Dan Romero on Farcaster

Dan Romero pfp

As previously discussed, we're considering renaming the Warpcast app to Farcaster. Why? - Top priority is grow users on the protocol - The name split is extremely confusing for new users - So, we want to simplify How we're thinking about it - Rename Warpcast mobile app - warpcast.com to farcaster.xyz for web app - Open source both apps - No change protocol name, i.e. similar to Uniswap with app / protocol What we’re doing - Seeking input and want to make sure we understand concerns  - Ultimately Varun and I will make a decision; it won’t be a vote. - Expect a decision in the next week or so; if yes, we will give plenty of notice and will take time to do this correctly / cleanly. How you can provide input - Developers: please reply here or feel free to reach out to me via direct message whether you agree or disagree. - Everyone else: you're free to offer input, but we will be weighting developer input a bit more since it has a bigger near-term impact on what they are building

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Dan Romero pfp

Additional context 1. We originally launched the Farcaster beta as a desktop app called Farcaster in 2021 2. In February 2023 we rebranded the app to Warpcast and deprecated desktop / moved to mobile + web app 3. The original rationale was we felt like having our client (Warpcast) have a different name from the protocol (Farcaster) would make it easier for other developers to build clients that would grow the number of users on the protocol 4. Ultimately, that didn't really play out (for a variety of reasons) and Warpcast has been how most active users 1) created an account 2) use the protocol today 5. Recently, we've been spending a lot of time onboarding new users to Farcaster (with varying degrees of knowledge about crypto). Nearly everyone says they were confused between what is Farcaster and Warpcast. This is especially confusing when the core Farcaster team (i.e. Merkle employees) talk about Farcaster more than Warpcast yet we are building Warpcast. (continued)

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Dan Romero pfp

6. A simplified name benefits consumers — they may have heard about Farcaster, now they can just search via Google or the mobile app store and find it. 7. It's slightly worse for developers in that it makes it harder for people to use an alternative client that's quite similar to the current Warpcast UX. However, our hope is the improved consumer benefit compounds with user growth and leads to a bigger addressable market for developers. 8. Why not rename Warpcast? It doesn't solve the core problem of two names. Farcaster has a massive amount of brand equity—we've spent years talking about it. 9. Why not rename the protocol? Developers care about 1) potential users 2) working / stable APIs and infra. Most developers are familiar with what a protocol is (esp. in crypto), so it's fine to have the nuance of app / protocol same name (like Uniswap) in the developer docs.

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Toady Hawk pfp

Looks good send it

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Rob Zombie pfp

Would u rebrand snapchain/mini apps/warps too? Seems aligned, but maybe a stretch: Farchain (infra) Farcast (client) Farcaster (protocol) Farcoin (warps/whatever) Farclient (other clients) Farapps (mini apps/frames)

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Samuel ツ pfp

@samuellhuber.eth

7. It's slightly worse for developers in that it makes it harder for people to use an alternative client that's quite similar to the current Warpcast UX. However, our hope is the improved consumer benefit compounds with user growth and leads to a bigger addressable market for developers. 99% of dev activity is mini apps anyway re clients "play a different game" at it's finest. And I am saying that after 1) working on super with @woj 2) building a farcaster library with @dylsteck.eth 3) scoping multiple clients in the past & assisting client teams all around on growth / product with the consulting at dTech Unless you have a killer differentiator you aren't winning anyway. and to be fair 04-2025 Warpcast itself hasn't cracked it yet. We're all working on it. So the alt client unless they crack it is doomed to start already outside of power user tools until DAU increases. Sorry to be blunt to the decentralisation maxis here, but we'll get there, it just isn't now from looking at the state of the union.

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scottrepreneur pfp

@scottrepreneur.eth

Users are still required to create an account on mobile in order to use desktop (this is super painful for frames with auth btw). This was a recent pain someone coming from the other sphere shared.

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will pfp

generally in favor of the name change -- the household name should be the thing that consumers use. Protocols want to be invisible (consumers have no idea what SMTP is) re 9, is this in addition to renaming the app/website? i could def get behind "farcaster" for the client and "the cast protocol" (or something .. too bad TCP is already taken ; maybe FCP?) for the underlying infra

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Garrett pfp

good move and good comms this is a post that I think deserves to be put on the blog or shown somewhere on the blog page

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True, I was always confused with the Warpcast name. Farcaster is a much better name 👍

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Samm pfp

Been on here since the beginning, I was new to SocialFi. It’s always been Farcaster to me. As people still say Twitter , people will always say Farcaster (name change or not🫠)

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