Farcaster Investment Memo
A Deep Dive Into The Sufficiently Decentralized Social Media Platform
Table Of Contents
Overview
My Experience
Community
Network Statistics
Product Market Fit
Market Analysis
Traction
Team
Rationale
Overview
Centralized platforms have created environments that treat the users as the product. As these platforms grow, their relationship with users becomes extractive. Platforms usually are after one thing, increasing revenue. After their growth stage, they are disincentivized from collaborating with others (devs, creators, and businesses). Users have no choice but to deal with the issues that come with centralization. If they decide to leave the platform, they lose their brands, businesses, and content created.
Introducing Farcaster, a “sufficiently decentralized” social media protocol building on blockchain technology. The team describes Farcaster as “an open protocol that can support many clients, just like email. Users will always have the freedom to move their social identity between applications, and developers will always have the freedom to build applications with new features on the network.”
Merkle Manufactory created a protocol for sufficiently decentralized social media. Anyone can build on the protocol.
The idea of a decentralized social media platform is not a novel one. Many companies have tried to successfully launch this type of network but have not succeeded.
To be accepted into Farcaster, you need to DM @dwr on Twitter for a link. We are handing links to join the network. Once you join, you can claim a username for yourself. I would highly encourage everyone to learn more about the future of decentralized social media as it has the potential to disrupt current channels.
Are you a senior dev looking for an exciting new job? Apply to join the Farcaster team here.
My Experience / First Opinions
I started using Farcaster 2 weeks ago. Right from the bat, I knew it was “like” Twitter close but with web3 features. I was intrigued and wanted to dive right in.
There was one thing I noticed when I first started casting. If you were to use Farcaster, you would see @dwr and @v, the co-founders, everywhere. He is genuinely a part of the community.
So far, I have 108 followers and going strong. I have ultimately decided to focus most of my time on Farcaster for several reasons.
My Social Media Profile Breakdown From Castalytics
Web3 Native
I wanted to be part of a platform that integrated web3 at its core. I believe these services will help us see what business will be created tomorrow and where the builders are today.
Some of the features that I enjoy are:
All the different types user generated dApps
NFT Focus
Users can search through other users’ NFTs
There are sections for newly minted and tending NFTs
The ability to add additional social features tied to a user's tokens and NFTs (communities) is vast. It’s fascinating!
Imagine getting special access to someone's profile because you hold x amount of tokens or NFTs
Sufficiently Decentralized
If Farcasters were to ever fail, I could theoretically be able to bring my users and content with me everywhere I go. I knew that because I own my content and followers, I would build here where my followers go everywhere. This is something you will never be able to do in web2.
On top of this, Farcaster is an open and permissionless protocol. Builders from around the globe can build anything they want on Farcaster, which any Farcaster user can enjoy. I believe these projects will be the social media projects of the future.
This article by Farcasters Co-Founder @V goes further into being sufficiently decentralized.
Sufficient Decentralization for Social Networks
The Community
The community on Farcaster is fucken amazing. They are the space's top web3 builders, users, and thought leaders. I have already met many amazing people and connected with various other builders, artists, etc.
This is a list of all community platforms that have been created: Farcaster ecosystem.
Community
I believe that web3 dApps must be community oriented to understand what is needed to be successful in the space. After all, if you don’t have a community, you can’t have a business.
Users
Since my time on the platform, the users have supported Farcaster's mission
Many believe in the sufficiently decentralized thesis
Many look forward to helping with the communing and product scale
You can even show others events you are putting together with other casters through event caster
I would say the type of user persons currently on the platform are; thought leaders, founders, investors, developers, creators, learners, and futurists.
The community is active and flushing now, but what happens when you open it up to the public?
Developers
I have not interacted with the developer community much, but dApps have been developed!
The amount of dApps being created for the 3k-ish users is astonishing!
Click here for a list of all the apps in the ecosystem.
I am not a dev, but I assume this goes here, lol
Network Statistics
The network statistics have been pulled from the Farcaster Analytics dApp created by a community developer @gregskril
You can see updated analytics here.
At the time of writing (September 17th), Farcaster has
134 New Users Per Week
654 Weekly Active Caster
1,126 Monthly Active Casters
1,2257 Average Casts Per Day
114,897 Total Casts
3,069 Total Users
9,159 Twitter Followers
Product Market Fit
Value Proposition: Create a decentralized social media platform that works/provides more (value, security, connections, tools) than current centralized competitors
Target User: Social media users within web3
Product Description: An open protocol that can support many clients, just like email. Users will always have the freedom to move their social identity between applications, and developers will always have the freedom to build applications with new features on the network.
Revenue Model: Farcaster functions as a protocol. Their revenue model will be based on the users being on the platform and those building on the platform.
Roadmap: https://github.com/orgs/farcasterxyz/projects/1/views/1
Alongside this GitHub roadmap, which I have no clue how to read, @dwr has spoken openly about product development and hiring senior devs.
Market Analysis
Trends
Consumer dissatisfaction with centralized Networks
This creates a market-based approach where the best ideas can compete on equal footing.
The amount of traction Farcaster has received compared to its leading competitor, Lens, is substantial. The Users To Post ratio is
Farcaster: 37
Lens: 4.84
Competitors:
Farcaster
Total Users: 3,069
Total Number of Posts: 114,897
Total Users: 58,723
Total Number of Posts: 284,402
Total Users: N/A
Total Number of Posts: N/A
Total Users: N/A
Total Number of Posts: N/A
More competitors can be found here. Many other competitors do not have enough traction to analyze data.
Funding
Backers:
Merkle Manufactory raised a $30M round led by a16z crypto.
Also joining the round: Standard Crypto, Elad Gil, 1confirmation, Scalar Capital, First Round Capital, Volt Capital, A Capital, Todd and Rahul’s Angel Fund, Coinbase Ventures, Mischief, Ansa Capital, Haystack, Ribbit Capital, Chapter One, Multicoin Capital, Offline Ventures, Archetype, Canonical Crypto, Proof Group, Floodgate, Balaji Srinivsasan, 6529, Ray Tonsing and several other angels.
Team Members
Angel investor in dozens of early-stage technology companies
#20 at Coinbase, 5 years experience in leading customer support, partnerships, operations, and consumer
Contact: hello@danromero.org
Website: https://danromero.org/
Senior Platform Director at Coinbase
Has Start-Up Experience; Founded SoundFocus
PM, OneNote at Microsoft
Website: https://www.varunsrinivasan.com
Here are a couple of videos that showcase the type of high caliber founders the Farcaster team has.
Dan
Varun
Rationale
💬 Positives
Positive Community Sentiment
Growing User Base (150 ish users per week)
Strong founding team leadership
Market leader in Decentralized Social Media
Raised enough money to do cool shit
💬 Negatives
Still in beta, not easy to access the community
As the community grows, community quality may decrease
dApps built on FC are still young and largely experimental, with no actual value creation happening yet
Would I Invest?
If I could invest in Farcaster, I would invest for the following reason
Strong Team
Both founders are active members of the community
Founders have a strong background in crypto and starting companies and seem to have strong relationships
The funds they have raised seem to be going toward development which will be exciting to see
Market Leader
Social media is all about who has the most prominent network effects
Farcaster has one of the most robust communities I have been apart of
I have tried other social media competitors, and I would not recommend it
Network Growth
Farcaster has already seen massive growth within its ecosystem; just two weeks ago, they reach the 100,000 casts
Although a slow onboarding system, I believe this is a good thing to help build a foundational part of the future community built on Farcaster
Impactful / Passionate Vision
From my conversations with the founders, both have had a vision for what a (sufficiently) decentralized social media looks like
Check out these tweets about Twitter and its faults
Thank you for reading. I look forward to writing more about web3!
Way To Connect With Me?
Follow me on Twitter or Farcaster @juan
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Text me on Telegram
Ask me anything! I appreciate any feedback you can give me to further improve this investment memo.
Disclaimer
The Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on this site constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by me or any third-party service provider to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.