According to BlockBeats, on September 17, Farcaster founder Dan Romero addressed questions regarding the platform's $5 entry fee aimed at preventing bots during FarCon Asia, the first major offline event for the Farcaster ecosystem in Asia. Participants inquired whether the fee would be removed given the continued presence of bots in the community.
Romero acknowledged the concern, stating that the issue is under constant consideration. He explained that making the platform free would lead to an overwhelming influx of spam, potentially causing the system to collapse. He compared this to the transaction fees on Ethereum and Bitcoin, noting that without such fees, network congestion would increase significantly, with users sending transactions merely to disrupt the system. This would pose significant challenges to Farcaster's future decentralization capabilities.
To address the bot issue, Romero suggested creating a high-trust user group where each member receives ten invitations, allowing for planned growth while reducing spam. He mentioned that the fee might be lowered, as it has been in the past, potentially to $4, but emphasized that there will always be some cost inherent in the system's design.
FarCon Asia, co-hosted by Tako Protocol, BlockBeats, and Jam, aims to explore and showcase innovations within the Farcaster ecosystem and the future of Web3 social interactions. The event seeks to break away from the traditional one-way communication model of financial crypto conferences. It is expected to attract over 500 attendees, including Farcaster ecosystem builders, active users in Asia, venture capitalists, prominent investors, and experienced researchers.