There are a few of us ex-eth ppl here š . I know that they have been putting a lot of resources toward a Nouns-specific Farcaster client, but I think they should consider Nostr as an option as well š
Discussion
wow you even know about the recent farcaster stuff. thoughts on farcaster vs nostr?
Nostr is a far more robust protocol than Farcaster.
Here are a few simple metrics:
Github contributers: Farcaster: 20, Nostr: 132
Open Pull requests: Farcaster: 3, Nostr: 199
Social clients: Farcaster: 2 (but really Warpcast has 90%+ of users), Nostr: Too many to count š (https://www.nostrapps.com/)
From a technical standpoint, Farcaster requires a global consensus amounst all hubs (the servers that store the data). This means that in the case of a hostile regeime pressuing a hub operator to remove certain posts, they would be force to complelty fork off of the network. (Global consensus also means that at scale, hub operation will get very expensive and out of reach for all but the largest clients). Nostr on the other hand operates through relays that store and serve posts and events. You can have a small relay that only stores the events from you and your followers, or a larger relay that anyone can write to. There is no "global state" so the network can never be out of consensus, you just query the relays that your friends post to to retreive their events.
And lastly, requiring users to pay a centralized entity to sign up (the cost of which is subject to change on the whim of the founder) is not a free and open protocol.
A decentralised social media doesnāt need a token. You need integration with native internet money, but the idea of the entire infrastructure sitting on a token-based āblockchainā is idiotic.
Also, the fact that Eth chose to become āultra soundā rather than a cheap utility token makes these use cases even more destined to fail. PoS prices out new users vs current stakers who accumulate for free, and this creates the opposite incentives you want for your social media protocol.
well, farcaster doesnāt store the whole dataset on the blockchain (itās more like nostr in that regard) and just the user ids are stored on optimism (an eth L2). but i hear you on your critiques of ethereum PoS!
I don't think this critique is entirely fair. Farcaster only uses the ethereum blockchain for account key management. All posts and content are stored on "Hubs" which are like traditional servers that communicate with each other to ensure consensus.
It does seems like they do plan on launching a token at some point and I think we all know how that will end up š¬
There is value in simplicity. You donāt need such a convoluted architecture to sit on, you donāt to need to manage 2 different tokens for gas fees, etc. That adds risks.
Nostr demonstrates there is a simpler (and more resilient) way to architect such a protocol.
holy shit this is a strong take! you love to see it. yeah would love to meet up in madeira and talk shop more
And to add to this excellent critique:
Shitcoiners like farcaster, ergo it sucks. Q.E.D.
I'd be happy to chat sometime in Madeira to discuss this more. This stuff is my jam š