This edition is sponsored by Purple, a DAO whose goal is to proliferate and expand the Farcaster protocol and ecosystem. Interested in sponsoring a future edition? Send us a reply to this email!
Farcaster News and Links
Bounty Hunting
@balajis, a.k.a. Balajis Srinivasan, former Coinbase executive/a16z partner, asked Farcaster: "If I started putting up prizes for Farcaster tools, would you build them?" One idea he mentioned: A script that takes a Farcaster username and outputs a sortable table of all interactions. "A decentralized CRM," he called it. GetPurple.xyz founder @betashop, a.k.a. Jason Goldberg, said he's working on something like this now. A few folks pointed out that Purple exists for a similar reason (catalyzing ecosystem development) and encouraged Srinivasan to join the DAO. @df, a.k.a. David Furlong, mentioned that Discove already supports this, and you can even run SQL queries against the data.
On a related note, @ace, a.k.a. Alex Kwon, put out a call for a Farcaster members directory. "Depending on who you follow on a social app within the first few days, you either stay or quit," he explained. Kwon said that the directory could let you filter Farcaster users by projects, companies, or jobs based on their bio. "So I can browse all of Farcaster team, moon birds owners, iOS engineers, etc."
Paragraph cofounder @colin, a.k.a. Colin Armstrong, shared an idea for Farlancer, a decentralized freelancing marketplace a-la Fiverr. A few folks chimed in with ideas for handling the reputation component. Armstrong suggested in a reply that the idea could be realized first as a bot similar to @launch. He also gave a shoutout to @grace for inspiring the idea.
AMA
@v, a.k.a. Varun Srinivasan, cofounder of Farcaster, held an AMA on Sunday. Among the insights shared: Merkle Manufactory plans to open source the direct cast libraries at some point; Srinivasan shared a link to his favorite recent jazz set, and made Farcaster history in the process by linking to a Boiler Room episode that's not the Fred Again appearance; Merkle Manufactory's mobile apps are stickier than desktop apps by about 20-30% in most engagement metrics; and he's bullish on "good recommendations" (based on past likes/comments) in Farcaster clients.
Farcaster got a shoutout in the most recent episode of @balaji's 'The Network State Podcast' featuring @vbuterin, a.k.a. Vitalik Buterin. "One thing that I think network states and social networks have in common is that, especially just to get them started, it's not about the institutions, it's not about the technology, it's about the people," said Buterin, commenting on a hypothetical world where multiple Farcaster clones exist (but there's still only one @dwr). You can jump to the section that mentions Farcaster here. (HT @pixel)
Merkle Manufactory launched its first-ever Farcaster user survey. @dwr, a.k.a. cofounder Dan Romero, casted the Typeform survey link on Tuesday. Filling out the survey is the "single most helpful thing you can do for Farcaster other than building on the protocol," Romero noted in a followup cast. The survey includes questions about what features you'd like to see prioritized, what you think about the conversations on Farcaster, which web3 communities you'd like to see onboarded to Farcaster, and a few more. The whole survey doesn't take more than a few minutes to complete. Romero said that aggregated and anonymized results will be shared at a later date. "Hoping to do this regularly," he said.
@tayyab, a.k.a. Tayyab Hussain, started a conversation about the dangers of Farcaster data being permissionless. "What if I don’t want a developer to have permissionless access to my casts?," asked Hussain. "Could open, permissionless, shared state… result in abuse or bullying?" @v, a.k.a. Varun Srinivasan, cofounder of Farcaster, chimed in to say that enabling a private or semi-private social network is on Farcaster's long-term roadmap.
How did this week's Farcaster game night go? Organizer @ishika shared an exclusive post-game update with This Week in Farcaster. "It was super super fun!," said Ishika. "We played among us! Will probably host another one next week :) shout out to @unlonely for streaming it!" If you're interested in joining the next one, give @ishika a follow and stay tuned for details.
Building
@edatweets, a.k.a. Eda, shared a blog post about web3 social that focuses on Farcaster. She said the deep dive came after @dwr's appearance on Bankless and a discouraging interaction she had on Twitter. Eda broke down the product into the Identity Layer (Ethereum), the Data Layer (the Farcaster protocol), and the Application Layer (clients). "If a large number of developers are interested in the protocol and creating helpful tools, in that case, Farcaster can provide the building blocks for next-gen social media," said Eda.
@ghostlinkz, a.k.a. ildi, casted about a cove he created which ranks Farcaster users by total casts. The top 10 casters as of publication: @dwr @les @giu @welcome @v @phil @vm @mk @dcposch @vgr
@pfista, a.k.a. Michael Pfister, shared an update on Sharecaster.xyz, his project which makes it easy to share casts with web2-caliber link previews – Sharecaster now shows replies. Give it a try by looking at the replies on his announcement post. "Getting one step closer to being a full client!," Pfister noted.
Dan shared a reminder to stop using the Apple TestFlight and Google Play Store beta versions of the official Merkle Manufactory clients. New features are not being released through these channels, and while a replacement beta program might come out in the future, the original beta versions of the app are set to be deprecated in the next few weeks. If you haven't yet, download the official Android or iOS app instead.
In a previous edition, we noted that @perl is pivoting. Cofounder @ace, a.k.a. Alex Kwon, shared that perl.xyz is now serving as a real-time leaderboard for a newly-rethought social curation game. An investor update that Kwon posted included the background that the new tack for @perl came after they "decided to reimagine the intent and process that can sustainably curate content in a social setting." Kwon said in another cast that the two weeks of pivot with cofounder @peter, a.k.a. Peter Kim, included a half-week on jamming/design, one week of Kim coding while Kwon built audience using Telegram and a Notion no-code prototype, and then go-to-market this week.
@chriscocreated put together an NFT riffing on the "checks" theme but using the Farcaster protocol to show users who have recasted the announcement or minted one of the 80 limited-edition NFTs for 0.023 ETH. Once the piece is minted out, it will only show token holders. Chris said that this is the first piece in a new collection for the Farcaster community.
@n, a.k.a. Nico.beb, shared an update on JobCaster.xyz, a "who's hiring/for hire" mailing list for Farcaster users, built on BEBverse, the open messaging network/app that he and @jc, a.k.a. jcdenton.beb, are building. "You can also watch the cast to get updates - will post new openings throughout February," said Nico.
With the pivot of @perl, there might be a market for another Farcaster bookmarking service. @colin, a.k.a. Colin Armstrong, made an open call for "something ultra simple" that supports tagging a bot to add a bookmark and an open access website for viewing bookmarks. @jc, a.k.a. jcdenton.beb, noted that you can do this using BEBverse.
@df, a.k.a. David Furlong, announced a new feature for Discove – weekly highlights emails for any community-created feed of casts, no Discove account required. See an example here on @jayme's "most discussed" list (look for the 'Weekly Highlights' button in the top right corner). In a separate cast, Furlong noted that Discove is working on a mobile app. Discove users can signup for the waitlist here. The first version is expected by March. (By the way, Furlong also launched a free open edition mint this week of a Farcaster x Noggles mashup. You can mint it here.)
@greg, a.k.a. Greg Skriloff, shared what may be the world's first cast sent using Raycast. The "cast" command is now available on Skriloff's raycast-commands repo. Building on top of the farcaster-js library, the cast command was implemented in less than a couple dozen lines of code.
GetPurple.xyz has a new tool to help acclimate Twitter users to Farcaster. @betashop, a.k.a. Jason Goldberg, announced the feature on Wednesday. "Enter any twitter @name and it scans their tweet history and recommends people on Farcaster," said Goldberg. Try it out here.
Yes, Turntable is back these days, but odds are that a Farcaster integration isn't currently on their roadmap. So is there an opportunity for MusicCaster? @lndnnft, a.k.a. Landon, thinks there might be an opportunity for a service that lets you "vibe with your fellow Farcasters." Although he also notes that it's a side project right now and "there's a very low chance of me finishing," so if this is something you'd like to see in the world, why not let him know?
What's your current streak of days with at least one cast sent? @ace, a.k.a. Alex Kwon, noted a frustration with following profiles based on their bio, only to be disappointed when they turn out to be ghost accounts. Kwon shared an idea for a section of daily users on the 'For You' section of Merkle Manufactory's Farcaster client. @v, a.k.a. Varun Srinivasan, cofounder of Farcaster, leaked some alpha in the thread, noting that he "might have something shipping by Monday that helps with this." Indeed, the team ended up shipping an update to the 'For You' section on Thursday to more heavily weight users who are active and post things that are useful to others. "Credit goes to @appliedml42 @gt and @sds for shipping this very quickly," said Srinivasan in announcing the change. "Let us know if you like or dislike the new suggestions!"
@ccarella, a.k.a. Chris Carella, joined @branigan on his new nouniverse-focused stream, lilpanda.wtf, to talk about Purple. You can watch the full hour-long stream here. Carella shares the origin story of Purple, what the DAO's flywheel might be, the power of "perpetuating the meme," and lots more.
Are you looking for non-code ways to help Farcaster grow? @dwr, a.k.a. cofounder Dan Romero, posted his take on the top three ways you can chip in. They are welcoming new users, casting about something other than crypto/web3, and using Searchcaster.xyz to find (and follow!) others who are also into your non-crypto interests.
@jayme, a.k.a. Jayme Hoffman, launched his own Launchcaster.xyz update when he shared links to new Purple DAO and Orange DAO specific launch pages. Check out the top Purple launches here or see what's trending in the Orange DAO community here. Hoffman invited any other communities/contracts that might want their own launch page to direct cast him. By the way, Hoffman also shared that minting a launch pass will unlock a swag ability on Daylight. If you snag one for yourself, send us a pic!
Karma3Labs open sourced its ts-eigencaster repo, a Farcaster-specific adapter for EigenTrust built so that "Farcaster clients don't have to speak in EigenTrust terms such as local trust, pre-trust, and alpha/epsilon parameters." The team hopes the project makes it easier to start using EigenTrust APIs for Farcaster clients. "Create your own global profile ranking systems, personalized recommendations and Sybil lists," said @sahil, a.k.a. Sahil Dewan, in the launch cast. "We'd love to get you started using our APIs."
Farcaster By the Numbers
Powered by Farcaster.network. Change calculations based on last week.
Weekly Active Casters: 1.6K (+100)
Monthly Active Casters: 2.9K (+200)
Total Casts: 449K (+17K)
Total Users: 9,057 (+318)
Average Casts per Day: 2,373 (+11)
New Users Per Week: 326 (+79)
Sponsored by Purple
Purple is a DAO whose goal is to proliferate and expand the Farcaster protocol and ecosystem. The DAO operates on Nouns.Build, Discord, and Charmverse.
This Week in Purple
ETHDenver is coming up quickly. Purple is currently considering a proposal to cosponsor an ETHDenver Farcaster meetup along with Orange DAO. "ETHDenver is the largest and longest running Ethereum conference," said proposal creator maxpetretta.eth. "In order to proliferate awareness of the Farcaster protocol, we propose to hold a Farcaster meetup during the core event (Mar 2-5) of ETHDenver 2023." As part of this proposal, the DAO is also gearing up to form its first multisig.
Purple joined The Noun Square on Friday for an hour-long Twitter Spaces show, the first-ever installment of 'Purple Radio: A Farcaster Salon.' Participating DAO members included ccarella.eth, who shared the origin story of Purple, as well as brittkim.eth, billzh.eth, philm.eth, and davisshaver.eth. You can listen to the recording here.
The DAO is continuing to refine its plan for the next Prop House Rounds. Here's a look into the initial post for the DAO discussion, which is taking place in Purple's members forum on CharmVerse. If you want to get involved, keep an eye on the auction!
Get to Know Purple
This week, meet Purple DAO member philm.eth, a.k.a. @phil on Farcaster.
TWiF: Why did you want to join Purple?
I'm excited to help build an Internet-native institution that is focused on funding public goods. Many of the public goods that power the internet today, like open-source software, rely on the goodwill of for-profit corporations to keep them running via donations or internal programs. Purple is a way to fund public goods without relying on one-off acts of charity. I hope that the existence of Purple (and other DAOs like it) encourage builders to work on projects that otherwise wouldn't happen. (Read a longer version here.)
TWiF: What excites you most about Farcaster?
I'm excited about Farcaster because of the people who are using the protocol. Right now there are about 3,500 monthly casters, many of whom are building adjacent crypto projects and protocols. Today, nearly every user accesses Farcaster through the app developed by Merkle Manufactory, the founding team behind the protocol. In the future I expect that people will use many different apps to access Farcaster, just like how people can use different email clients to communicate with one another over SMTP. (Read a longer version here.)
TWiF: Can you give us a few recommended follows on Farcaster?
@giu, @fredwilson, @j4ck, @ccarella, @pfista, @vgr
Upcoming Dates of Note
Farcaster Meetup
Wednesday, Feb. 15, at 7 p.m. PST - Chapter One HQ
Mountain View IRL Farcaster Meetup
Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 6 p.m. PST - Steins Beer Garden & Restaurant
Farcaster meetup @ ETHDenver
Thursday, Mar. 2, at 5 p.m. MT
Job Listings
Nothing yet! Have a job listing we should add to a future edition? Send us a reply to this email!
Farcaster Posts of the Week
This newsletter is published with Paragraph.xyz. The format of this newsletter was inspired by Week in Ethereum News. With questions, comments, or other feedback, please send a reply to this email, or access the "farcaster-weekly" channel in Purple's Discord.
