@usersteen.eth

Before farcon I considered writing a beast of a post about channels and how they're everything to the future of farcaster. Decided against it and told some friends instead. They basically agreed, which reminded me that over the years, in my conversations with other users, the importance of channels was unanimously agreed upon. They're why many came and stayed. They're how many started building. And yet, the challenge of building for them, or whatever other reason, has meant they've not truly been a focus. Seeing the circle back on channels now is a bit triggering, and seeing the outpouring of feedback in support/defense of them moreso. Farcaster, the decentralized social graph, is the basis for a metaverse of social networks. What else could possibly be the point of doing this otherwise? Yes, farcaster the app is a critical tool to grow, showcase, experiment, but it's an utter failure that we've not scaled the network outside of it. In part, I believe this is due to the branding of 'clients.' The perception of a client is very rigid; in practice it essentially means a different version of the farcaster app. Pro features, different read UX. The most interesting alt example I can think of would be Nook. But a client is just an app that uses the social graph. Doesn't need to be a feed. Doesn't need casts. Doesn't need to look anything like farcaster. Channels are where clients become limitless. For example, I create an app called Bass Pro. Strava for fishing. My social layer is powered by the graph and a membership-based channel. Users don't need to know either of those things. They don't need to know what Farcaster is. I created my own social network wahoo. Now, perhaps there are technical reasons the level of abstraction I imagine is not possible. Perhaps building said app isn't actually easier with farcaster. Idk, and I don't really want to find out at this point. The example serves to illustrate a path to actually scaling the network past alt crypto Twitter or wtv. ;;; There is another path to scale: the enormous opportunity to support the new category of developer that GitHub and X can't properly serve. As someone in this category it's probably more exciting. It's a more significant strategic adjustment targeted to a more differentiated and definable user. Tbh the lower hanging fruit. If I'm neynar I have to consider my strengths. Am I more equipped to build infra that can support a network of networks, or am I more equipped to manufacture distribution for a new era of social software? Right now we're kind of in the middle of both opportunities.

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