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I can’t make it to the @farcaster community call, so I’ll post my thoughts in case it’s useful. I disagree that growth of the network is more important than its resilience. Most users don’t appreciate how close the network came to SHUTTING DOWN COMPLETELY when Merkle exited. If Neynar hadn’t stepped up, then the private-validator Farcaster network would be gone. We wouldn’t be talking about any of this. I’m grateful to Neynar to stepping up and understand why growth is their main priority, but the value of this network is as an alternative to centralized social media. That is: open, uncensorable, and resilient beyond the life of any single organization. Merkle had unlimited runway and still the network almost shut down. If Neynar can’t get the growth it needs, it will shut down as well. The network will cease to be. The community must step up NOW to ensure the network survives. Last I heard, Snapchain had 3 organizations running nodes: Base (exited), Uno (exited), and Neynar. Hypersnap already has multiple times this many running nodes. Adding a hypersnap validator will create a backstop that ensures the network lives on even if Neynar exits. I don’t wish ill on Neynar, I want them to succeed. But if they succeed by creating another centralized social app then all of the users here today will have wasted their time. Further, it’s in Neynar’s best interest to make this network decentralized because that is the entire value of the network. Without it, there’s no reason for people to use it.

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