$2048 FOR FARCASTER CLIENTS Anyone can build a Farcaster client and run a read node to get data from the protocol. There are developer tutorials on the web[1,2,3,4], but your mission in this prize, should you choose to accept it, is to improve them by collecting all relevant info and making it incredibly easy. Specifically, we want you to get it down to three commands, as described in your quickstart and then detailed in your tutorial: (0) Provision necessary compute via script (1) Set up a Snapchain read node (2) Create a client that reads from that node The read node should run on its own, with no API keys from anyone. You just furnish the compute. Note that a read node syncs the network but does not accept writes, so your client should read from your own node and submit casts to a validator endpoint; the tutorial should explain how that works. The client should be able to import an existing seed phrase for an account that already has storage, use that seed phrase to issue the client its own app key (one small Optimism transaction), and then post with that key: read the feed, post casts, follow and react, and include/exclude casts from any other client. In addition to the quickstart at the top of the page, the tutorial should be mobile- and desktop-friendly, and should explain key protocol concepts as it goes (e.g. FIDs, custody addresses, app keys, Snapchain messages, read nodes vs validators, storage rent). Anything that someone running a client and read node would need to know. You can use AI, but your output must *not* be AI slop, as ultimately determined in our sole discretion. To qualify for a prize, you need to have at least one other human user successfully go through your tutorial and create a read node and client. They then need to post on Farcaster publicly vouching for the quality of your work. You can go the extra mile of course, like adding Chinese translation, adding a 59s vertical video, and so on. But getting more humans to vouch for your tutorial will be the most powerful signal. To enter, submit a reply to this post with three URLs: (1) your microsite with the quickstart + tutorial, (2) the associated GitHub repository with all MIT-licensed open source code, and (3) the link to your voucher's public endorsement on Farcaster. Prize: $2,048 first place, $512 second place, $128 each for honorable mentions, subject to whether there are enough good submissions. Paid in USDC to your public Farcaster wallet address by default. Deadline: your reply with three URLs must be submitted within seven days exactly from this post's timestamp. That’s it! Go learn the Farcaster protocol yourself, help others learn how to boot up their own clients, earn crypto for doing it, and increase practical freedom of association.
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THE FARCASTER PRIZE With 10,000+ votes counted, we're at 94.4% support for the new Network School Farcaster. Dylan put together a great visualization of this first decentralized digital democratic election. In his post below, you can see the provable, onchain, cryptographically verifiable votes streaming in for the new social smart contract. As a thank you, Dylan is the first recipient of a Farcaster Prize for positive-sum behavior on the platform. We've awarded $1024 to dylanb.eth via Base at the public address he listed[1,2]. Importantly, we're going to make systematic use of prizes to fund public digital infrastructure on Farcaster. This will be how we bootstrap a true cryptoeconomy. Because once we can get useful digital work done here for the core platform, we can bring many digital employers to Farcaster. And we have plenty of capital allocated for the bootstrapping phase. So: go read the developer docs (docs.farcaster.xyz/developers), and you can be the next Dylan. More to follow soon, and congratulations to dylanb.eth! [1,2]: See reply for proof-of-payment to dylanb.eth's public Base address.
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Hello everyone! Network School is acquiring Farcaster. Our goal is to turn this client into a family-friendly place where you can learn technology, earn cryptocurrency, have fun with the community, achieve your milestones in life, and gradually build a high-trust offline society. Anyone of any race, religion, class, or nationality is welcome so long as they cooperate with other members and share broadly techno-optimist values (a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/). To get there, we’ll need a new moderation policy. Rather than the Soviet Union of digital tyranny which typified the 2010s, or the Somalia of lawless digital anarchy that characterizes today’s online environment, we seek to intentionally build the first Singapore of social media. We get there in four steps: institute law-and-order, create a decentralized democracy, publish a written social smart contract, and then hold an ongoing series of meetups with our newly invigorated community. (1) Step one is law and order. In the pre-Internet world, it was simply unheard of to run up to a stranger and start cursing at them. We’re restoring that offline norm online. Much like how President Bukele jailed a small fraction of repeat offenders to essentially eliminate crime (https://tinyurl.com/39hwed77) in El Salvador, we’ve moderated out the small fraction of repeat offenders that have been muted or blocked by many accounts to stop random attacks within this Farcaster reference client. We’ve done this by using both humans and AI to crunch millions of posts. Of course, there will always be some false positives, and we do have an appeals process in the event you either (a) believe your account was unfairly moderated or (b) believe you were fairly moderated, but want to commit to changing your behavior in the future. From one vantage point, other social media platforms have had a moderation-and-appeal process for a long time, so in one sense we’re really just catching up on technical debt and getting to industry standard. However, in another sense, unlike pre-existing tech platforms, we’re actually being very concrete about the techno-optimist values we stand for — and giving you a concrete democratic choice over your digital governance, which leads us to step two. (2) Step two is decentralized digital democracy. As described at farcaster.xyz/~/vote, you can vote with your crypto wallet, your onchain ballot, and eventually your feet (via a Farcon/NS meetup) for our social Singapore. Many of you have already done so, like @linda, @mazmhussain, and @phil. In fact, as of the time of this writing, we’re at 92.9% support for Network School Farcaster, and you can see the onchain votes provably streaming in here: basescan.org/token/0x4ecfed276c566aeb49da1f3a888e8dbb7263028d Of course, you can also vote for another client, or build your own. After all, the Farcaster client has been open sourced (github.com/farcasterxyz/client), and the Farcaster protocol is already open. So with today’s AI tooling you can rapidly boot up whatever client you want. The only limitation is the same one the Ethereum Foundation implements: you can’t use Farcaster, Warpcast, Neynar, Network State, or Network School-related names to launch any coin, token, or commercial project. You can use the Farcaster protocol under the hood, just like Google uses Linux under the hood, but you can’t call your app or digital asset Farcaster itself. The goal is to prevent user confusion and crypto scams. (3) Step three towards building the first Singapore of social media is to publish examples of good and bad behavior, what an earlier generation might call “Goofus and Gallant.” We have a v1 of the social smart contract and the corresponding "Network Code" up at farcaster.xyz/~/contract. We’ll update it over time with specific AI prompts, concrete examples of pro-social behavior that we want in the app (like posting technical tutorials, hosting offline events, and the like) and also examples of anti-social behavior that we don’t want. (4) Finally, step four is to begin hosting online and offline meetups with the community of members that have opted into the new vision. We may do a meetup like Farcon (https://farcon.xyz), an in-person event at Network School in Astana, or an online event like our previous 1729 VR meetups (https://x.com/mckaywrigley/status/1466287496589840392), or all of the above. In each case, admission will be at least partially token-gated to those who voted for the new social smart contract. This way we start from a baseline of common values, techno-optimist goals, and provable democratic legitimacy. From that solid foundation, we can build a true digital community. And together we can cooperate at a scale no social network has ever seen before. So, that's the idea. We’re looking forward to building the first Singapore of social media with you. If you want to join us, please make your choice at farcaster.xyz/~/vote.
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