Original title: Social walletization, socialization of wallets

Original by: 0xLuo, Farcaster

Recently, the Farcaster co-founder, Dan Romero, has generated widespread attention and discussion about Farcaster's current shift from social priorities to wallet priorities. For the active users of Farcaster, it should have been felt long ago that since the introduction of Farcaster App’s built-in wallet function in February, the chain of support has grown and the related functions have become more and more diverse, and this is already an old story and a summary of the way the team has worked this year. For friends who don't know much about Farcaster, this statement seems a bit surprising, and one can't help but wonder that the "single of encrypted socialization", "SocialFi's hope" is "lost," "forgetting away from socialization", "forgetting away from the beginning" and "web3 socialization" and fearing that the community atmosphere is falling into "casinoization" and that the team is running in the wrong direction。

This disagreement stems from a different understanding of the location of the Farcaster wallet. In fact, Farcaster App joined the inner wallet this year, not as a sudden strategic shift, but as a natural upgrading of the experience of having to connect the outside wallet to complete the chain operation. At the same time, as Frames evolves into a more functional and interactive Mini Apps, the demand for interaction on the seamless chain increases. The emergence of the built-in wallet is essentially intended to accommodate the emergence of a new scene, to complete the basic competencies on social networks and not to abandon existing social networks。

The wallet is incremental, not a substitute; it is socializing, not usurping; it is socializing, not giving up; it is moving on, not forced transition。

On the bottom of the old open social agreements, as always, diverse client ecology is still alive, and you can experience pure socialization with a different client. The official client, Farcaster App, also has the original socialization function, except that this year an additional built-in wallet is an extension of its original functionality, which is seamlessly connected to Mini Apps, integrated with the depth of identity mapping, and interacted with social information flows。

The team simply refocuses its work on the side of the product, adjusts the path that seeks to bring growth to the entire network, and does not spend any more time on diversifying the network for users in all walks of life, and on optimizing the Channels community function, which has little effect. They have spent long enough time building small and beautiful “comfortful corners”, but the “social priority” strategy has not been enough PMFs, and tens of thousands of daily users are still small, so it is very practical to return to the first principle of encryption: to serve the flow of value。

On this basis, the combination of wallets and socialization is the more differentiated, realistic growth path of the product and closer to the encrypted PMF Shelling Point. In fact, Farcaster's shift in focus this year is also an indication of the direction of the entire encryption social applications."Social wallet. Social wallet"it's the natural direction for consumer-grade encryption applications. almost all socialization products now have wallets, and wallet applications now try to include social elements, let alone many applications that use social + walklet as their original location from the beginning。

Social application wallet

If you want to emerge, all encryption applications have to answer the difference between it and similar applications under the traditional chain, and, of course, between encryption social applications and traditional social products. RYU, the product manager, once proposed a famous formula to measure whether new products were sufficiently attractive to users:

Product value = (new experience - old experience) - costs of migration

Some of the new products are very low-cost to move, and Threads, backed by the vast base of Instagram social mapping, can break 100 million users in five days. The luckiest thing is to meet a user who moved to move. This point has caught up with the unattainable and unattainable flow of twitter refugees。

But the vast majority of encryption applications do not have that kind of background and luck, and to allow users to take a look at traditional, similar social products that are more user-intensive and more mature, they can only start from the perspective of enhancing new experiences. The encryption society started from a technical point of view, how to combine it with a block chain at the bottom in order to decentralize. However, the embedding of encryption technology at the bottom is unsensitized for the vast majority of users, does not bring new experiences, does not differentiate when competing with traditional social products, and can even result in more cumbersome onbundling processes. For example, Farcaster and Lens used a block chain at the bottom of both social agreements, Farcaster stored identity data at OP and Lens stored identity and social profiles at Lens Chain, thus ensuring "not your social account". But the vast majority of users do not really care about bottom-up technologies, and they care about new experiences at the product level。

The Farcaster team, of course, was aware of this early, and their philosophy is the "product-leading agreement" that seeks to boost the growth of the entire Farcaster network through a label product. If they only want to make a social contract, the team's task is basically complete, and many of the theories of de-centre socialization have been realized, and a “fully de-centre” agreement has been created from the outset, with more emphasis on the openness, programmability and groupability of the agreement, and developers can build a variety of applications based on an open social map. But if, like Nostr, ActivityPub, Lens, these social arrangements are allowed to develop, users don't migrate because of your low-level technology, and the content noise of ecological barbarism will further reduce user experience, often with the end resultUsers don't want to come, they can't stayI don't know. The Farcaster team ended up as a client, hoping to attract users at the product level。

High-quality social circles are new experiences, unique alpha messages are new experiences, and encryption and social integration are new experiences. Farcaster achieved its first point through a group of high-quality users on board, a rare moat, but growth was limited and it was difficult to attract a large majority of the portraits."I can't afford to lose it, white wolfIt's an encrypted user. Interestingly, Farcaster was once sick of being too naive, and for a long time, discussing the rise and fall of the tokens in Farcaster was different and only hiding in the corner of /DEGEN ChannelOf course I amI don't know. So it wasn't until early 2024 that the launch of the Frames, which is a little different from traditional social applications, and the community that grew the US$DEGEN, an economy of creators, began a significant increase in the daily life of Farcaster, with a rapid increase of more than 10 times from 2000 to the end of January 2024. This is due to innovation at the product level, and to the fact that this high-quality community has developed the capacity to hatch an open social network。

Farcaster's ancient early-end applet, a deal, Frame

In fact, Farcaster has made a leap from a purely social network of the "farming age" to a "handicraft age" that initially combines encryption:Social profile +Frames + external walletFor the first time, social content streams and chain operations were actually connected. Solana also tried to interact with an encrypted applet through the Actions protocol using a browser plugin in the Twitter streamSocial Media x Encryption Application x Wallet InteractiveIt's the direction everyone wants to explore. Through the Frames, it is true that users can mint NFTs and perform transactions in social information streams, but at most there are four operating buttons, with the image switching like PPTs, with very limited functionality and performance, and, as long as wallet authorization is involved, the outside wallet must be rotated, its functionality limited, the experience broken and not smooth enough. So from the very first day of Frames' launch, the community called for a complete wallet function, and actually waited a year。

In Farcaster, in the Chinese community, early in 2024, Frames started to get excited about the wallet function

After last year, with the arrival of memecoin subcycle, from the pop of PumpFun to the home-grown Clanker of Farcaster, more asset issuances brought more demand for transactions, and the importance of the entire path from discovery to transaction became more and more important, with wallets naturally becoming a critical entry point in the process。

So it's easy to understand that in order for users to interact more naturally with encryption applications in a social media, they need to

1. Higher freedom, higher performance bottom frame to carry more functional applet applications

2. Moving from connecting external wallets to using built-in wallets to make the chain truly seamless

This has also been validated in Telegram, a social application of instant communication, whose Mini Apps ecology and built-in Ton wallets have already triggered a boom, so Farcaster has logically upgraded this year:

1. Frames → Mini Apps

2.External wallet

What can be achieved by a web page that Mini Apps can build without permission and that can be used across clients, greatly expands the functional boundaries within social media applications, and does not need to jump to the outside wallets to interact with inside wallets, thus moving from a more functional "artistic age" with basic encryption。This is not a deviation, but a natural expansion along the trend, not a forced shift, but a response to the inevitable evolution of market demandI don't know。

An integrated inner wallet is not a dead clock for encrypted social media, but an industrial revolution for encrypted social media。

Crypto Apps and Decantralized Social by Linda Xie

When you have a built-in wallet, you have a social map-based trade signalDistribution, dissemination, discovery, trading and community construction of assetsThis can be done in a closed inner circle of the same application and easily interacted with Mini Apps to achieve almost all encryption applications, including games, videos, live broadcasts, voice space, podcasts, predicting markets, DeFi, a rich Mini Apps ecology, running side by side with the inner wallet two carriages, which are interactively integrated into the daily social behaviour of users. Noice, Blacky, QR, HarmonybotSocial profile + Mini Apps + built-in walletThe presence has given rise to a series of new scenarios of encrypted social interaction that have all had their own high-light moments, as well as the daily life of Farcaster, which broke new heights at the end of October。

Trending Mini Apps of Different Categories

These are perceived, accessible, and capable of unlocking new scenes, and are truly different from traditional social products. Even if it's just a walletEasy access, lower handling fees, less sensory cross-chain experienceUsers initially used only the trade function and still had the opportunity to "come for tools, stay for networks" — a step forward from a situation in which social networks alone attracted attention from Twitter。

There are no exceptions, and some instant communication applications are also active in wallets on a social basis. For example, Farcaster's eco-chasing application frenns and DeBox allow users to send a CA directly inside the chat group to call their inner wallets for transactions. A growing number of developers are also aware that mainstream encryption users should not be avoided, and that encryption socialization is not a way away from wallets, but rather embraces them, and should not cut the value layer but integrate them。It's "a bit of a turn" without an inside walletI don't know。

i'm sorry, sir

Use wallets to socialize

Similarly, encryption wallet applications are trying to integrate social elements. From mere asset containers, entry points to transactions, social signals and social interactions based on social mapping are also sought as user needs and chain behaviours become more diverse。

Zapper and Base App, both of which were wallet applications, have now been incorporated into the content of the Farcaster social protocol and social mapping, which are the same as the clients of the Farcaster protocol. It's actually a reflection of Farcaster asOpen, programmable, groupable social protocolsValue。Open protocol. Clear interfaceI don't knowThe developers are freeBuilds a client, an application based on Farcaster. Whether it's a wallet or an application, you can access the Farcaster social layer directly into your product without permission。

Zapper adds Farcaster web content to the wallet, along with chain dynamics and transactional signals based on Farcaster social spectrograph, which can identify transactional opportunities directly from the chain behavior of interested users and quickly complete the transaction。

Base App, based on its original wallet, has incorporated Farcaster as a social stream of information, Zora as a tool to assetize the author's content, and XML as a bottom protocol for instant communication and community chat. This enables content creation, asset distribution, social discovery, token transactions, applications interaction, community chat and interaction with agents to form a closed circle of content, relationships and values in the same space。

Zerion now also has a social profile for social discovery, incorporating Twitter, Farcaster and Lens social identities, based on a well-established focus on wallet addresses, which better detects transactional signals from interested users and top traders。

Zapper, Base App, Zerion

Centralized trading platforms are also wallets, and there are attempts to actively explore social integration. Since 2022, Binance Feed was launched, upgraded to Binance Square in 2023. With the world’s largest access to encrypted transactions, an integrated community platform has been built that allows users to focus on transactional dynamics, access to in-depth content information, communication strategies, and a variety of social interactions, such as voice and live broadcasting, that allow users to spend longer time on this application。

Similarly, Robinhod, a central trading platform for encrypted currency and forecast markets, has recently announced the exploration of socialization, allowing users to communicate strategies, detect signals, and document transactions on the platform。

However, centralized trading platforms often build their own societies in closed ecology, and the links, content and identities of users, like traditional social platforms, remain in the hands of the platforms. It is more unfortunate that ordinary developers are not free to build new applications based on their social profiles, and that all functions rely on single-point teams of trading platforms. But still, the users don't care about it. It's just that your product works。

Robinwood is explicating social

For wallets, socialization is not a decorative function, but a key step in upgrading wallets from "tools" to "network." Socialization provides a context for asset behaviour, a source for transaction decisions and a trajectory for content distribution. The wallet is socialized and better equipped to have a network effect, moving from tools to ecology。

Social + Wallet: trade, discovery, creation

Socialization in wallets, wallets in socialisations, and they're becoming more interwovenNatural direction for consumer-grade encryption applicationsI don't know. For encrypted societies, if they do not actively combine with wallets, it is a negative choice to deviate from mainstream encryption users, and to do so would be to lose ranks and inevitably be replaced by more complete product patterns. Social applications require wallets to fill the puzzle of interactions on the chain, and encryption applications of the core competencies of ecology, creator economy, etc., that constitute the experience of encrypted social differentiation must be achieved by full wallet functionality. Adding value layers to social layers to provide leverage for growth of social networks。

For a wallet, socialization is a great addition. Users are no longer "exhaustible" but can stay because of relationships, content, community. From tools to networks, from entrances to scenes, from asset managers to interactive spaces, the wallet naturally extends to more applications and network effects。

Of course, there are also applications that aim at the "social + wallet" route from the beginning, early on realizing that the two are natural complementarities, that they can make up content, that the relationship and the value of the asset are closed。

• Interface.social: Support for hot token discovery, tracking of user chain activities, documentary transactions and allowing users to express their trade views (Takes)。

• 0xppl.com: support for the discovery of hot coins, the tracking of multi-chain wallets, documentary transactions and revenue monitoring。

:: Firefly.socially: Firefly is itself a multi-social network ' s aggregate client, including X, Farcaster, Lens, Bluesky, supporting cross-platform postings to tap trading opportunities in social data by synthesizing best friends ' transaction dynamics。

• fomo.family: support real-time tracking of chain transactions of friends and top traders and rapid detection of new assets through built-in transaction analysis and profit-loss tracking。

:: Share.xyz: allows users to share any transaction, follows any wallet, receives notification of the transaction in real time, supports the reproduction of the transaction and gives the copyee the share of proceeds。

• gmgn.ai: support rapid detection of hot assets, tracking of smart money and user-sensitive hold-up and transactions, conduct of second-level up-chain transactions, and provision of intelligence and trading tools in the integrated chain of automated documentary, wind-control checks and real-time alerts。

• Victor.fun: Supporting user transaction dynamics and asset discovery in the chain. It has been discontinued by Coinbase。

Internet, 0xppl, Fomo, Share

From the beginning, they are found to be similar in many functions and interfaces. "Transaction, discovery, creation" is Farcaster's new Slogan, which uses this word for other wordsSocial + WalletIt seems that the application is not incompatible with the peace, and is basically the discovery of trade signals, quick-tracking, sharing of trade strategies。

The difference may be in the way each product chooses its priorities. Different applications vary in terms of functional dimensions, weight and weight, and depth. Some emphasize content production, allowing users to say "what to buy, why to buy" ; others do little about content, but instead tilt resources towards transaction execution, data insight, and documentary efficiency. These trade-offs ultimately shape different product strengths and result in significantly different user experiences。

Who can stand out? It may depend on who can keep a point professional enough to be deep enough。

For example, the fact that 0xPPL is becoming more and more specialized in mapping the chain, coupled with the number of connected social maps, makes it a tool for rapid identification of address identities on the chain, which is useful when the new currency is issued. GMGN makes the transaction most efficient from discovery to analysis to execution. In terms of multi-chain support, Zapper and Zerion are themselves covered as professional wallets. And in the actual cross-chain experience, Farcaster Wallet is very silky and very low wear。

Interface, Fomo, and Share's "Takes", "Comment" or "Share" are the difference points, allowing users to write their own trade logic, hoping that their own applications will have content to create and sink, but with little network effect. Of course, other applications can be directly integrated into the Farcaster protocol to create content, so that the content of production can spread across a larger social network。

In addition, the application based on the Farcaster protocol has the advantage of reusing Farcaster Mini Apps, which already have hundreds of different functions, to embed small programs directly into social exchanges and to easily extend functional boundaries within applications without the need to rebuild wheels。

Use social + wallet encryption for panorama

Dan Romero has said that adding wallets to social networks is much easier than adding social networks to wallets, and Farcaster may be easier to expand wallets on established social networks from a product point of view. However, other applications can be directly integrated into existing social networks unless they have sufficient confidence in their own user base。

As can be seen from the "Social + Wallet" encryption application panorama, if you want to do a piece at this timeSocial + WalletFarcast and X are the most selected for social mapping. A slight difference is that, because of the different degree of openness, when X social profiles are integrated, they are often linked only to the wallet address and X account; but when they are integrated, Farcast social profiles can easily import, in addition to identity, the content produced in the existing social relationships of users and even on social networks, so as to acquire a ready social network, rather than re-accumulating social content and building relationships from scratch。

When more and more applications use Farcaster as a social infrastructure, the value of the entire network is amplified in reverse, thus increasing the network effect of the entire agreement. Looking back at the past four years, the Farcaster team has built a “small but fine” social map of the development path with restraint. Despite growth constraints, the social relationships, content and culture accumulated are becoming the bottom assets and infrastructure of an open and encrypted social ecology. In the future, the network will continue to be enriched, extended and adopted。

Concluding remarks

Farcaster is not dead, encrypted society is not dead, and as encrypted social Farcaster is not dead. The real encryption society goes beyond just one social network to combine socialization with value flows. So this year, Farcaster App was able to successfully upgrade a well-established inner wallet from an inconvenient connection to the outside wallet, which is the key leap to this long overdue bottom-up capability。It's not about giving up socialization, it's about bringing socialization to a new engine of growthI don't know。

Farcaster’s recent "scoffing" suggests that Farcaster’s social map is too small and that the number of daily users is too limited, thus creating some information divides and misinterpretations among friends who watch the fires off the coast. In the current trend of "social walletization, socialization of wallets", Farcaster App is faced with continuing competition, which is also a real challenge. The need to continue to rely on Farcaster's co-growth of Mini Apps' two carriages, both of which are emerging on the side of the product, "prior to the wallet" and in the ecologyThe value flow capacity of the product layer continues to match the portfolio ecological capacity of the agreement layer。

What happens next? No one can guarantee the answer. But perhaps by expanding wallets over established social media, encrypted socialization really beginsIf value flows, encrypted social networks become more active。

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