Changes in Farcaster: From Social Network to Wallet Focus

Co-founder and CEO Dan Romero (known as DWR) in his post on the platform stated that after 4.5 years of trying to build a social network with a "social-first" focus, the team did not achieve the desired product-market fit. Instead, the project is reorienting towards developing a wallet, which has shown better growth metrics.

Details of the Announcement from Dan Romero

In the post published on Farcaster, Romero directly noted:

"We're focusing on building a great wallet that will attract more users. Every new active wallet user is a new user for the protocol. We tried social-first for 4.5 years - it didn't work. The wallet is growing, so we're doubling down on this direction."

He added that new features and product positioning will be oriented towards the wallet.If users don't like this direction, Romero advises:

1. Use other clients (e.g., @unooo.eth, @recaster-fc, @degenapp or @fireflyapp).
2. Create your own client.
3. Switch to another social network.

This announcement sparked discussions in the community: some users see it as the "end" of Farcaster in its familiar form, while others view it as a pragmatic step for survival.

Emergence of Base.app

One of the likely reasons for the changes could be competition from Base.app – a new product from Coinbase, launched in July 2025. Base.app positions itself as a "super-app" that combines social features, trading, and a wallet in one interface. It uses the Farcaster protocol for the social feed, allowing creators to tokenize posts via Zora, receive tips, and earn rewards.

Base.app is essentially "Farcaster 2.0" with additional features, such as integration with Base (an L2 network on Ethereum), multi-chain trading, and mini-apps that the original Farcaster lacks. This makes it more appealing to users seeking an all-in-one solution. Farcaster, built on Base, has 1.27 million registered accounts but only ~50K daily active users, despite $180 million in investments from top VCs like a16z and Paradigm. Competition from Base.app likely forced the Farcaster team to rethink their strategy to avoid losing users.

History of Rewards and Token Prospects

Farcaster is well-known for its reward system for activity: users earned points for casts (posts), interactions, and on-chain transactions. For example, one user reported earning 1.3K USDT in a week. However, despite expectations, its own token was never launched. Speculation about an airdrop continues - given the low DAU-to-total-accounts ratio, early users could receive significant rewards if the token appears.

In the new focus on the wallet, the token might emerge in a different form, possibly integrated with Base or as a utility for the wallet. Some analysts, like @0xprimordialpei, joke that $180 million went into "turning a social dream into yet another wallet," but this highlights market reality: the network effect of Twitter is hard to overcome, and users don't migrate "just because it's decentralized."

Implications for the Ecosystem

This pivot does not mean the end of Farcaster as a protocol - it remains open and decentralized, with opportunities for other clients to develop. However, for users focused on social features, this could be a disappointment. The team, including Romero and Varun Srinivasan, has been working on the project for over 5 years with the goal of reaching 1 billion daily users, but growth has been slow.

In a broader context, this illustrates the challenges of decentralized social networks: competition with centralized giants, onboarding issues, and the need to find sustainable growth models. Whether Farcaster can turn the wallet into an ecosystem driver remains to be seen. For now, the community is divided: from support for pragmatism to criticism of "abandoning" the original vision.