Nearchos

How are we making Farcaster easier to understand for new people

1. We're still considering rebranding Warpcast (back) to Farcaster. If we do that, will have an FIP. It will be controversial, but initial feedback from most developers actively building on the protocol is they are a supportive (with the goal of increasing users on the protocol). To be clear: this is not final /decided.

2. We rebranded frames to mini apps. This is a more literal name and in line with other popular ecosystems like Telegram. This is easier to understand for new developers.

3. We're gradually deprecating warps. We here this feedback a lot—what are warps and why do I need them—and moving most of the functionality of warps to USDC is much simpler (as well as being more composable).

4. We're working on cheaper / free sign ups. A lot of potential good new users churn at the $3 to sign up screen. Our goals are to 1) make it cheaper at the protocol for other apps and 2) free on Warpcast with a verification (we pay the protocol).

The adoption<>education trade-off conundrum over Warpcast!=Farcaster is so hard for me. 

I think that figuring out how to normalize the protocol!=platform delineation is one of the biggest onboarding issues we face in web3.

But the classic argument is that nobody cares about understanding protocols. Web2 buried all the protocols behind platforms to the point that it just never became part of the average lexicon. 

To me, however, this is the ENTIRE point of web3: Building decentralized protocols.

I think this is why Ethereum is not succeeding with narrative adoption as well. People don't understand the value of it as a protocol, they just want to know what platform to sign into. 

So is the answer to abstract protocols away and just sell ppl platforms? 

Or is the answer that we have to, collectively, figure out how to educate the masses on what a protocol is and normalize why it's different than a platform/client?

totally get your struggle! it's like trying to explain the internet to someone back in the 90s. we need a balance between simplicity & education. 🤔🌐