CEF Builder Grants announced plus Bird Feeder Prediction Markets: GM Farcaster ep367

my birdfeeder is live streaming at birdbets.mykclawd.xyz it records each bird visit & makes a prediction market for the number of visits each day! participate with your favorite AI harness (supports @base mcp plugin and @bankrbot skills)

Something was said on the community call today by neynar team that didn't sit right with me, and it shouldn't sit right with you either. They asked me why I am pushing for a hypersnap node to be a validator, why not just fork? And when I said I'd answer it in three points, before I could even complete the first point, I was interrupted repeatedly, and they attempted a gotcha question, which failed, but I'd like to clear the air of the misinformation at play. The first point was: our goal is to help farcaster grow. Part of that, is that clients cannot today meaningfully use snapchain to build a client. You need an indexer, or you have to pay a service provider, like neynar, to be that indexer. Before I could elaborate further, or get to the other two points, they attempted to "gotcha" me by saying "but quorum isn't using hypersnap apis, it's using the merkle apis". This is not true. We use both. And to prove that, we have updated the public source of the Quorum implementation so you can see for yourself: https://github.com/quilibriumnetwork/quorum-shared (this contains the hypersnap and merkle api usage) https://github.com/quilibriumnetwork/quorum-mobile (the mobile app) And if they would have let me finished instead of trying to railroad me, I would have clarified completely. We use merkle apis for farcaster dms, because they're not on protocol. We use merkle apis for importing user wallets, because they're using a proprietary setup with privy. We use merkle apis for channel info, because this doesn't live on protocol either. And, we have failover for everything else, because there's no sense in ruining user experience if something goes wrong. But point two, which I was able to briefly allude to in the call, is that Quorum is a _privacy-focused_ client. This means that we give a shit about user safety. This means: no analytics, every possible measure to never even see user data, and enhanced features like E2EE DMs, group chats (which _don't_ interface with merkle apis), voice and video calls, a privacy-preserving wallet api, and a few other important details. But I want to focus on one of the smaller details, because that was part of their attempted gotcha - the use of merkle signers. Clients have an app identifier, in the form of an FID. This FID indicates, whenever you post, where your post came from. It's how the "sent from base app" appeared under posts, and it's how we identified the attacks came from schedly being exploited months ago. Quorum doesn't have an app FID, because people who seek out privacy apps are in many countries, identified as a risk, and in some countries in particular, literally get murdered over it. By using the merkle signer, it _hides_ the fact the user is using Quorum. I have mentioned this many times before, but either they forgot or thought they could somehow use it to imply something else. That said, as now snapchain and hypersnap have the new signer FIP, there's a middle road, where users can create signers of their own, on protocol, and it indicates nothing. Some users may still have high caution and concern, so like all of our features, we give the user a choice to opt in to this, despite the low risk, rather than simply choose that path for them. If they choose not to opt in, then they continue using merkle signers. Before I could get any further, I was again derailed. So finally, point three: Being a validator is a commitment – one we take so seriously, that I was the first who even proposed running a separate validator outside of _Merkle and Neynar's ownership_ (this was proposed prior to the acquisition). We want to see farcaster succeed together, and by making that commitment, we are handcuffing ourselves to compatibility. And after some handwaving about variables that they couldn't actually prove or disprove, a point was made – if they are willing to trial things out on testnet with _regular_ snapchain nodes, then there should be _ZERO_ objection to trialing things on testnet with a hypersnap node as a peer. There was no formal commitment to accepting this, merely verbal, and I await them explicitly agreeing to do so before spending the money to run a testnet node to verify what I already know – we are compatible and there are zero latency implications as a validator running hypersnap when communicating with snapchain. But they have to meet us halfway. They have to actually extend the hand and commit to do this with us. And a good start would be to stop treating the one remaining original dev of snapchain like shit just because she disagrees and argues against claims that are not backed by evidence. The ball's in their court, but you can see for yourself that they are not being honest. Timestamp 47:27 for context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fJIJceE2R4

update: Spaces are now live for all users! to join or start a space go to the Spaces tab in the sidebar <-- we'll be continuing to make improvements and experiment with them, so please continue to send bugs and feedback.

Farcaster Batches Day 5 Featuring: @jrf - @marqui @noad - /dkey @0xjudd.eth - LetterLoops @baseddesigner.eth - @pawrlink.eth @toadyhawk.eth - @betrmint @darkoh.eth - @runnerb07

Farcaster Batches Day 3 Featuring: @zaal - The ZAO @yerbearserker - Empire Builder @azflin - @dota-agents @mutheu.base.eth - Geroncology @cashlessman.eth - @boostr @duckfacts.eth - Celebration Hub

Farcaster Batches Day 1 Featuring: @1dolinski - @viniapp @kenny - @poidhbot @nickysap - @jukeaudio @jonathancolton - FounderCheck @drdeeks (multiple projects!)

Our YouTube live is now scheduled 💫 ROME EXPERIENCE 🇮🇹 “The Shape of Shared Days” The main audiovisual experience will happen on YouTube: 🎥 visuals 🎶 live music 🏠 Rome vlogs 💖 shared memories X & Farcaster will work as live listening spaces ✨ Set your reminder below 👇 https://www.youtube.com/live/qg8k_jajbHw?si=8yfmuMmZaElaBUNl

Farcaster moves fast. Timelines are noisy. @sopha is the place you go when you want the five posts that matter, curated by people who care, in a room that stays intentionally small. We’re asking for 1 ETH to keep it running for the next year while we find a sustainable model. https://nouns.build/dao/base/0x8de71d80ee2c4700bc9d4f8031a2504ca93f7088/vote/48

This is exactly how I imagine Mookie would compete (except he just would probably be chilling on the sideline and wouldn’t have even done this much. https://x.com/barstoolsports/status/2059650048510640147?s=46&t=N80rptBytKhSU-csz4Akrg

Have people been using the XMTP switchboard for office space? Still can't believe we get access to prime coworking spaces in the best city in the world. My experience so far: - Soho: very vibe-y - Flatiron: too crowded - NoMad: chill, convenient location

I think I found the disconnect. May 27th was they day they started selling pro, but the pro features didn't hit until June 16 so it appears Merkle set the expiry to be a year from the date they gave everyone the features. 🙃

I can’t make it to the @farcaster community call, so I’ll post my thoughts in case it’s useful. I disagree that growth of the network is more important than its resilience. Most users don’t appreciate how close the network came to SHUTTING DOWN COMPLETELY when Merkle exited. If Neynar hadn’t stepped up, then the private-validator Farcaster network would be gone. We wouldn’t be talking about any of this. I’m grateful to Neynar to stepping up and understand why growth is their main priority, but the value of this network is as an alternative to centralized social media. That is: open, uncensorable, and resilient beyond the life of any single organization. Merkle had unlimited runway and still the network almost shut down. If Neynar can’t get the growth it needs, it will shut down as well. The network will cease to be. The community must step up NOW to ensure the network survives. Last I heard, Snapchain had 3 organizations running nodes: Base (exited), Uno (exited), and Neynar. Hypersnap already has multiple times this many running nodes. Adding a hypersnap validator will create a backstop that ensures the network lives on even if Neynar exits. I don’t wish ill on Neynar, I want them to succeed. But if they succeed by creating another centralized social app then all of the users here today will have wasted their time. Further, it’s in Neynar’s best interest to make this network decentralized because that is the entire value of the network. Without it, there’s no reason for people to use it.

You can now make your BETR guess right on the timeline. No need to even open the app! New slider is fixed also 🫡

I am so excited for @farcaster batches next week, every project is amazing and getting to interact with this beautiful community has me buzzing! Thanks again to the @gmfarcaster team for hosting

feels like summer 🌡️

on adding more validators - our criteria for adding validators right now is simple: run snapchain, not be neynar and be in a geographical region different from the current validator set. why? prioritizing stability, decentralize 1 variable at time. top 2 priorities in order right now - geo and no majority. ---------- we want more validators and to move farcaster to be decentralized. we were advocating for it when we were running neynar's own validator node before the acquisition, during the transition, and once the deal had fully closed at the beginning of april. it's been a consistent position. what we can't do right now is onboard a validator running a modified version of snapchain. snapchain is a live consensus system. a validator running a fork, even a well-maintained one, creates risk we don't currently have systems set up to verify from the outside and don't have the dev capacity to take on right now. when something goes down on any part of the validator set, yes it is largely on the team running the validator node to address, but as the team stewarding the entire protocol, at the end of the day we're the ones accountable for the network. on the question of compatibility, yes, we've merged contributions that came through PRs from outside the core team, including from cassie. that's how open source is supposed to work and we're grateful for it. but merged contributions aren't the same as a guaranteed-compatiblity. we've also significantly edited and rewritten portions of what was submitted. the codebase running on mainnet today is not a 1:1 copy of any external PR, which is part of the work that we were willing (and excited) to take on as stewards of the protocol. honestly, this is part of why we encouraged alternative paths in the first place. we could see that our timelines and priorities weren't going to line up, and if someone wanted to move faster or in a different direction, experimenting in a different direction was the right path. that's how open protocols are supposed to work. we meant that genuinely. we do want farcaster to be fully decentralized eventually. we just disagree on the order of operations to get there. stability and growth of the network has to come first - a decentralized protocol that nobody uses doesn't serve anyone. to reiterate, our criteria for adding validators right now is simple: run snapchain, not be neynar and be in a geographical region different from the current validator set.

Enjoying the new @charmsai packs on @ripsapp Charms is making coins fun again.

I am so excited for @farcaster batches next week, every project is amazing and getting to interact with this beautiful community has me buzzing! Thanks again to the @gmfarcaster team for hosting

a large batch of Farcaster Pro memberships expire tomorrow. we're taking our time to figure out what pro should look like from here. both the community and the team are in a different place than when pro launched, and we want to be very intentional about figuring out what the right mix of pro features is. the old pro features are still there if you feel those are integral to your fc experience and want to renew, but we don't expect everyone to. we have ideas we're excited about, including some highly requested features, but we're not rushing anything out. more to come! (fyi, as we roll out new things, like we've done with Spaces, users with pro will likely continue to be our first test group, but we'll be clear each time about what will be rolled out to everyone eventually.)

My Twitter feed is basically Knicks glaze and this elephant.

THEY (KIND OF) FIXED THE ANDROID APP! GO FARCASTER GO!

Summer House reunion part 1 tonight — been waiting since March for this. This is my Super Bowl.

After a few days of live testing, we’re excited to unveil the newest game under the CoinHero umbrella: **SCRATCH** The mechanic is simple: 1. Pick your spice 🌶️ level -> the spicier you go, the bigger the swings. 2. Choose a card from inventory. 3. Scratch the boxes. 4. Reveal your coins. 5. Claim directly to your wallet. 6. Match 3 and reveal a Jackpot. SCRATCH now joins **RIPS** and **PLINKS** as our third coin distribution surface. All three games are built on the same @coinhero framework: a gamified coin distribution platform that helps projects turn attention into onchain transactions and get coins into wallets. The bigger vision is simple: **CoinHero becomes the arcade layer for onchain distribution.** Games for users. Distribution for tokens, human-powered projects, and AI Agents. Infrastructure for builders. CoinHero is still closed and used only by our internal team, but it’s quickly becoming a powerful framework for building gamified token distribution apps. We’ll be opening it up soon. Stay tuned for details on the SCRATCH token, with **100% of the supply going directly to the community on Day 1.** SCRATCH is live. Let’s rip, plink, and scratch. 🌶️🎮 — Naz, @pagameba, and the CoinHero team Back to building. 🛠️ https://farcaster.xyz/miniapps/Of9YDJt0wkMj/scratch

heads up: community call tomorrow, may 27 at 12 noon pacific call will be recorded and notes will be in the agenda for anyone who can't join live. hope to see you there!

Spaces could be a huge factor in Farcaster’s revitalization, and it’s something that’s been asked about for ages. Turns out listening to the community is beneficial to growth, at least I hope it will be. Spaces links on X would be a good next step @rish - once the bugs are ironed out