Farcaster: Rebuilding the Internet
Farcaster: Rebuilding the Internet
Farcaster, a Web3 social network, is exploding in activity. Why now, why this is a big deal, and why brands should care.
Hey! It’s Marc. ✌️
Today, we explore a Web3 social network whose activity surged by 2,800% in just one week and why every Web3 focused brand should start on Farcaster now.
This isn’t about “the next Facebook” or the second “Friend.Tech”. And it isn’t about Farcaster either. It’s bigger than that.
We’re witnessing a progression from Web3’s infrastructure phase to Web3’s consumer phase. For the first time, we’ve got a consumer app that unites all the merits of Web3 in a easy to use product.
Similar to how Apple’s Vision Pro gives us a glimpse into the future of computing, Farcaster gives us a glimpse of how the future of the Internet could look like.
If you’re a marketer, now is the time to think about how your brand can take advantage of that future. Feel curious? join Farcaster. Cast me a hello when you’re there @marcb and share a link to this essay. I’ll recast it to welcome you.
Let’s dive in.
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What’s Farcaster?
Farcaster (aka. an “on-chain” Twitter) has been around for over a year, confined to the inner circles of Web3 culture.
Now, it has become the talk of the town. Web3 folks are ecstatic about it, honing it as “the future of the Internet”. Why? Let’s break it down.
Farcaster is a “decentralized social media protocol”.1 This sounds confusing at first (it did for me too). A simple comparison:
Twitter (or, X) is a social media platform.
X (or Elon Musk) controls what users see, who’s banned, the ads, the algorithm, and more. Remember when Elon Musk removed API access for third party developers?
Farcaster works differently.
Think of it as an open-source Twitter without Elon Musk, or any single entity, calling the shots.
Everyone can build “clients” (aka. apps) to interact with the Farcaster protocol.2
No single company controls Farcaster. It's like an open-source railway system, where anyone can contribute and build cool new trains (apps). This means:
No more gatekeepers: You're not at the mercy of someone like Elon deciding who gets silenced or what content gets promoted.
Your data is yours: You control your data and can easily switch between different apps without losing your connections or content.
Open innovation: Developers can build new apps on the open-source protocol.
Built on these Web3 principles, Farcaster has naturally become a part of Web3’s culture.
How It Works
Let’s recap: We’ve got a decentralized protocol and clients (or “apps”) making use of that protocol.
Warpcast is one of those apps (its Farcaster’s official app). It’s similar to how you would use X, but it’s made for Farcaster. And it’s the latest app that made it to my homescreen.
What if you don’t like Warpcast? You use another one and take all the data (your “social graph”: audience, posts, etc.) with you.
This means that unlike platforms like Facebook or X, Farcaster doesn't claim ownership of your posts, comments, or other information you share. Users keep complete control over their data.3
Users can “tip” each other with “Warps”, an in-app currency with various uses within the platform and the Farcaster ecosystem.4
On Warpcast, “Tweets” are called “Casts”. Users can follow users or follow “Channels”. Channels are feeds about a topic, such as “founders”, “base”, “ethereum”, “AI”, or a branded community such as Nike’s “.SWOOSH”.
New casts appear on the homepage of your followers, unless you choose to cast into a specific channel.
Channels are a key feature that makes Farcaster different than other traditional social networks or peers like Bluesky or Lens.
People find people in X, they don’t find interests.
People find interests on Reddit, they don’t find people.
Farcaster combines both of them. Dan Romero, co-founder of Farcaster, calls this the “depth of interest”.
I find channels one of the most compelling features to come back to, offering an opportunity for creators and brands to build and engage with niche communities.
Coinbase’s “Base” is a prime example for that. Spearheaded by Jesse Pollak, they've built up an highly engaged community around the “Base” protocol and used Farcaster as an effective go-to-market channel.
Why the Hype Now?
Farcaster’s surge in activity follows the introduction of the "Frames" feature last week. Frames let people build small apps that run inside of posts (called “casts”). For example:
Playing a game
or “anything” else that’s interactive.
For example: instant checkouts. No forms. User info tied to the wallet, owned by the user.5
This essentially enables one-click buying journeys that include on-chain affiliate attribution for the influencer. Here’s how this looks like today:
Why is this significant?
It massively simplifies the UX for users, developers, and brands – thanks to blockchain and wallets. Blockchain serves as a decentralized, open-source data layer and wallets store users’ data.
This simplifies a multi-step process on X (or any other social platform) to one click.
Jason Yanowitz, Founder of Blockworks, framed (no pun intended😵💫) this nicely:
Haven’t we seen this before? We did.
Remember Facebook apps, such as Zynga’s Farmville? This was a big opportunity for app developers, as they could use Facebook to access millions of users (and their data!).
Farcaster “Frames” is similar, with two big differences:
Developers (and brands) aren’t dependent on a centralized platform
Users own their data (as it’s connected to their digital wallet)
Jesse Walden describes it like this:
For founders, the takeaway is that you now have the ability to tap directly into existing user attention, engagement, identity and data as you plan your GTM, the same way that Zynga famously did with Facebook. Only this time, users’ money will be there too, and their identity and data can’t be rugged from underneath them.
The same goes for brands.