Are We Sufficiently Decentralized Yet?: GM Farcaster ep315

Anyone going to be in miami for art basel this week? @nounishprof and I were *thinking* about throwing a lil happy hour meet up ⌐◨-◨ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P3OB9fyv-E

It's time to build.

we will make the @baseapp.base.eth the best app

New career page is up with a note from me Wanted to be clear on all the reasons not to join XMTP.

Have you checked your email? https://farcaster.xyz/miniapps/tFX1m7IyozRk/hexmas

29 Seconds of Farcaster ... What did you miss this weekend? * Important reflections from @v 'Are we sufficiently decentralized yet?' | https://farcaster.xyz/v/0x8d86dafb * Have you noticed that $TYSM and its community are on the rise? @nomadicframe is #1 on the new @quotient leaderboard & the mini app is on the rise. I don't know a ton, but it's becoming popular with what I call 'the middle class' of FC--great FCers that aren't the big OG accounts. I've noticed @hankmoody & @milibooo are strong community members * It's been 12 years since the Ethereum White Paper-- @dtso shared the milestone & White Paper | https://farcaster.xyz/dtso/0xbeeca87d * Seems worth noting that @humpty.eth and now @asha are working on building the /cryptosapiens in a home for onchain creators * A little quiet this weekend, but /gmfarcaster will liven things up at 11:30 AM EST with @adrienne & @nounishprof after a week off with lots to catch up on 💜

Putting up my decorations

congrats @pugson make that thing better pls

Should we take some mushrooms on @gmfarcaster tomorrow?

me and who

me explaining Warplet mania to my family on Thanksgiving

Agree. A lot of the Degen story is really a Farcaster story too. In Dec 2023 in /degen, before token launchers existed, people were already experimenting with community tokens right in the channel. Small tangent, I have this hunch that @alon might have been partly inspired by that moment. Either way, the energy was there first. And I think the counterfactual is pretty clear: if $DEGEN hadn’t stepped into the gap and become the breakout Farcaster token, something else would have. Farcaster made that possible by giving us an open graph, verified wallets, channels, and a distribution surface that already had attention and capital sitting on it. We didn’t have to manufacture a network from scratch, we got to plug into one. On the airdrop side, I used to see it more narrowly, but over time I’ve come to think the early drops were genuinely value additive. Not just free coins but a mechanism that kicked off a specific kind of behavior and virality. I’ll say more about that later, because we’re building something in the Degen app that I think taps into that same initial loop and a core want people here have. And I don’t think the answer is token launchers. So yes, the 2024 meme coin/spec wave plus Degen pulled a ton of people onto Farcaster. But the platform had enough kindling that another project could have lit that fire too. I’m glad it was us, and we’re not done. Now shifting lanes. I think Degen app can be one of the top Farcaster clients. That’s what we’re building toward. If I have to bet on open vs closed systems, I’ll always bet on open long term. There are short run counterexamples, sure, but the pattern is consistent: open ecosystems attract more builders, more experiments, and eventually better products. On social specifically, Reddit and X gating their APIs was a strategic mistake. It slows innovation and pushes talent elsewhere. Over a long enough horizon, open social beats closed social. That’s why we’re here. Degen being early on Farcaster is going to matter, and I want us to keep pushing the edge of what a client can be. There still isn’t a Farcaster client that’s found the viral loop strong enough to pull normies from traditional networks. But just like with the Degen token, I think it’s a “when,” not an “if.” I’d like Degen to be the team that finds that loop first. Not because we have the most resources, but because I think we actually understand what people on Farcaster want. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think so. Quick historical note that always sticks with me: Reddit’s mobile app wasn’t originally built by Reddit. They bought Alien Blue and turned it into the official app. That’s a perfect example of a small independent team out innovating the mothership inside an open ecosystem. That’s the playbook I’m aiming for with Degen app. If we win, Farcaster wins too. Anyway. We keep shipping. Build on. https://farcaster.xyz/v/0x5ed77e2e

I appreciate we finally get a reflection on these topics, after a long time, @v. I consider myself part of this, and I care for it. My POV, for what is worth, bellow. (I hate how "Farcaster" does not have a clear meaning these days, and I can't articulate what I feel part of, so I'll go with "it".) # Decentralized "Sufficient decentralization" was a bad choice of terms. The natural term that flows from "if two users can find each other and communicate, even if the rest of the network wants to prevent it" is probably "sufficiently censorship resistant". We are neither decentralized nor censorship resistant. The whole network is based on validators operated by two entities: Merkle Manufactory and Neynar. If those two want to prevent me from casting, they can. And since they operate under the same jurisdiction, if the US gov/courts/regulators wants to prevent me from casting, they can. I wouldn't call a network operated by Snap and Facebook decentralized -and tbf, given the adversary nature of this combination, it could be more censorship resistant than this. The moment you publicly articulate this as a problem, and have a public list of validators and their operators, I will start having some hope for the future of the network. Until then, I see a huge issue hidden under the rug, just because it's not visible to most users. # On identity Having the identity onchain was a great choice. Yes, we have a permissionless identity system, and my Farcaster presence can't be nuked at the identity level ("delete an account"). Plus one for this! This is a great building block, but it turns out that it's not very useful if MM and Neynar want to kick me out of the network. What can I do with this identity? Not much. Not much more than my ENS identity, or an NFT that I hold. # On openness This is actually the part where Farcaster is already doing extremely well, but for some reason you guys never articulate it. Farcaster is **open** to devs. They can read from and write to the network, and the API endpoint is not controlled by anyone. This is the greatest achievement and what still keeps me here. # Governance You used to be better stewards of "the protocol" (one more poorly selected term). During the last 9 months, there were changes introduced overnight, and decisions that were debated outside the public sphere. My (very personal and potentially biased) feeling is you decided "we can't spend time listening to every stupid argument, we have to move on and we know better, and we will ask the 3-4 people we want to get feedback from". Yes, off-chain governance is a soft skill, especially if you decide to play the role of the benevolent dictator. No easy wins. (But you used to score some, what happened?)

I sold my Monad airdrop and did two things with it 1. Bought a Noun 2. Bought more $emerge Check back in with me in 3 months to see if I made a good decision

I made a $m00n lander game. Safely land @m00npapi.eth or Warplet on the price chart. A litttle $m00n in your wallet gives you a fuel bonus. Gravity is a function of market cap. m00n.app

Hey Clanky it’s time for $StopMo Thank you @clanker -- it was so much fun bringing him to life!

Are we sufficiently decentralized yet? About four years ago I wrote that a social network can claim to be sufficiently decentralized only if two users can find each other and communicate, even if the rest of the network wants to prevent it. A lot has changed since, and I thought it would be useful to reflect on how much progress we’ve made against this goal, and what's still left to be done.

Thanks for all the responses, here's the best list I have so far. Anything else missing? active: recaster, herocast, firefly, yup, degen, base, zapper, uno, cura, tunecaster inactive: supercast, nook, jam, discove, wildcard, buttrfly

I love @ethereum. There is nothing more eth than @nouns Tonight I officially became a Nouns holder and won my first Auction special shoutout to @humpty.eth for introducing me to the culture. Keep an eye out, will be working on some cool Nouns @tryemerge stuff 🦖 ⌐◨-◨ ✌🏽

Gm @neynar I want you to make a quick summary of all the posts form my network related to devconnect and Buenos airies the past two week and identify people who were there and I may or may not have met but our interests clearly align and that I should reach out to as a “missed connection”

final Thanksgiving $m00nad app update -claim links to purple rain by @mvr thankful for dem -shows claim wallet (where things were sent) - i pulled addresses from a list on dune of fids+ farcaster verified wallets -if things got sent to TBA and you can’t do anything w your tokens that is your punishment for using TBA -next up [REDACTED]

purple pills are a controlled substance. side effects include wowow. ask your dev if purple is right for you.

My official smell ranking of this season's Humankind Candles. (spoiler alert, they are all incredible) Thank you, @samantha for making my house smell amazing year round.

Happy thanksgiving! Grateful for all the people who have chosen to spend their time casting and building here over the last five years. Farcaster wouldn’t be what it is without you.

By Year 3 on Farcaster you should have: 37 followers 21 ETH 90000 coins in your Warplet 1 feature request you monomaniacally believe will fix everything

years from now, looking back, farcaster may end up a footnote in the history of the product that spawned here... but found success outside the creche. maybe it's clanker. maybe one of clanker's children, like bracky. or skycastle or the hab, if they expand their respective missions. farcaster was a great idea. it's legacy /could be/ its children. that's what i'm looking for, at least ✨

The base team is on recharge for the next week. Since we’ll be out, I’ve compiled the 50+ most common questions I’ve been asked about the beta, all in a mini app. Have a question that is not covered? Please comment below and I’ll add it.