Farcaster: Reshaping the New Paradigm of SocialFi

Farcaster, as a decentralized social media protocol, provides an open and composable social layer for developers, creators, and ordinary users. It emphasizes privacy protection and autonomy at the user level, adheres to open-source and permissionless principles at the protocol level, and advocates for "mini-program" level interactivity at the product level, allowing users to directly access a variety of services and applications within social media posts through the Frames feature.

The core features of Farcaster include:

1. Decentralized architecture: Eliminate reliance on central servers and operate on the blockchain.
2. User Data Sovereignty: Users have complete control over their own data and social relationship networks.
3. Open source with no threshold: Anyone can access Farcaster's API or applications to develop new applications.
4. Highly Composable: Provides a unified social identity and supports interoperability between applications.
5. Hybrid Architecture: Combining on-chain and off-chain systems to enhance efficiency and response speed.
6. Frames Function: Allows embedding small applications in posts to enhance interactivity and user experience.

Technical Architecture

Farcaster adopts a hybrid architecture that combines on-chain and off-chain.

On-chain part

Mainly includes smart contracts running on the Ethereum Layer 2 (Optimism), responsible for:

• ID Registration: Generate a key pair associated with the Ethereum address for new users.
• Storage Registration: Managing the allocation of user data storage space and annual fee collection.
• Key Registration: Manage users' public and private keys to implement account authorization and revocation.

It is worth noting that Farcaster accounts must pay an annual rent of $5-7 to maintain network efficiency and prevent spam.

off-chain part

Consists of a group of servers called Hubs, responsible for:

• Message processing: Receiving, verifying, and storing content published by users.
• Data synchronization: Ensure data consistency between the Hubs in the network.
• Performance Optimization: Reducing latency and costs by processing large amounts of data interactions off-chain.

Social Experience Optimization

Farcaster's hybrid architecture brings users an enhanced social experience in multiple aspects:

1. Self-sovereign identity management: Users obtain a unified identity through on-chain registration and can securely manage account access permissions.
2. Data Isolation: Sensitive information is processed on-chain, while non-sensitive data is processed off-chain, balancing privacy and efficiency.
3. Decentralized Storage: Distributed network storage enhances data's resistance to censorship.
4. Data Access Autonomy: Users can precisely control the scope of sharing their personal data.
5. Cross-application interoperability: Supports the use of a unified identity across different applications, similar to the WeChat Mini Program ecosystem.

Frames Function

Frames are a major highlight of Farcaster, allowing small applications to be embedded in posts for diverse interactive functions:

• NFT Interaction: Display, mint, or trade NFTs directly within the post.
• Game Integration: Embed simple games into posts to enhance user engagement.
• Content Subscription: Conveniently subscribe to newsletters and other media content.

Ecological Economy

$DEGEN token

$DEGEN is a community-driven memecoin in the Farcaster ecosystem, and has become the community's first token:

• For content tipping and community participation
• Supports NFT minting
• In-app transaction medium
• Community Project Financing

Warps Points

Warps is Farcaster's internal points system designed to incentivize user participation:

• Gain through social interaction
• Can be used to pay platform fees or open new channels
• Allow users to gift each other

Openness and Composability

Farcaster is essentially an on-chain + off-chain ecological database that supports the development of diverse front-end applications:

• Ensure that users can still access through other means even if a single front end is restricted.
• Encourage developers to focus on niche areas, such as article platforms, live streaming platforms, etc.
• Promote combinatorial innovation between applications

Advantages and Challenges

The advantages of Farcaster are:

• Completed initial user retention, retaining a large number of crypto native users.
• Balances the needs of creators, developers, and ordinary users.
• Do not rely solely on token incentives to retain users.

The challenges faced include:

• The growth in user numbers may test the carrying capacity of the Hubs network.
• A positive cycle of content ecology needs to be established.
• How to find a balance between decentralization and content quality control

Farcaster's development direction is to attract and retain Web3 users on Twitter, providing them with a social platform that aligns more closely with the spirit of crypto. Its openness, developability, and composability are expected to redefine the future direction of SocialFi.