Farcaster has officially announced it is changing strategy, moving away from the traditional social graph approach.
The platform will now prioritize a wallet-driven model, removing the follower-based structure that previously underpinned user interactions.
Wallet-Led Growth
Co-founder Dan Romero stated that after years of following a social-first strategy without achieving scalable user adoption, the team is now focused on in-app wallet functionality and trading as their core product.
The executive said that after more than five years of development, the project is still far from achieving its goal of becoming an open social networking protocol with one billion daily users. During the first 4.5 years, the team had pursued a social-first strategy, but despite multiple attempts and brief spikes in activity, they were never able to achieve lasting product-market fit for the Twitter-like network.
“We’re focused on building a great wallet that will get more people to use it. Every new, retained wallet user is a new user for the protocol,“ wrote Romero in an announcement. The decision follows the product’s rollout earlier this year, which the team says has scaled faster than any previous one. “We think it’s the closest we’ve been to product-market fit in five years,” he added.
Farcaster shared that they plan to grow their user base by adopting a “come for the tool, stay for the network” approach, explaining that the wallet will act as the entry tool while the protocol forms the broader network users remain for. This will be made possible because the two are already integrated, meaning every individual who funds and uses their wallet is automatically onboarded onto the network.
Romero also clarified that while the app is now focused on wallet and trading features, the protocol remains open and modular. This means that developers are free to engage with it through other ways that they find useful. Individuals can also control their experience by choosing their preferred client and using feed and keyword mutes.
The team further emphasized that it will retain its social platform infrastructure, which includes features like casts, follows, reactions, and identities.
Community Response
The announcement has since triggered mixed responses within the Farcaster community. Some welcomed the decision as a practical move to support growth, while others voiced unease about how it might alter the platform’s culture and values.
Romero has responded to some concerns, acknowledging that while early contributors were fundamental in establishing Farcaster’s culture, the app is not growing, and that the team is shifting in a different direction.
The post also addressed comments on the protocol’s structure, noting that although it can become more decentralized over time, he does not believe additional changes in that direction would significantly influence growth in the near term.
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