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Written article: 0xjs@：
The latest round of financing of decentralized social media Farcaster has finally landed.
At the end of January 2024, the decentralized social agreement Farcaster released new features Frames, which aroused the attention of the encrypted community.
Beginning in February, a large number of users poured into FarCaster.
Farcaster’s new features Frames and new users have influx, which has attracted the attention of encryption VCs.In March of only one month, there were market rumors that Paradigm led a $ 1 billion valuation of Farcaster’s new round of financing.
On May 21, 2024, the previous market rumors landed.Farcaster announced the completion of $ 150 million in Series A financing, Paradigm led, A16Z Crypto, Haun, USV, Variant, Standard Crypto, etc. to participate.After completing the financing, the Farcaster valuation reached $ 1 billion, ranking among the first -facing beast startups.
As of now, the total user of Farcaster has reached 380,000, and the number of posts published every day has exceeded 1.24 million.
Why are these well -known encryption VCs so optimistic about Farcaster?Let’s take a look at the reasons for them (Paradigm, A16Z, USV, Variant Fund).
Paradigm: I am excited to develop the Frames tool package in the future
On January 28th after Farcaster Frames released only one day, Paradigm said on the official website that he was excited about Frames’s future and personally developed Frames tool package Frog.
Paradigm said that FarCaster is a social network similar to Twitter. Frames converts any CAST (post) into an embedded interactive application in the FarCaster client (such as Warpcast), redefining the content of viewing, participating and sharing content on social media.The way.This is the beginning of the new Yuan Dynasty paradigm that forms an embedded social user interface. It also requires first -class abstraction to enable developers to build high -quality, lightweight and high -performance frameworks.
The Frog released by Paradigm is a toolkit for building Frames on FarCaster, enabling developers to build high -quality, high -performance and lightweight Frames with only a few code blocks.
A16Z: Frames is not only decentralized social, but also the new primitive of the entire network
A16Z partner and the head of A16zcryPro Chris Dixon settled in FarCaster as early as 2 years ago, and currently there are more than 120,000 followers on FarCaster.
and,A16Z set up a document “AWESOME-FARCASER” on GitHub as early as October 2023(Https://github.com/a16z/awesome-farcaster).
Shortly after the launch of Frames, A16zCrypto posted a post to be extremely optimistic about Farcaster and Frames above it.A16zCrypto said that the Frames on FarCaster is not only decentralized social, but also the new primitive of the entire network.Frames surpassed the trials of Web2 on the open map and “embedded” (such as Facebook). It is a simple way to introduce interaction into the post -turning posts into various applications.For web3, the importance of Frames is that they can use it across the client (ie, interoperability): because Frame’s logic is distributed between the FarCaster protocol and running Frame server, they are completely independent of any client (such as Warpcast)EssenceFor developers, this means you can create a consistent experience that shared on the entire network.For users, this makes it possible for “real and universal maps to realize user actions in consumer applications”.
At the same time, most of the A16Z Crypto engineering team settled in FarCaster.
USV: Social network is rebuilding Farcaster on the chain will play the basic role
After the Farcaster financing press release on May 21, 2024, USV published on the official website to disclose the logic of its investment in FarCaster.
In 20027, USV invested in Twitter and Zynga.The two companies gave us a valuable lesson.
Twitter shows how open social networks can change the way people freely share information worldwide, and emphasize how a prosperous developer ecosystem can help new networks expand in a novel way.Now, from account access to developer API, content review policy, and information flow algorithm,All of this is completely controlled in the hands of a company.This is not the ideal ending of the global information network.
On the other hand, Zynga has experienced opportunities and risks to establish business on a growing social platform.They have established a booming business on the Facebook network and made important contributions to Facebook’s early income.But in the end, Zynga’s dependence on Facebook surpassed Facebook’s dependence on Zynga, and they found that their expansion capabilities were limited to the point where they had to rebuild their business in other places.
These experiences all highlight the limitations of building social platforms under the web2 model.For these events and similar events,Fred Wilson, co -founder of USV, once said, “Don’t be a Google dog, don’t be a Facebook dog, don’t make Twitter dogs. Be your own master.”Since then, USV has been holding this view.
Express to today, nearly 15 years, today,Social networks are rebuilding based on a new Internet architecture “chain”Essence
On May 21, 2024, USV was very happy to announce its investment in Farcaster. This is a social network agreement, which basically improved the previous design. The only limit is our collective imagination.
Farcaster is an open protocol, just like SMTP or HTTPUsers can pay and always have their usernames, all data (ie, broadcasts, broadcasting, attention, likes, etc.) are stored in decentralized FarCaster Hubs networks.Network users always have their digital identity, content, social maps and the relationship between the audience.
Because the basic content of Farcaster is completely open, developers can build anything on it.The Farcaster team has built their own client Warpcast, but there are many other clients.Although Warpcast looks like Twitter and Reddit today, it can also build something that looks like Tiktok, YouTube, and new things we can’t imagine, all of which are based on the same underlying protocol.A application ecosystem is growing rapidly. In addition to clients and larger applications, it also includes news readers, search tools, bookmark services, developer tools, robots, etc.
It is important that each identity on Farcaster is also an encrypted wallet, which means that economic activities are first -class citizens in the system.This not only opened the door for point -to -point transactions such as payment and tip, but also opened the door for any economic activities related to assets and content on the chain, such as NFT casting, taxation, content subscription and recommendation rewards.This built -in economic structure provides a new business model for developers, content creators and agreements itself.
We believe that a developer can do not need to permit the innovative Internet. I believe that the application is interoperable. I believe that the agreement can be combined like the Lego bricks.We should have our digital identity and content directly, and can transfer our audience from one application to another.We should be able to use strong built -in economic components to explore new business models.Our online speech, business and social life should not be controlled by a company.
Farcaster was founded by Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan. The two of them were entrepreneurs who have worked in Coinbase for many years.They are students in the consumer Internet and social networks. They are determined to perform this experiment again, but this time it is decentralized, open, and uses powerful encrypted economy.
Social stacks will be rewritten, and Farcaster plays a basic role in this new important chapter.USV is honored to support DAN, Varun and FC teams to write it on the chain.
Variant Fund: Farcaster community is famous for high quality and low noise
The Farcaster community is like a microcosm of an early encrypted community participating in the early encrypted community in the early decade of the founder of the Farcaster community: optimism, technology, ambitious, collaboration, and always online.
For ordinary daily users, Farcaster is an justice that has just started but develops rapidly to build “enough decentralized social networks.”Compared to traditional social media, the community is famous for its high -quality and low noise.This is the direct result of the core team’s efforts to make great efforts, and cultivate a carefully planned social map one by one.There are also the earliest enthusiasts sweat. They have maintained the Internet for many years and did not have influx until recently.
For technicians, Farcaster’s commitment is a new distribution channel with no need to build a module. It can realize the potential of many people seeking encryption here: the identity, money, and data of no license.
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Identity: Each identity in the network is associated with a encrypted wallet.Each post, message, and clicks on the Internet have been signed and marked with related FIDs.This is very powerful because it means that all interactions are authenticated by self -sovereignty.For users, historical records can be verified.Developers can also directly contact users. They can build their personal data overall view without permission. Not only can they be on the Farcaster, but also on the chain.
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Money: Because each Farcaster account has a related wallet, the network itself has the ability to receive and send payment, which has unlocked the functions of tip, casting, crowdfunding, and creating assets.As a result, trading friction was greatly reduced.
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Data: All social data on Farcaster are stored in distributed HUB networks.The goal of the Farcaster protocol is to motivate decentralized data storage so that users and developers believe that they will not be eliminated by the platform.Its influence is dual: trust attracts high -quality developers to join the ecosystem, and lasting openness means that companies established around the Internet can create a richer experience than WEB2.
One of the obvious examples of displaying the power of these building modules is community tokens. These tokens appear through the use of the Internet’s open social maps and interconnected wallets, allowing users to give tip and make money.
Frame is another noteworthy example.Interactive mini applications exist in social information flow in the form of posts, but can also be displayed in any application of a wallet. Frame enables developers to meet users in the position where the wallet is located.Frame can verify the identity of the interactive user, promote payment, and provide the ability to use the user’s chain and social data to unlock the additional Frame’s function.We have seen various interesting frameworks, such as embedded stores, casting platforms, mini -games and payment interfaces.We even established a Frame Botto to help the community understand another investment portfolio project. Since then, the project has begun to use Frame as a distribution channel and a large auction through the Internet.
So far, about 400,000 users have joined the network, most of which are tested by the first client on the agreement.The development of channels, as the development of WarpCast functions, creates a unique feeling similar to the Reddit sub -section, which can find a deeper community in the network.
At the level of the agreement, major progress has made the network develop from the license type to no license type.The core function of the network -including Frame, CAST action, and Channel -continue to gradually decentralize, so that more customers’ early ecosystems appear.
The Variant team has gained a lot of fun from participating in the network as users and builders.The members of our team MOD channels (such as /0TO1, /SoundScapes and /Countrymusic) and the Frames hacker marathon we held in the office have rare crazy energy, which is usually the characteristics of the most exciting new scenes.We also support teams like NOOK, Kiosk and Farworld Labs to help make big cakes and expand the diversity of customers on the Internet.Support the early teams to support Farcaster’s head together: When a third -party business can sustainly build above the agreement, the agreement will be successful.The more you are committed to attracting new users, the better.
This allows us to know Merkle’s team. Merkle is the company behind Warpcast and the core contributor of the FarCaster protocol.At the same time, it is not easy to build and maintain killer products and complex decentralization agreements, but at the same time, implementing the two is usually the best way to start.DAN and Varun have established one of the fastest and most high -quality technical teams in the cryptocurrency field.And they are growing up.
For all these reasons, Variant invested in the FarCaster’s Series A financing with other new investors Paradigm, USV and Haun.Although we focus on early cryptocurrencies, when we are good, we occasionally change our rules.As far as Farcaster is concerned, the core team, early developer ecosystems and user base represent the best ability of cryptocurrencies in terms of ability, attitude and ambition.increase.
