Farcaster

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

Focusing on growth first is the right call. 
That said, 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 further 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.