@jacek

Agree. A lot of the Degen story is really a Farcaster story too. In Dec 2023 in /degen, before token launchers existed, people were already experimenting with community tokens right in the channel. Small tangent, I have this hunch that @alon might have been partly inspired by that moment. Either way, the energy was there first. And I think the counterfactual is pretty clear: if $DEGEN hadn’t stepped into the gap and become the breakout Farcaster token, something else would have. Farcaster made that possible by giving us an open graph, verified wallets, channels, and a distribution surface that already had attention and capital sitting on it. We didn’t have to manufacture a network from scratch, we got to plug into one. On the airdrop side, I used to see it more narrowly, but over time I’ve come to think the early drops were genuinely value additive. Not just free coins but a mechanism that kicked off a specific kind of behavior and virality. I’ll say more about that later, because we’re building something in the Degen app that I think taps into that same initial loop and a core want people here have. And I don’t think the answer is token launchers. So yes, the 2024 meme coin/spec wave plus Degen pulled a ton of people onto Farcaster. But the platform had enough kindling that another project could have lit that fire too. I’m glad it was us, and we’re not done. Now shifting lanes. I think Degen app can be one of the top Farcaster clients. That’s what we’re building toward. If I have to bet on open vs closed systems, I’ll always bet on open long term. There are short run counterexamples, sure, but the pattern is consistent: open ecosystems attract more builders, more experiments, and eventually better products. On social specifically, Reddit and X gating their APIs was a strategic mistake. It slows innovation and pushes talent elsewhere. Over a long enough horizon, open social beats closed social. That’s why we’re here. Degen being early on Farcaster is going to matter, and I want us to keep pushing the edge of what a client can be. There still isn’t a Farcaster client that’s found the viral loop strong enough to pull normies from traditional networks. But just like with the Degen token, I think it’s a “when,” not an “if.” I’d like Degen to be the team that finds that loop first. Not because we have the most resources, but because I think we actually understand what people on Farcaster want. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think so. Quick historical note that always sticks with me: Reddit’s mobile app wasn’t originally built by Reddit. They bought Alien Blue and turned it into the official app. That’s a perfect example of a small independent team out innovating the mothership inside an open ecosystem. That’s the playbook I’m aiming for with Degen app. If we win, Farcaster wins too. Anyway. We keep shipping. Build on. https://farcaster.xyz/v/0x5ed77e2e

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