as a self-described flywheel maxi, i’m encouraged by the recent wave of discussion & experimentation. one glance at token performance over the last two cycles makes the gap clear: without working flywheels, valuations in smaller ecosystems, such as farcaster, can’t hold for long
flywheels don’t matter much in periods of disconnected exuberance; hype & fomo push prices to frothy highs, only to collapse just as quickly. when that air comes out, a functioning flywheel keeps your token valuation from falling 95%. without one—or at least a credible plan to build one—liquidity migration is incentivized elsewhere & the token is dismissed as intrinsically worthless, only good for short-term trading in time euphoria
flywheels aren’t magic. they won’t spike your chart like a well-timed memecoin, but they will support a more reasonable floor once the tourists leave. investors who understand the mechanism accumulate on dips because they expect the wheel to repay them over time. you’re effectively buying loyalty & creating a race toward deeper alignment among your biggest supporters
getting a wheel spinning usually requires two ingredients: distribution & recurring revenue. without users, the wheel never gains momentum; without steady revenue, it can’t complete a full cycle back to step one
that raises a practical question for farcaster projects: how do you secure distribution in a relatively small network?
unless you have 20k twitter followers, or an exclusive with a major dex or big partner, the most reliable path is alignment with existing ecosystem leaders
once distribution is in place, you can iterate—talk to users, integrate the token into the product, identify pain points, and refine mimetic growth loops
when the numbers work, you flip the switch on revenue. model cash flows: how much covers six months? two years? can excess be reinvested into product & token buybacks or burns?
then work to stabilize that revenue—subscriptions, gamification, anything that anchors predictable monthly inflows
finally, the wheel can now compound: holders become users, users become revenue, revenue rewards loyalists & grows the holder base, and the cycle accelerates 1 reply
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