Farcaster

What is the most frustrating thing about Farcaster right now?

Reply and like the replies from others that resonate.

I’ll only ask clarifying questions (ie I won’t tell you you’re wrong) and then respond to a dozen or so top answers in a video this weekend with how we think about it.

The fact that users have to pay just to create an account, there’s no “free trial”

I know you guys are working on driving down the cost but it’s still unclear what the incentive is for non-WC apps to use FC for identity given that it adds friction and the value ultimately accrues to Merkle

/new-york by day 🗽 /untzuntz by night 😈 Fan of eating tacos and bringing people together, often at the same time 🌮

Assuming you were asking about the Farcaster protocol here and not Warpcast

might be interesting if top casters were given “free invites” instead of eg 5 usdc (or perhaps in addition to)

I think it would be nice if they could have a little bit of storage to “try things out” but even read only would be huge since it would allow other apps to grow the identity graph

Is “free trial” a full read / write account from your pov?

Or is free but read only sufficient?

When it becomes a no-brainer to use it as the identity layer because either a) the majority of users are already on it or b) there is negligible friction to have the sign up flow in your app create a Farcaster account under the hood

> value accrues to Merkle

Imagine sign ups are free: at what point does the value of using FC become clear to other developers from your pov?

Yes, you *can* use warps to invite people, but last I checked it still demands payment card info before it lets new users into the app, even if their onboarding was sponsored by someone else.

Growth via friend referrals not only bootstraps the social graph of the new user, but adds a sense of accountability.

Having all invites with warps also means new users are being invited by reputable and active users who will encourage the new users to do the same, and it gives people a reason to want warps.

I also think that all posts and likes should cost warps, and there should be a UBI of warps for active users, and they should be ERC20s and easy to sell for at least 50% of the purchase price, and all sort of silly other wishlist items 😁

Web3 social is a good place to introduce people to web3, but I don't think that it should be hidden from users. It should just be a one click for new identity type of thing.

I disagree since

1. limiting signups to referrals of existing users would slow growth (also you can already pay warps today to invite someone)

2. the onboarding shouldn’t mention anything about wallets at all given that most new users will be new to crypto altogether

I feel like the standard onboarding flow should be an existing user paying warps to invite someone. They click the link, get asked if they already have a web3 wallet they want to use, and then they're good to start casting. No messing with seed phrases, and no demanding payment card info. That can be dealt with later.

+1, would've been a no-brainer to use FC as exclusive social layer with free signups. we don't want to reinvent the wheel

i do understand the tradeoffs re: spam but seems like WC machine learning is handling that pretty well? :)

+1 many times when I introduce farcaster to someone without gifting them an invite link they churn - been shooting out gift invites since - even then they don’t always fully onboard 

Also I watched several onboard and the UI is buggy. Sometimes the button is not fully a button only the next is clickable not the entire button UI 

It is hard to understand that adding a pfp is mandatory to create an account. Generally it looks like the onboarding steps have been ignored by housekeeping a while. Would run some tests

Personally I like that there's a monetary friction since I believe it significantly raises the bar of the people who are here.

Later, when more natural guiderails, etiquettes, vibes, etc are in place, an easier onboarding would be welcome.