Growing Farcaster's GDP
One of Farcaster’s key properties, which I've written about before, is its composability. Anyone can build applications on top of it without needing permission.
Another important property is that it pairs each username with a crypto wallet. Every user that signs up to Farcaster has a wallet.
Pairing these two properties together creates an environment where third-party developers can quickly and cheaply build applications that move money for users.
This is different from Twitter, which faces far greater regulatory and technical hurdles to enable financial transactions for its users. Additionally, Twitter’s ecosystem is closed for third-party developers, meaning any application must be built by Twitter's own team.
The first major financial application to gain traction on Farcaster was tipping, pioneered by the team at Degen. Degen built an integration that allowed users to tip each other directly within any Farcaster client. This feature attracted a large number of users and generated significant payment volume (approx. 83k in unique tippers and $89m in tips distributed).
Farcaster, like a country, has a GDP, which is the overall economic activity or value generated within its ecosystem. Boosting Farcaster's GDP is key to its success because that’s what distinguishes it from Twitter. While Twitter relies on an ad-based model that captures users' attention, Farcaster offers a social experience integrated with financial interactions. A higher Farcaster GDP reflects a growing ecosystem of apps and users engaging in activities that Twitter can't offer. Twitter wins by stealing more time from its users. Farcaster wins by facilitating more transactions.
My colleague Luc created a great Dune dashboard to visualise Faracaster’s GDP.
Below is a categorisation of apps that are increasing Farcaster’s GDP. While all these areas are already being worked on, I would love to see more apps in each category and the emergence of new categories as well.
(Note: Farcaster has many clients including Warpcast, Supercast, Recaster, Herocast etc. When I refer to a Farcaster client, I could name any one of these)
Payments
E.g. Payflow, Paybot
Linking a wallet with a username makes sending money to someone as easy as tagging them in a post. Apps like Payflow and Paybot allow people to send money directly within the social feed of a Farcaster client. The coupling of peer-to-peer payments with a social platform is powerful as apps like WeChat have shown. There is still a lot of exploration to be done in this area on Farcaster.
Speculation
E.g. Swapbot, Polymarket
Users can trade tokens directly within any Farcaster client through apps like Swapbot. This feature is designed for more contextual usage, allowing users to place an order in-feed after reading about a token they’re interested in, rather than for advanced trading. Other Farcaster clients, like Supercast, have natively embedded this functionality into their interface. Beyond token trading, apps like Polymarket have integrated with Farcaster, enabling users to place bets on Polymarket directly in-feed.
Mints
E.g. Zora, Courtyard
One of the most popular activities on any Farcaster client is minting NFTs. Platforms like Zora have built Farcaster integrations that let users mint digital art directly in their social feed. Our portfolio company, Courtyard, allows users to access their vending machine product through Farcaster, removing the need to visit Courtyard’s page. I’d like to see more companies flesh out their native Farcaster minting experiences, so that users continue to come back to them, while new ones build theirs.
Earning
E.g. Bountycaster, Rounds
Platforms like Bountycaster and Rounds let communities post bounties that users can complete, with rewards automatically sent to their wallets. No separate account setup is needed for task initiators or completers, as everything is handled directly through Farcaster. Users can build their reputation with an onchain record of completed tasks.
Agents
E.g. AskGina
Currently, agents like Gina operate in-feed on Farcaster clients, responding to queries and providing onchain data. In the not so distant future, Gina will be able to autonomously execute trades, make purchases, and perform other on-chain actions on behalf of users. Farcaster, because of its properties mentioned above, is the ideal building ground for agents.
Many potential categories of financial apps remain unexplored. These include social booking experiences, event bookings, group payments for meals or conferences, and subscription-based services. The more apps working to increase Farcaster’s GDP, the more Farcaster wins. If you’re working on a startup in this area, get in touch!