discussion.

➡️ Farcaster is NOT decentralized. That’s what “sufficiently” decentralized means. From DCs (direct chats), to auto-follow, to PowerBadges, to control of the main client and onboarding path - it screams centralized as fuck.

➡️ The main path to onboarding and client (Warpcast, developed by the same team) lacks basic features. Which isn’t a problem per se for a new app/network. But the team refuses to implement established features in other apps/networks - it screams bias and lack of vision.
They need to learn to “steal” what works; it’s called common sense and it leads to progress. Or they might be visionaries 👀

➡️ Anyone building products and services on Farcaster takes on a huge platform risk. Much higher than X/Twitter or any other established network. And not because FC is new/developing - because FC wants to reinvent the wheel by cutting “what works” right now. Again: visionary team or biased tech people.

➡️ When the founders are self-sufficient, think they can perform better than specialized people and take on any role + they’re ignoring culture and the results of years of evolution… they’re either geniuses or biased devs. And we know genius is rare (but not impossible😅).

Anyway, I miss connecting with interesting people, I miss the exuberance of a new platform to discover and I am surely missing (some of) my purple🟪 fam. Twitter is still THE sh*t when it comes to blockchain, but FC might be just the next best thing.

My only constant is crypto, I am in this space for the long run, so… looking forward to what’s next (for me and FC)! 💚