Author: 0xjs@金财经
When decentralized social media (DeSoc) can truly replace centralized social media, it has always been one of the "holy grails" of the encryption industry.
Farcaster is one of the strong candidates for decentralized social media. Evidence included is that Vitalik is more active on Farcaster than X, and that many crypto OGs are also moving to Farcaster.
Two recent events on Farcaster seem to give it more weight to seize the DeSoc Holy Grail.
Farcaster Frames
Farcaster is a decentralized social protocol that anyone with an Ethereum wallet can sign up for. Compared with traditional web2 platforms, Farcaster emphasizes user control over data and allows social data to be migrated between different applications within its ecosystem.
On top of the Farcaster protocol, developers can develop multiple client apps, such as Warpcast (an official client with a Twitter-like interface) and Farcord (similar to Discord). The complete list of Farcaster clients can be viewed here.
Farcaster recently launched a new feature, Frames. Frames can turn any cast (equivalent to a tweet) into an interactive application, such as casting NFT directly in the tweet without jumping out, greatly improving the user experience of Web3.
The launch of Frames is hailed as the biggest event in encrypted social networking and the entire social media industry so far in 2024. (See Jinse Finance’s previous report "How Farcaster Frames will change Web3 interaction")
As a result, a large number of encryption users have been attracted to develop Frames in Farcaster and experiment with new Web3 features, resulting in a significant increase in Farcaster's daily activity.
As we all know, in the encryption industry, airdrop incentives have always been a "nuclear" weapon to attract new users. Farcaster is no exception. In addition to the launch of Frames’ new features, another contributor to Farcaster’s recent surge in daily activity is the DEGEN airdrop.
DEGEN airdrop
DEGEN is an airdrop activity initiated by the Degen community on Farcaster, and its tokens are built on the Base chain. The first batch of airdrops was completed on January 7, and the second batch of airdrops is in progress.
After the DEGEN airdrop, the price performed very well and has been on the rise. The current price is around US$0.0033. Compared with $0.0002 on January 26, it has increased more than 15 times.
DEGEN Token Economics
DEGEN was minted with 37 billion coins when it was created, and will start a permanent inflation rate of 1% per year in 4 years. The allocation is as follows:
70% is allocated to the community:
15% is used for project development and ecosystem: 10% is locked until July 8, 2024; 5% vests within two years
15% is injected into the liquidity pool
In other words, DEGEN still has more than 55% of the total supply has not yet been airdropped, and only 15% of the token supply is in circulation.
Furthermore, DEGEN is relatively popular on Farcaster, and many users are using DEGEN to reward or ask for rewards. At the same time, many crypto users are active on Farcaster to obtain the second batch of DEGEN airdrops.
To obtain the DEGEN airdrop, you first need to have a Farcaster account.
How to create a Farcaster account
1. You can join by invitation (the author’s invitation link https://warpcast.com/~/invite -page/245677?id=e789a6e9), both the inviter and the invitee can get 50 WARPS for free. (Note: Warp is the Farcaster currency used to perform Warpcast-specific operations, such as minting NFTs, creating channels, or receiving/giving tips. 1 WARP = $0.01 USD.)
2. Enter your email address and verify.
3. Download the iOS or Android app.
4. Farcaster is not free, and you need to pay a storage fee of about US$5 per year. Certain countries like the United States qualify for free accounts.
5. Click "Next", "Next", "Next" and you're done.
How to get DEGEN Airdrop 2Airdrop
Farcaster users get Degen points based on likes, retweets and followers, 1 point = 1 DEGEN.
Eligibility: Need to link the wallet on Farcaster, and must have cast at least 3 times (i.e. posted three posts).
Daily Tips: Calculated using the Reactions per Cast metric, which applies to original casts (not replies or comments). Tip allowance is based on the ratio of reaction interactions (like retweets, likes, replies, etc.) to casts, so make sure to publish high-quality posts.
Casts in the following channels can get a 1.5 times improvement: /Base, /Founders, /Dev, /Design, /Product, /Frontend, /FarCon, /frames, / Zora and /farcastHER.
When to receive the airdrop: Starting in February, users will receive DEGEN once at the end of each month, the specific date is to be determined, and there is no gas fee.
Conclusion
Due to the dual impact of Frames and DEGEN airdrops, the casts released by users on Farcaster and their interactions have increased significantly recently.
Frames focus on interaction Innovation, significantly improving the Web3 user experience. DEGEN focuses on token incentives. The inherent advantages of encrypted tokens in micropayments and paywalls can greatly improve content creation.
Interactive innovation + airdrop incentives have initially opened Farcaster’s growth flywheel.
But we still have to wait and see if its flywheel allows Farcaster to support the DeSoc "village".