The moment we've all been dreading is finally here. Elon just dropped the bombshell that all X users will need to pony up to continue using the app. This would've been a little easier to swallow if the app wasn’t riddled with shady ads leading straight to wallet siphons, and if it had robust security to actually protect user accounts. Not to mention the emotional rollercoaster we ride every time we scroll past our once-beloved, now defunct, NFT projects. But there's a silver lining. Farcaster, a new protocol that’s been brewing for a while, is stepping into the spotlight. It offers developers a foundation based on a truly web3-focused social graph, facilitating genuine on-chain interactions in a decentralized way.

 

Hold up with all those techy terms, Botwin. What's it all mean in plain English? Well, let me break it down for you. Imagine you wanna fire off a tweet or slide into someone's DMs. You pop open your go-to app that's powered by the Farcaster protocol. Punch in your words of wisdom, tap 'send', do a quick sign-off, and bam—you're good to go. That's it, folks. Report from the field, done and dusted.

 

 

. . .

 

Hold on, I might've oversimplified things earlier. While it's indeed as straightforward as I said, the magic is truly in the backdrop. Unlike conventional platforms like Twitter, Farcaster doesn't just throw your data into the abyss. Instead, your deets are stored in "hubs", which are kinda like the Nodes on Ethereum. They play referee, ensuring that the info logged is legit. These "hubs" are off-chain p2p servers, so if you're feeling the decentralization vibes, you can roll out your own "hub". And guess what? Every hub has the same info stash, ensuring a resilient, censorship-resistant storage. Fire off a new message, and voilà! Every "hub" gets the memo.

 

"Botwin, isn’t there a risk of bad actors flooding the system with junk, bringing the whole thing down?" Absolutely! But to curb that mischief, Farcaster slaps on a "Storage Rent". Think of it as a yearly subscription that wards off the spam lords by making their game expensive. Now, I get the groans—paying for social media ain't on anyone's wishlist. But if cash must leave my pocket, I'd rather it be for a platform that's sturdy, secure, and not just a spam magnet. And remember, we're not comparing apples to apples here. Twitter or Facebook? Those are individual networks. Farcaster? That's a protocol, baby—a foundation for countless social media apps to thrive upon. I'll dive deeper into this "Storage Rent" biz in a bit. But first, let's unwrap more of Farcaster's gifts for the web3 aficionados among us.

 

Verification

 

Hexagon PFPs? Toss that bullshit validation method to the side, 'cause Farcaster is bringing the ENS magic. Fuck yeah baby! Let’s dive into how Farcaster flexes its verification muscles on-chain. Here’s the deal: Farcaster doesn’t just mix up Usernames and Accounts. On Farcaster, you—a user—can rock multiple Usernames (though only one can be active at a time) from a bunch of different protocols. Think ENS, and you're on the money for those sweet censorship-resistant handles. Pop open a Farcaster account, and boom, you’re slapped with an FID (short for Farcaster ID). Now, you map this shiny FID to whatever Usernames you’ve got, all via an on-chain transaction. This fancy numeric ID thing? It’s all monitored with a Smart Contract over on Eth (shoutout to Optimism for the sweet sweet low gwei). This means you can always sniff out, chat, and tag fellow users using their Username.

 

And get this: when you kickstart your Farcaster account, they hand you a .fcast.id username for freeeeee. For instance, I could be rocking 0xBotwin.Fcast.id. Sure, these are off-chain handles—so not all decentralized and such—but it’s a neat perk when you’re setting up. Oh, and a heads up: if you're thinking about slipping in homoglyphs or emojis with ENS domains here, think again. Not happening bruh bruh.

 

Signers

 

A "signer" is basically any wallet that gets the green light to blast messages, tags, tweets, and all that good stuff from your Farcaster account. Now, in most scenarios, that’d just be you wielding your own wallet. But Farcaster cranks it up a notch. BAM!—it lets multiple folks share an account by adding multiple "signers" to the party. You're probably scratching your head, thinking, "Why’s that a big deal?" Picture this: MVHQ is flexing their new Farcaster account, just like they do with their Twitter one. With Farcaster’s nifty feature, @JakeAndBake , @Kuya Mitch , and @Poopaloop can all become signers. That means all three can fire off posts, no password swapping needed. As long as their wallets are on lockdown, the account stays gucci.

 

 

But here's the best part son: having a bunch of signers means you can appoint an empty, burner wallet—as in, one that's not hodling your worthless jpegs —as a signer for your Farcaster posts. So it’s like adding a fortress gate to protect your main account. Bringing it back to MVHQ? The Squad wouldn’t even have to risk their treasure-laden wallets. A basic, burner wallet would do the trick. And for you nerds out there: the signing process? It rolls with the EIP-712 signature standard, the same vibe you get when confirming a listing on Opensea. Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy.

 

On Chain

 

Farcaster is built on a trio of smart contracts: the ID Registry, the Storage Registry, and the Key Registry. Here's the breakdown:

ID Registry: This contract crafts your FID, linking it to both your creation wallet and a backup recovery wallet.

Storage Registry: Keeps tabs on the storage real estate each user has attached to their account.

Key Registry: Manages the Signers for an account.

 

 

All these contracts set up shop on Optimism. After your initial setup and sorting out storage purchases, these are the only on-chain transactions the protocol leans on. The result? Gas fees that are lower than my hidden folders combined floor price.

 

Storage Rental

 

Alright, let’s tackle the elephant in the room: The Cost of Storage. Deep Breath One storage unit on Farcaster will set you back 5 bucks (paid in eth) annually. That’s a steal compared to the 8 dollars Elon's asking for garbage ass Twitter Blue every month.

 

Now, what does that single storage unit buy you? Quite a bit, to be honest. Here's the rundown:

-5000 Casts: Think of a Cast as a public message across Farcaster. It can pack in 320 bytes of text, a pair of URLs, and tag up to five frens.

-2500 Reactions: These are your likes and Recasts (kinda like retweets on Twitter).

-2500 Links: Essentially, it’s the Farcaster version of a Twitter follow.

-50 Verifications: These are your stamps of approval, proving you own an Ethereum address. Once an address gets the verification nod, it can sign off on an infinite number of posts. So, these 50 are basically like verifying 50 wallet addresses to one user account.

-50 User Data Updates: That’s your profile pic, display name, bio, URL, and active username. Picture this as revamping your Twitter profile 50 times over.

 

 

Counting your Eth yet? The price tag's looking pretty sweet, especially when you line it up against what we're forking out for current social platforms.

 

Alright, let’s tackle the elephant in the room: The Cost of Storage. Deep Breath One storage unit on Farcaster will set you back 5 bucks (paid in eth) annually.   That’s a steal compared to the 8 duckets Elon's asking for garbage ass Twitter Blue every month.

 

Now, what does that single storage unit buy you? Quite a bit, to be honest. Here's the rundown:

-5000 Casts: Think of a Cast as a public message across Farcaster. It can pack in 320 bytes of text, a pair of URLs, and tag up to five frens.

-2500 Reactions: These are your likes and Recasts (kinda like retweets on Twitter).

-2500 Links: Essentially, it’s the Farcaster version of a Twitter follow.

-50 Verifications: These are your stamps of approval, proving you own an Ethereum address. Once an address gets the verification nod, it can sign off on an infinite number of posts. So, these 50 are basically like verifying 50 wallet addresses to one user account.

-50 User Data Updates: That’s your profile pic, display name, bio, URL, and active username. Picture this as revamping your Twitter profile 50 times over.

 

Counting your Eth yet? The price tag's looking pretty sweet, especially when you line it up against what we're forking out for current social platforms.

 

Alright, let’s tackle the elephant in the room: The Cost of Storage. Deep Breath One storage unit on Farcaster will set you back 5 bucks (paid in eth) annually.   That’s a steal compared to the 8 duckets Elon's asking for garbage ass Twitter Blue every month.

 

Now, what does that single storage unit buy you? Quite a bit, to be honest. Here's the rundown:

-5000 Casts: Think of a Cast as a public message across Farcaster. It can pack in 320 bytes of text, a pair of URLs, and tag up to five frens.

-2500 Reactions: These are your likes and Recasts (kinda like retweets on Twitter).

-2500 Links: Essentially, it’s the Farcaster version of a Twitter follow.

-50 Verifications: These are your stamps of approval, proving you own an Ethereum address. Once an address gets the verification nod, it can sign off on an infinite number of posts. So, these 50 are basically like verifying 50 wallet addresses to one user account.

-50 User Data Updates: That’s your profile pic, display name, bio, URL, and active username. Picture this as revamping your Twitter profile 50 times over.

 

 

The Apps

 

Like I alluded to earlier, Farcaster's not just any old platform—it's a protocol paving the way for decentralized social galaxies. Now, to really dive into this protocol, you're gonna need an app built on its bones (unless you’re rolling up your sleeves to build one yourself). So, without further ado, let’s peep the apps already out in the wild so you can figure out how to ride this new wave of digital infrastructure.

 

 

 

 

 

And that's what it is! Meet the fresh protocol trying to snatch the crown from Elon's social reign. Tailored for the web3 native, Farcaster boasts safety and security at its core. Right now, it's got its doors open just for select crews (maybe MVHQ soon….?), but everyone's gonna get a slice of the pie in the coming weeks. The potential? Massive imo. Time will tell if the web3 diehards get with it. From where I stand, it's looking like a dope contender to Twitter's throne. With a bustling ecosystem already on deck, I'm stoked to plunge into the web3 social experience with Farcaster leading the charge. If you dug this piece, shoot me a follow over on Twitter @0xBotwin. Hope you enjoyed the read! Cheers!

- Botwin

Documents: https://docs.farcaster.xyz/ 

Apps: https://www.farcaster.xyz/apps 

Socials: https://x.com/farcaster_xyz