Jam founder reflects on FarCon Asia: Towards the future of social networking

Original title: "FarCon Asia 2024 Recap"

Editor and collation: Gary

First stop: Singapore's first Irish pub

FarCon Asia kicked off on the evening of September 16. The welcome reception was held at Molly Malone's Irish Pub. FarCon Asia is the first event of its kind held outside the United States. It is not only a continuation of the successful experience in Los Angeles, but also a vivid introduction of the Farcaster ecosystem in the Asian community.

Co-hosts Takocast, Jam and Blockbeats greeted guests with cute plush toys. The tables in the bar were filled with various drinks, and guests were invited to communicate here!

FarCon Asia Opening Ceremony

Stepping into the Singapore Arts House on 17 September was like stepping into a vibrant future where digital and physical worlds merge seamlessly.

Many were meeting face to face for the first time, which was very energizing. The Farcard/Mintclub team printed FarCon Asia NFC connected cards with Farcarster Identity (FID) for all attendees and used the IceBreaker platform to establish connections.

Enthusiasm was high from the start and the registration process was very smooth. I saw attendees walking around wearing octopus hats, getting sticker tattoos, and taking photos with old and new friends. It was a lively scene!

The hosts presented profiles of developers, creators and projects on the TV screen: a really thoughtful addition for those community members who were unable to attend FarCon Asia!

Refreshments were also provided during the session to keep attendees energized!

The co-organizers (Tako, Blockbeats, and Jam) gave welcome remarks at the opening ceremony. People were surprised to see that the event was entirely funded by the co-organizers, without any external sponsorship, to keep FarCon Asia a comfortable, relaxed experience and for the community to connect with each other!

Engaging Fireside Chat

I had the pleasure of hosting a fireside chat with Jesse, the founder of Base, which was very inspiring. We discussed the fundamental principles of Base and its role in getting more people on-chain, and provided insights on how blockchain can enhance digital interactions in meaningful ways.

Jesse revealed that Base and himself are planning a tour. They will be heading to India next, followed by Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines. This will be a three-week global tour to connect with developers in different places and learn how Base can support them and help them become more successful!

Jesse also shared what he believes are huge growth areas - the payment and stablecoin sectors. The payment sector has become a major application scenario, especially the stablecoin payment business driven by the US dollar stablecoin. He believes that it is very important to put more non-US dollar stablecoins (such as the Singapore dollar, the euro, and the Nigerian naira) on the chain. We need to pay attention to user experience, and builders should not change people's understanding of money, nor should they let them use a brand new currency, but should help users get financial services ten times better than they are now on a global scale. This will make the network and technology very valuable.

Immediately afterwards, Ted hosted the second fireside chat with Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero. Dan dived into Farcaster's core features and its strategic roadmap. His passion for creating a platform that prioritizes user experience is obvious. Dan talked about the massive growth of Farcaster's user base in 2024, with about 700,000 registered users, all of whom are paying users. Later in the Q&A, I asked Dan if he would consider removing the $5 registration fee. Dan responded that the registration fee does help prevent a large influx of bots onto the platform, so he would not remove it, but that they could consider reducing it in the future.

Dan shared that the team has two priorities: the first is to increase the number of daily active users of the protocol, which is primarily achieved through our ongoing Warpcast app-related initiatives, and the second is another set of initiatives around the protocol layer, which is intended to enable developers to build any application they want using the system development layer, gain access to the social graph, and reach the growing Farcaster protocol user base. In short, the Farcaster team is working to make it easier for others to develop applications with social features, all based on crypto APIs and infrastructure.

Ted asked about the "Lego blocks" for developers and mentioned Takocast, a client built on top of Farcaster. Dan gave a clear framework with three layers:

(1) Permissionless datasets and API services;

(2) Easy content distribution;

(3) Going beyond permissionless social graphs and content distribution, and then going a step further to build more features on the Farcaster data.

During Dan's fireside chat, one of the key takeaways he drew was what differentiates Farcaster's users from other platforms - authenticity. He said that while projects or companies are encouraged to have an account, people still want to hear the voice of the individual behind it. Dan shared how he communicates with the community through his personal account instead of Warpcast, and he stressed the importance of "being yourself" and letting people know who you are. Perhaps this is how Dan successfully attracted early users to Farcaster and continued to grow the fan base.

Asian Perspective

Both Jesse and Dan asked questions related to Asian users or developers.

Jesse affirmed that Asia is now undoubtedly a hot spot for on-chain innovation. He sees a lot of American developers leaving the United States and coming to Asia because there is a lot of innovation here. Jesse emphasized two points about Asian developers. First, they have accumulated a lot of experience in building applications. However, the next generation of super applications will be open, which means that they will share the same open data set, and many different people can build super applications. They can use the same basic network and then continuously improve and perfect it through competition. Secondly, there are many strong cultural leaders in Asia who understand the mainstream culture very well and are thinking about how to connect these cultures with the on-chain world. He believes that this cultural insight is very important.

On the other hand, Dan shared that those who build applications outside the United States will have a better understanding of local market or regional needs. Our translation function is a good example, which can serve markets such as China and Japan. Therefore, I think the most important thing is to create some communities on the network that are not necessarily geographically centered, although there will be overlaps and interactions between these communities, but ultimately this will have a huge impact on the overall development of Farcaster and service providers. He also shared his gratitude to the Asian team (Takocast, Jam and Blockbeats) for hosting Farcaster Asia 2024, and was surprised that the co-founders flew to Los Angeles to share the project progress with him.

In conclusion, the Asian community is an integral part of Farcaster and the base’s future strategy, and they are culturally and technologically different from Westerners.

Panel Discussions

After the lunch break, we attended a series of panels that delved into the future of decentralized social networks and community building.

Panel 1: Building Decentralized Social Networks featured a strong panel of Jane Lippencott from A16Z Crypto, Nader from Eigenlabs, Suji from MaskNetwork, Tony from Tako, David Toh from Mirana Ventures, and Rapolas from Zee Prime Capital. The panelists set a thoughtful tone for the day as they debated the nuances of privacy, the scalability of decentralized networks, and the barriers to adoption. They explored the challenges of maintaining privacy and security while ensuring these networks are accessible. The discussion highlighted the delicate balance between innovation and user protection.

After the first session, guests streamed in to engage with the panelists. This was a rare opportunity, and many in the audience were eager to engage with the superstar panelists.

Panel Discussion 2: Building the Future on FarcasterThe focus turned to the practical aspects of developing on the Farcaster platform. To from Farcards, Nine from Symmetry, Ramit from Farhouse, mentats.eth from Lum0x, Yuki from Checkin, and Liang from Degencast shared their groundbreaking work and expectations for future developments.

mentats.eth from Lum0x comes with a wizard hat and a magic wand!

Panel 3: Going Onchain Social was particularly fascinating, with Pigi from Taiko, Sarah from BNB Chain, Yawn from StepN, Terence from Humanity Protocol, Sean Lee from Mantle Network, and Cheryl from Dragonfly discussing strategies to revolutionize online social interactions using blockchain technology.

Panel 4: Memory and NFTs brought creativity to the discussion, with speakers like Andrei Grachev from DWF Labs, Giulio Xiloyannis from Pixelmon, Clement Chia from Imaginary Ones, Alice Chen from Story Protocol, Spicy from Yuga Labs, and Juliet from New Tribe diving deep into how digital art and memory are shaping online culture and creating new economic models.

Panel 5: Let’s Jam was a perfect finale focused on the creator economy. Gregarious from Snickerdoodle, Jack from Blockbeats, content creators Gracie Hartie and 0xLuo, and myself from Jam. This discussion focused on how decentralized platforms can empower creators by providing better engagement tools and fairer monetization strategies. Prior to the panel, Snickledoodle released a 118-page Farcaster research report. Gregarious told everyone to stop reading it because it was too long and to jump to the summary on the last page, which made everyone laugh. Seriously, the report was very comprehensive and covered the current state of Farcaster.

https://snickerdoodle.com/reports/farcaster-2024

Interestingly, the largest user base is in Asia:

The panelists were divided on the issue of intellectual property and content protection. Jack from Blockbeats believed that material was often copied and there was no easy way to protect it. Gregarious disagreed and believed that it was necessary to protect content, especially because audiences know how to verify it. The future of social network protection is being conducted by followers, rather than relying on central authorities.

OnlyFan content creator Gracie spoke out about her dissatisfaction with online social networking platforms like Instagram where she had to deal with censorship and opaque rules of engagement. She switched to Telegram to continue her business of engaging with her fans. When asked what helped her move to a new platform like Farcaster, she shared that it was a new platform and like Telegram, she was also trying new platforms but the user base and revenue potential had to be lucrative enough for her to make a serious move.

And 0xLuo, a popular content creator on Farcaster, shared how he publishes content on the platform and earns money from many early opportunities and airdrops. 0xLuo is a well-known pick-up creator on Farcaster, providing his followers with introductory analysis.

With the end of the panel discussion, FarCon Asia 2024 also came to an end. Attendees took home great memories, useful knowledge and new friendships.

Closing Remarks

As the panel discussion ended and the crowd began to disperse, a sense of achievement and anticipation filled the air. FarCon Asia not only met expectations, but also exceeded them, cultivating a community ready to meet the challenges and opportunities of decentralized social networks. The event was a catalyst for change and laid the foundation for Asia to play an important role in the global Farcaster community. The sense of community and shared purpose was stronger than ever!

Friendship Beyond FarCon Asia

In the days that followed, we got to know each other better while tasting local delicacies. The dinner I organized included Singapore’s famous chilli crab, a delicacy that foreigners have heard of before they even arrive in Singapore. The crab was juicy and delicious, and it was no less delicious than what we tasted at FarCon Asia.

No Singapore experience is complete without tasting the king of fruits - durian! You either love it or hate it, but no one leaves without tasting this fruit. That’s the spirit of the builders, we may not like it, we may do it wrong, but we will keep trying.

Besides the food, we also took part in other fun activities like a morning run around Singapore’s Marina Bay!

FarCon Asia 2024 is a milestone for the Farcaster community. The connections made, ideas shared, and visions developed here will surely reverberate as we work to build the next generation of social networking! Farewell, until we meet again at the next event!

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