Final week I wrote an article just a few weeks in the past outlining what is Permissionless Identity and why it matters
This week I wished to cowl an instance of a ecosystem/protocol/app that’s the excellent instance of Permissionless Identification and why it is higher than most web2 counterparts.
Let’s get into it ☕️
I do know web3 social is a drained narrative that not everybody believes in it, however after hanging on Farcaster for the previous few weeks — I see the promise.
Farcaster leverages Ethereum for the id layer after which a distributed gossip community between friends (generally known as Hubs) to retailer messages. Here is a picture from the docs that explains how the Farcaster stack appears to be like.
It is necessary to notice that Farcaster is the protocol, and Warpcaster is the shopper which is a particular implementation of the Farcaster (made by the group). Groups utilizing their very own protocols to construct a flagship product is essential. This can be a technique I imagine each group that’s constructing a protocol must be doing. You may’t outsource your first utility. I noticed an analogous development with my time in DeFi again in 2019.
What’s refreshing is the truth that Web2 social media forces just one implementation of a shopper for the protocol which implies the information is locked and behind an API. This considerably limits what you are able to do along with your knowledge, and most significantly, your id.
Let’s revisit the definition of permissionless id:
“Portable, persistent identities that are cryptographically backed”.
Effectively, now think about all of your social knowledge is moveable to allow it for use in lots of contexts. But in addition, your public on-chain id being leveraged in a social context. Your id in each contexts is unidirectional. I will clarify what this implies in additional element beneath.
To start out off, Farcaster’s id module means that you can join a number of Ethereum addresses to your Farcaster ID by signing a signature to substantiate the hyperlinks between the wallets. When you do, all of your NFTs present in your profile.
“What’s the big deal?” I hear you ask. The large deal is the truth that once you go to an NFT assortment you’ll find different Farcaster customers who maintain that NFT and attain out to them! How neat is that? Your on-chain id that holds NFTs can now be utilized in your social Farcaster id seamlessly to foster real social connections. NFTs are simply the beginning. Think about what number of extra use circumstances this might allow?
So the above is speaking about utilizing your on-chain id in context of the Warpcast app (Farcaster shopper). What about utilizing your Farcaster knowledge in a distinct shopper?
Introducing https://flink.fyi/
It is all the information on Farcaster, however displayed in a Reddit model interface! This was carried out fully independently from the unique Farcaster group. Think about that. You may actually create a brand new social media web site, with out having to port over all your pals. That is such a wealthy alternative for all of the web2 social media entrepreneurs that would by no means get their concepts off the bottom as a result of the social graph was locked in perpetually.
Simply to show how open your knowledge is, Dune lately built-in Farcaster as nicely. Here is an instance of a Dune dashboard that offers you insane analytics on every little thing that consumer has carried out for the reason that starting of time (together with deleted messages)!
The dashboard beneath is for the Dune founder (dwr).
It is fascinating seeing a number of the extra nuanced issues like an accounts greatest followers, favorite customers and in addition customers who do not have interaction again (one-sided customers). For Dan, it appears to be like like Qiao Wang and Vitalik do not have interaction again actively with him.
Finally that is what the promise of social networking ought to have been. However, wasn’t as a result of incentives of huge tech that stop knowledge from being proven.
Thus far I’ve talked about the Farcaster related purchasers. However there is a actually attention-grabbing ecosystem of apps round it that make the expertise a lot extra built-in and related. For my subsequent instance, I’ll point out Paragraph.xyz. Consider it because the crypto model of Substack — however much more interconnected.
I am publishing this text on Paragraph and now any feedback about this text on Farcaster will natively present up on the Paragraph article! How neat! As a content material creator, the quantity of duplication and cross-posting that happens due to foolish video games like that is infuriating. Lastly there is a method ahead that is sensible.
Bounty Bountycaster, launched by Linda Xie, lately launched as a Farcaster built-in utility. Now in contrast to conventional bounty platforms, Bountycaster leverages the social graph produced by Farcaster with a purpose to create a stronger diploma of belief on the platform between transacting customers. It is apps like this which can be uniquely leveraged via Farcaster and huge public ledgers.
It is issues like this that make Farcaster magical and refreshing to expertise relative to the present panorama of social media. What you see in the intervening time is simply the tip of the ice berg. There’s a lot extra to come back that it is laborious to totally perceive what else may very well be attainable with this stage of interoperability. I might think about sooner or later, extra Farcaster purchasers will begin competing for mindshare and in addition trace the chances of being enterprise backed to hit massive scale returns. Far fetched, however attainable.
In closing, I am extraordinarily enthusiastic about Farcaster and the chance it represents for permissionless id and web3 social. I am personally sick of Twitter and the video games Elon performs. I spent years constructing a following of near 10,000+ followers, just for my posts to obtain not more than 10 likes anymore. The algorithm is my overlord, and I as a human, should undergo my algorithm’s creators. Fuck that.
Farcaster is the final social community I shall be beholden to, as a result of within the worst case, my social graph can simply be exported into the subsequent social community. There are penalties of each tweet you write by no means being deletable however I feel it will be net-better for humanity than not given the age of misinformation we reside in.
When you loved this text, observe me on my many fragmented identities:
