Should Farcaster add a "staking" verification system?  Please reply! 

Users can get "verified" badge by staking $10 USDC in a contract. The stake can be reclaimed at any time, but will only release after a delay (maybe 4-8 weeks). 

Verified users will get the following benefits: 

- Badge on profile. 
- Access to video uploads.
- Show up higher in conversations. 
- A small boost in the rewards program. 

The goal is to make it harder for spammers to verify so that good humans on Farcaster have a better experience!

genuine question:

lots of users got the pro badge just for the nft and don’t even use the app anymore.

how do we actually onboard new users to farcaster (or even to crypto) through this app? imo it’s easier to onboard someone here than drop them into CT and explain web3.

but won’t it be tough for newbies to go through all these verifications? if they’re free, sure. and i think we already have enough. people want to earn their first dollar here, not pay to play.

no offense to anyone, i love using this app. just genuinely concerned seeing how this pay-to-win stuff might push new users away.

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It sounds like what you’re describing and what i’m describing are different, at least insomuch that Im saying that the ability to earn rewards shouldn’t be taken away for non-pro users. 

So at minimum, $5 to setup if you don’t have twitter & $10 for pro status. What do you mean $25 wallet verification?
I thought for a whole minute you meant that you were paying to use discord and github for verification, but it seems like you meant something else…

wouldn’t this be a burden for new users who’re completely new to crypto and just want to earn their first dollar by creating content? now rewards favor those staking $10 again.

i’m totally fine with it — but imagine onboarding a friend:
> $5 to join (or an old twitter)
> then phone, github, discord, $25 wallet verif
> now $10 stake too?

that’s ~$40 just to start. this could be handled better. we should look at user behavior — how they cast, reply, engage — to flag spam, not just keep adding verifications. even someone who paid $10 can still spam.

I think that if the experience isn’t completely bifurcated by Pro/Non-Pro, it’s fine. Ie: we can all see the same stuff, but we can’t all DO the same stuff (seeing & interacting with casts the same ways, but only paying (or in this example staking) users can do certain tasks (video\3+ photos\??). It’s not technically pay to play then, wouldn’t it be “pay to do more”?

Staking $10 for a verified badge, hell no!!!!

U're right... I think they should find a better way to handle this