Founder of Farcaster, Dan Romero, discusses the breakout potential of frames, Farcaster's new feature. Frames offer simplicity, speed, and universality, acting as portals to the outside world. They have the potential to onboard the masses and build a new internet. The chapter also explores the birth of Web 2.0, limitations of centralized platforms, and the cost of creating a user account on Farcaster.
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Quick takeaways
Frames in Farcaster offer a new level of expressivity and interactivity, enabling developers to create mini apps within the platform.
Frames have the potential to be a breakthrough use case for crypto, allowing users to easily interact with blockchain-based functionalities without leaving Farcaster.
The challenge with frames lies in creating durable relationships and retention with users, which could be addressed by exploring Chrome extensions and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) to provide lasting and integrated experiences.
Farcaster's architecture consists of three layers: the consumer app, the decentralized Farcaster protocol, and the blockchain-based identity layer, achieving a balance between decentralization and efficiency.
Deep dives
Frames: A New Level of Expressivity in Farcaster
Frames have been introduced in Farcaster, allowing developers to create mini apps within the platform. These frames are programmable tweets that offer a new level of expressivity and interactivity. Users can build frames with buttons, images, and soon, with text input, enabling various functionalities and interactions. Frames are developed using open graph, and developers have already demonstrated their creativity by creating frames that range from gaming experiences like Doom to eCommerce functionalities like shopping carts. The simplicity and rapid prototyping enabled by frames have garnered significant interest and adoption among developers.
The Potential of Frames for Crypto Onboarding
Frames have the potential to be a breakthrough use case for crypto, allowing users to easily interact with blockchain-based functionalities without leaving Farcaster. The ability to seamlessly integrate on-chain transactions, verify links, and build interactive experiences within a feed environment is a step towards broader crypto adoption. By providing cryptographically signed links and integrating an identity layer, frames offer a safer and more trustworthy environment for users to engage with on-chain actions. This approach aligns with the vision of using crypto to bring back the experimentation, distribution, and developer creativity of the early days of the internet.
Distribution and Retention Challenges for Frames
As frames continue to gain popularity, the challenge lies in creating durable relationships and retention with users. Currently, frames are ephemeral within the feed and lack ongoing functionality for users. Addressing this could involve exploring Chrome extensions and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) to provide lasting and integrated experiences for users. Additionally, incorporating frames into the Warpcast experience, possibly by adding new buttons to casts, could create ongoing relationships with users and open up new business opportunities for developers.
Reviving the Spirit of Open Protocols and Decentralization
Farcaster's frames and the ecosystem they promote aim to bring back the spirit of open protocols and decentralization that was missed during the rise of walled-garden social media platforms. By providing a permissionless environment for developers to build and experiment, Farcaster supports the creation of a more expressive, creative, and user-centric internet. The focus on retaining the true essence of the internet while leveraging the power of crypto highlights the potential for Farcaster to become a significant player in the social media landscape.
Farcaster Protocol Balances Simplicity and Developer Power
Farcaster Protocol emphasizes the balance between simplicity and developer capabilities. While the network aims to offer a powerful primitive to developers, it also prioritizes simplicity and elegance. By providing a user-friendly experience, the protocol attracts more users, expanding the addressable market for developers. The goal is to make it easier for the best developers to maintain an ongoing relationship with consumers and build successful businesses.
The Three Layers of Farcaster's Architecture
Farcaster's architecture consists of three layers: the consumer app (e.g., Warpcast), the decentralized Farcaster protocol, and the blockchain-based identity layer. The consumer app, similar to Gmail, is responsible for the user interface and client-side experience. The Farcaster protocol, operated by decentralized hubs, ensures consensus on the network's state and facilitates interactions between users. Finally, the blockchain-based identity layer assigns a unique integer-based identity (Farcaster ID) to each user, securing ownership of their account and enabling censorship resistance.
The Decentralization and Cost Structure of Farcaster
Farcaster's architecture achieves a balance between decentralization and efficiency. While the protocol aims for unrugability, there are two centralized components within the current implementation: the direct messaging system (directcast) and the mod functionality in channels. Nonetheless, these centralized features may be decentralized in the future. As for costs, creating a Farcaster account incurs a fee on the blockchain, but ongoing usage on the network has minimal overhead costs. The goal is to find a perito optimal cost that prevents spam while maintaining decentralization and user-friendly onboarding.
Farcaster is a twitter-like crypto social media app that just launched what could prove to be a killer new feature. They’re called frames.
We’re calling it now and we’re calling it early - we think Farcaster frames could be a breakout use-case for crypto this year and a way to onboard the masses in the months to come and we're here with founder, Dan Romero, to explain why. ------ 🏹 USE PODCAST24 FOR 10% OFF https://bankless.cc/Citizen2024 ------ 🎧 Listen On Your Favorite Podcast Player: https://bankless.cc/Podcast ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:
00:00:00 Start 00:07:48 Intro To Dan and Farcaster 00:12:00 What's Different About Farcaster 00:17:12 Investing in Farcaster vs X 00:22:19 Introduction To Frames 00:29:40 Frames Escape Velocity 00:38:22 Building a New Internet 00:47:52 Frames Distribution 00:54:52 Sufficiently Decentralized 01:05:11 Censorship 01:10:07 Farcaster Costs 01:15:29 Farcaster Economics 01:21:54 Rapid Fire Q&A
