Dan Romero on Farcaster

Dan Romero pfp

Where is Farcaster still centralized? June 2025 edition Important to call out: our top priority remains user growth. Prematurely solving any of these potential issues below doesn’t help user growth in the near-term. So not a top a priority. May change in the future. 1. Most users use the Farcaster app. A nerf on Farcaster app is de facto censorship from the protocol today. This will change as Coinbase Wallet, Zapper, Uno and other clients come to market. 2. Snapchain write nodes are run by the Farcaster team and Neynar. In theory we can collude to censor additional writes to the protocol. Low likelihood, but possible. Way to solve this is increase number of write nodes. But again, not an issue today. 3. Farcaster “channels” — metadata and creation are centralized. Content has always been decentralized via FIP-2. Creation is not available via API but metadata is. Making some progress on a plan to move channels into FIP-2 without having reliance on the Farcaster app. 1/2

19 replies

120 recasts

612 reactions

Dan Romero pfp

4. Direct casts run on a centralized server. We have APIs available for everything at this point. Documentation needs to be improved. Eventually move server to something that feels more like the fname server (vs. our app backend). Eventually explore decentralization and e2ee. We’re competing against Telegram not Signal. 5. GitHub repo merge ability is only for people on the Farcaster team. Hasn’t been something to solve for since we’re doing most of the protocol upgrades. 6. Worth pointing out a big recent improvement to decentralization: auth addresses. This has reduced a dependency on the Farcaster app for Sign in with Farcaster. There’s still work to do on making it easier to choose Farcaster on Coinbase Wallet (and others) for SIWF flows outside of mini apps. 2/2

12 replies

34 recasts

225 reactions

Samuel ツ pfp

@samuellhuber.eth

re 3) channels creating API and everyone can keep focusing on growth. Honestly channels is more a UX thing then a primitive thing in how I think about iterating form here E.g. @cura is fully differentiated in UX not in the primitive With today's channels being FIP2 + rest via APIs one can already build all one wants to experiment. Hard part is getting users outside of Farcaster app, but if you do and show early traction say few hundred daily active retentive users imo you have a case potentially especially if >30% are net new FIP2 also allows permission less channel creation, just they don't show up in Farcaster app as they aren't part of the backend infra :D (to highlight FIP2 being permission less)

1 reply

0 recast

7 reactions

adrienne pfp

Are you still building towards this definition of sufficient decentralization and if this is achieved, are you satisifed? "two users can find each other and communicate, even if the rest of the network wants to prevent it" requiring three decentralized features: 1) the ability to claim a unique username 2) post messages under that name, 3) read messages from any valid name.

1 reply

2 recasts

3 reactions

vrypan |--o--| pfp

Thank you for listening. I appreciate it.

0 reply

0 recast

3 reactions

borodutch pfp

@farcasteradmin.eth

i am running my own snapchain node, am i helping???

3 replies

0 recast

6 reactions

Jacek.degen.eth 🎩 pfp

Jacek.degen.eth 🎩

Would love to see more work on Channels. Totally get you’re waiting for the right client to explore what works — we think Degen app might be that. Hoping we can help influence more experimentation in that space soon.

0 reply

0 recast

2 reactions

Koolkheart pfp

@koolkheart.eth

Big fan of the move toward multi-client parity. Once Farcaster feels like infra and not just the app, things will really level up

0 reply

0 recast

1 reaction

pizza.base.eth pfp

@thebestpizza.eth

I’m interested in how I can get help when I’m trying to build my project on farcaster - it’s still not clear who or how I should reach out to someone so I’m going to post this 1. launched $wtf for my project wtfirkin.com via clankerworld with CA 0x9a4d496a08b2df2b1b115d2cdf9c0a5629384b07 2. when you click on $wtf, it brings you to the $wtf ticker page 3. out of the 3 tokens shown, 2 are solana and one was the an imposter of my project on base sitting at 25k and is a scam token this seems to have changed to an earlier $wtf token sitting at 25k - how do we change the algo so that my token that had over $1m in volume in less than 20 hours can be featured over an imposter coin with no volume?

2 replies

1 recast

2 reactions

sania pfp

will farcastsr ever have coin??

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

wake pfp

why, in your opinion, is greater decentralization still a worthwhile goal? why bother if it isn’t conducive to growth?

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Yehor pfp

farcaster > instagram, telegram

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Bernie pfp

Thanks for the transparency. Focusing on growth first is the right call. A thought on the journey to a decentralized future: the foundation for that future is developer trust. Right now, simple predictability is more important than immediate decentralization. A public policy for API changes, like a 6-month notice, builds that essential trust. Even centralized giants like AWS understand this playbook: win developer confidence with stable rules, and a valuable ecosystem will follow. That trust is the bedrock on which a truly decentralized network can be built.

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Sangita pfp

Got much clarity. Keep building fc stronger 💪😺

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

daniboi.base.eth • ∞ pfp

daniboi.base.eth • ∞

What if you Deploy your farcaster on Decentralize cloud like on #ICP blockchain ICP farcaster Version 😁🥰

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Gill Chang pfp

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

TheProducer pfp

Not everything needs to be decentralized. A hybrid approach maximizing the pros of centralization and decentralization is better than going maxi decentralization makes sense.

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

happy world in you pfp

happy world in you

@lqthiennhat168

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Plants pfp

Channels = subreddits The game plan is already proven let’s work towards that model which is worth 22.38 B

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

De Boy pfp

I always thought this is a decentralized app until you say it yourself 🙄

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction