fc coins getting rekt as daus dwindle & ct dances around a tba tombstone

base pushed zora way too aggressively, integrating a mid-7th pivot platform into an $80b pubco app release at the most fundamental level of usage with zero validation & against a wall of external & thoughtful criticism… it’s unheard of

as a result, the two have become inseparable & “base app” has now lost its brand name, barely a year in — but users this & that, see: world 

fc chose to build against its core tam for over two years & destroyed its public perception in the process; now a token is the only way out 

base learned nothing from farcasters shortcomings & chose to push creator coins from the very top; now a token is the only way out 

no one asked farcaster nor base to CREATE net-new creators; this is crypto

the long-term sustainability of tba & certainly now fc given the wallet upgrades does NOT depend on net-new creators

this is crypto; we’re building crypto apps

it doesn’t have to be like this, ya know 

all both of y’all had to do was build for the devs… they will literally do your job for you; all you need to do is listen & support them

SKYCASTLE

> fc chose to build against its core tam
what do you mean by this?

also what does it mean to build for devs

fc doesn’t really listen to devs

-show me how to report a bug 
-we ask them to build channel tooling; they build shorts
-they tell us to build clients; they swallow up the only client & pivot into everything app 
-zero dev provisioning until the recent leaderboard rewards; creators still prior 
-took almost 3 years to get a dev mode 

some of this maybe stretched or even incorrect & many other things not listed; but generally devs have not been prioritized here even though it’s the only path of growth

Ecosystem @farcaster, cofounder @bountycaster. Prev: cofounder of Scalar Capital, product at Coinbase, coproducer @ethereumfilm

Ethereum

@farcaster dev / dad / books, cooks, ski, code ~ there are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant

never be sorry, tony! 

i agree with all of this & think you kind of made my point. only 12 months ago. 

i was calling for linda hire months before that, in-network acquisitions & rollups were obvious (still are but they built into network devs instead), calling for dev rewards & crypto focus since day one (and not alone outside of top 50 accounts who were the main deterrent for CT) — we’ve been here for 3 years! 

we built against core demo for first two years & told CT they don’t know what they want & that we don’t want them here 

the work, you, horse, linda, and many others on the team do is immensely valuable & the direction over the last year has significantly improved 

my concern is its too little, too late; for too long fc leaders & base leaders told the market what they want & what they’re gonna get instead of simply building what they ask for 

we can’t tell our core demo they are wrong & unneeded & then wonder where users are three years later; the public perception is tarnished—they have no idea what we’re doing over here for years now & simply don’t care 

it’s so bad that even a base airdrop tease coming from a 80 billion dollar company doesn’t even move the needle anymore; they hate us; we built our own coffin

sorry basil this is clueless grumbling

we constantly talk to devs, @linda literally FT

devs don’t care about bug reports and there is more badass channel tooling by cura alone than channel users

12mo ago mini apps didn’t exist and there was no integrated wallet

now farcaster is an incredible place for devs to launch and the list of dope and successful projects continues to grow

problem is those apps stall when they saturate the small FC network

devs need users and users that invest more time and money

simple as that

some of that dev part is a dead dog chasing it's own tail.

if user's arent in size so devs can monetize -> devs will not jump through all hoops -> they churn -> less devs

if hoops weren't there would you build? yeah more would, but

devs can't monetize -> devs won't build (opportunity not there) -> they churn -> less devs

root: need users in size that are monetizable. 

Crypto token plays work here for a reason. That's monetizable TAM that you can sustain small teams of 1 or a few on.

would fixing dev struggles help? would we get more apps that then retain users and bring some of their own? $BRACKY is a good onboarding & retention sample. Is it big enough to over index on it? idk hasn't been a merkle priority.

what has worked so far? honestly dev direction and building cool experiences not possible else where e.g. bracky, bankr, clanker, clankermon and rewards experiments like bttrmint and more ... has worked to some extend. Degen and Clanker likely being biggest onboarding events beyond fundraise

Has Merkle (Dan + V especially) seeded a great initial network that we all draw from? yes.

Does that minimize opportunity cost no. Arguably increases it as with so many high profile connections using these as network vs building fulltime on FC is higher leverage.

What's the solution here? That I haven't had a pull and say in so ask Merkle who are the only one truely incentivized to solve it according to what's been said over the 2 years I've been here. I write this to provide a perspective and hopefully add some clarity of thought expanding on the discussion. Make of that what you will. dTech (the company I own an operate) right now has 90%+ of client's in the FC ecosystem so my actions may speak for themselves (not accounting the labor of love that docs, workshops and tech support account for most of my personal time outside dTech the last 2 years).

This is a very good and thoughtful comment. I will only address one part of it.

Good software ideas have never had a problem getting funding. Many an indie dev have bootstrapped software businesses from paying customers.

Given the entire history of computing it is nonsensical to say opening up a craps table is a good way to fund software and is 100% crypto brainrot. 

Build useful things, people want.

ehhh, some or all of these may have truth to them but we're still way overindexed on devs trying shit here and it hasn't resulted in more users which is what all the unhappiness is ultimately about