dusan on Farcaster

dusan pfp

i’m usually the last to hate on experiments, but farcaster PRO is hands-down the least thought-through feature merkle has ever rolled out. and that is an understatement. (disclaimer: i’m a late pro holder—no nft for me. so i get it might sound salty, but I’ve had this rant sitting in my drafts even before the release, so bear with me) 1) it’s a terrible signal for willingness to pay. people buy worse crap when it means any kind of exclusivity 2) it’s driving a massive wedge between PROs and everyone else. not even 24 hours in, and we’ve got exclusive airdrops and gated content popping up. that’d be kinda okay if merkle was orchestrating it, but nope—it’s bottom-up. the mind virus has spread, and now early PRO holders are treated like some elite class of crypto royalty bought status works in stuffy nightclubs or country clubs, where there’s a velvet rope and a bouncer to keep the outgroup out. but not so much on a social network 1/2

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dusan pfp

PoW >>> PoS: - PoW rewards effort, creativity, and real contribution—building something valuable, engaging with the community, etc. - PoS just lets people buy their way to the top, flexing wealth instead of skill social networks thrive on connection and merit, not pay-to-win hierarchies. this nft-PRO combo is a recipe for resentment and a fractured community what happens now? the classic hype curve. first, the FOMO kicks in—everyone scrambles to grab an nft, prices spike, and early adopters feel like geniuses. then the peak hits—speculators flood in, airdrops fuel the frenzy, and the “exclusive” vibe reaches fever pitch. but it’s downhill from there. the hype fades, the value tanks, and latecomers are left holding overpriced jpegs. meanwhile, the community’s split: early PROs lord it over everyone else, and the rest feel like second-class citizens. merkle’s left with a mess—less cohesion, more drama. good luck fixing that hope to be wrong though 🤞 2/2

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Arjan | That Poetry Guy pfp

Arjan | That Poetry Guy

I bought pro because I believe we need to find different business models for social networks. Web2 is broken to the point of evil, so I will try to support any experiment that tries to find a better way. I see/saw it predominantly as subsidising. From rewards I got here, I could afford to put something back into the system. That's what I will keep doing. I will not let a badge dictate with who I interact here. My friends are my friends, no matter which badge they do or don't have. So, I hope that spirit balances the hypegrab spirit a tiny little bit.

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0xtom.base.eth 🎩 pfp

0xtom.base.eth 🎩

I thought of it as an investment in the platform. It was a no brainer to me. Would have got it whether I was in first 10k or not. I do love this joint for so many different reasons. I’m invisible on every other platform. Here I find frens and alpha without trying particularly hard. Try same on X or anywhere else and you’ll be inundated with a million scam comments/DMs.

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Athxna 🎯🐈‍⬛ pfp

Athxna 🎯🐈‍⬛

when there's something not everyone has, it always causes a sort of imbalance. yeah the hype is strong with FC pro right now but, we all know it's temporary & will level out soon. most people were just proud to support & im sure did not see this coming. there was a wedge between OGs and non OGs at first, then between PB users and non-PB users, now pro vs non-pro. there's no perfect system but between all options, at least with fc pro anyone can join if they choose to do so & at any time. FC specifically said the main purpose is to generate revenue to support the ecosystem. i don't think it's fair to blame FC for the fact that other projects decided to gate things for pro users/first 10k pro users. curious... if projects didn't gate anything for pro users, would you still think it's the least thought out feature that was rolled out? much love as always ds8 🫶🏾

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Anna Morris pfp

Thank you for saying this out loud! I'm so tired of this scarcity thinking in crypto. I think the subscription in itself is a fine business model (if it offers features worth paying for, or even as charity), but whyyyy did it need to have that speculative jpg attached to it. Did they need the money so badly?

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Sinaver Idrisov pfp

Sinaver Idrisov

The only reason PRO pays off today because we're in speculative space, where value is born out of thin air. On X and other platforms you can also buy the status, but it doesn't give you anything like that, and there is no supply scarcity like 10k NFTs. However, I disagree with you on their move in general, I think it does drive more narrative like "Farcaster pays off" and "it's good to be early", and should bring more interest in a short-medium term which is good for Farcaster?! Also: "it's upper echelon of the community which drives the wedge, not us, there is no incentive from Farcaster team for holding NFT" - what Dan gonna say 😅

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Rch pfp

sat on this for a bit before writing :) 1. i think you’re being a bit harsh. it’s not easy getting people to pay $120 for utility; especially in crypto, where the founder’s been upfront there’s no speculative upside or perks. 2. you're right on the outcome. it’s played out the same before too with active badge, power badge, spam labels. stuff like this emerges bottom up. and with fc being open, it’s bound to happen. today, apps lazily use explicit signals set by fc to find users. eventually, they’ll get smarter with open data. we can debate what’s fairer, but people will always feel left out. i don’t think this launch was careless. it surfaced interesting signals about the network. only gripe i have is given where fc is on pmf, was this really the most important thing they could have worked on? p.s. tone gets lost online. treat this as a gentle disagreement. you're one of my fav people on farcaster and still are :)

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kianga.eth pfp

Well, for once I get to be elite just because I pay attention and took an interest in Farcaster for the "right" reasons. Not because I'm part of the VC or SF cool kids click. No one puts me any list of auto follows when people sign up. This is the first thing in the crypto space I've see that opened up the possibility for deep credentials without needing to be an insider or deep BFF with the crypto bros.

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Daniel Fernandes pfp

Daniel Fernandes

I agree that bought-status isn't great, but it's only 1 year, and if I'm not convinced with how it goes, I can just not renew. If I get back more value than I paid, then I can pay that value forward via tips. I agree the 10K limit could have been designed to be less botfarmed, but there are ways to make farming -EV going forward.

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Brappa pfp

Lot of "I'm a genius because I woke up on time" in the comments

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Sangohan.base.eth 🟠 pfp

Sangohan.base.eth 🟠

The analysis is interesting, but if we take an optimistic point of view, the announcement effect should be enough for non-holders to benefit from the hype reserved for holders. Paying $120 for a year-long access to something that doesn’t even exist yet helps ensure that users are truly involved and generating value. Paying in the first few minutes or hours amplifies that feeling of being an engaged and high-value user. Now, everything depends on how the future unfolds. It’s true that if a few holders grab everything, it could eventually run out of steam. But here, we have the social aspect that helps maintain and fuel this hype to become something well-established in the ecosystem. There are tons of very expensive NFTs that have brought in loads of money to their holders at the expense of all the smaller users. That hasn’t stopped them from thriving. 1/2

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Nastya pfp

Some thoughts: - Farcaster has always felt more like a club - it’s hard for outsiders to break in even with a valuable content or work. If you join without having popular friends here, almost no one will see your posts. - I've been early user, but not "elite" by many criteria - fid not low enough, not enough popular friends to get a pro badge (when it was a thing) etc. This new experiment is at least one of the most open so far, letting anyone participate regardless of when they joined.

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frdysk pfp

Terrible signal, yes, we bout to find out how farcaster handles it, fafo baby

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Ayan pfp

is it the beginning of anarchy?

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noseals.framedl.eth pfp

noseals.framedl.eth

well written, Dusan. I really hope you’re wrong though. It would have been fair to give everyone a window - say, 48 hours - to join pro before announcing the NFT thing. True believers, supporters and devs would have minted far before fomo folks entered the party, especially when a nft indirectly comes with benefits - dan told there won’t be any, but we all know there already are some.

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FarcasterMarketing pfp

FarcasterMarketing

@quillingqualia.eth

I suggested an allow list to dwr early on Pretty sure 70% of the NFTs are bought with second/farming accounts Nothing stopping stopping us from refunding this this money and running it again with an allow list and different mechanics

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Derek pfp

I like this perpespective and it entirely aligns with my thoughts. For some reason though, projects in the web3 space are taking PoS more seriously than PoW, even though the later is a better and fairer consideration. We've seen projects reward 'paying' users way more than 'service' users over and over, I expected it'd come to that with Farcaster and wasn't surprised when I saw that cast by @dwr.eth

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whimzical.framedl.eth pfp

whimzical.framedl.eth

Completely agree

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rickacrane 🎩 pfp

rickacrane 🎩

I haven't subbed yet and felt a little fomo over all this. The reason I didn't dive in was I am cautious of subscription models. Look at how it's played out on X! The app is so bad now. Not worth the $ there and glad I didn't commit. I'd love to support FC as I think it's the best place to be but I am not sure about 100% of my subscription going to weekly rewards? I would be much happier investing in a scaled up onboarding programme. I think that is top priority here. Not paying, in some cases a wage, to a handful of the same popular people each week.

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