Anyone working on an open source Farcaster client? cc @vbuterin

Wrote up some thoughts on how we're thinking about the interaction between farcaster clients, wallets and on-chain identities

https://warpcast.notion.site/Farcaster-Identities-Wallets-825361e99f684781b764bc210c33ffc5

Only true for as long as the network remains selective. If the same people and same number of people as on Twitter were on here, what would the value difference be?

I think the beauty of FC is composability with other apps. Even when the network is entirely open rather than selective there will be a plethora of additional apps that make the FC experience curated to different preferences and use cases. 

What do you think @dwr ?

Once hubs are permissionless, all of the data and APIs will be permissionless, so any developer is free to create a new social network based on whatever criteria they think makes for the best experience.

So if you want to create a first 10K users on Farcaster client and run that forever, you can.

Idea for a simple Farcaster client:

LinkCast

Endless scroll of all URLs shared on Farcaster, but focus on OpenGraph previews and minimize cast commentary content as a comment.

Doesn’t require an account, just an app to skim and maybe find something interesting. Sort of like StumbleUpon.

Idea for a simple Farcaster client: 

FarHouse

A single room audio hang out gated with Farcaster account.

https://www.daily.co/products/audio-sdk/

https://github.com/daily-demos/party-line

A Farcaster client that opens to the camera by default and is mostly for posting photos and video would probably do well.

I’d be a DAU if it was simple, well designed and fast.

New Farcaster client for Android from @betashop and team

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=xyz.purple&hl=en&gl=US

All of the examples I cited are alternative interfaces to Farcaster. Making it easier use other Farcaster clients besides Warpcast is a top priority for us in the next few months.

Eventually, every social network becomes dominated by its default algorithm. Twitter has gone all-in and even Farcaster's highlights are dominated by questions. This isn't good or bad on its own but it does create winners and losers for viewership. The question I sometimes ask myself: is it a game worth winning?

1. Multiple competing Farcaster clients means there won’t be a single algorithm.

2. We’re investing in machine learning this year. Our plan is to tweak the algo on a regular basis with buffs and nerfs like a game developer does. Want to keep things fresh and fun.

If someone is looking for a starting place for a Swift Farcaster client that works on mobile and desktop:

https://daringfireball.net/2023/01/ice_cubes_app_store_limbo

https://github.com/Dimillian/IceCubesApp

New Vine-like (!!) Farcaster client from @polluterofminds

getabsorb.com https://i.imgur.com/VP3YY33.jpg

New Farcaster client from @loracle 

https://omilos.xyz https://i.imgur.com/lXYEW4y.jpg

I spent a while looking into wallet auth today for a side project — what do people use? https://www.rainbowkit.com/ is the most polished I found (esp for mobile web).

we use RainbowKit for our Farcaster clients

Which part(s) of FC (ecosystem, client(s), protocol components, etc) deserve the most attention in 2023?

2023 will be the year of Farcaster clients, I think!

Could be a fun hack project for a Farcaster client:

https://twitter.com/dwr/status/1316049862132224001

Farcaster client idea: Evercast

Beyond just liking or recasting (or bookmarking), backup every cast you tap into, spend time reading the replies of, copy / share a link to into a Rewind AI style database that you can search.

Not much of an essayor so trying diagrams instead. My peeps have been asking me about difference between Crypto vs DeFi vs Web3. Do folks agree with this split? https://i.imgur.com/xqXIy1D.png

Farcaster clients are self-custodial wallets?

NFTs are both DeFi and Web3

1. Plans for NFT purchases directly from app?

2. Anyone working on Spaces equivalent?

1. Lower priority for now but Farcaster clients are Ethereum wallets under the hood…

2. @unlonely feels like it’s the first Farcaster native live app. We don’t have plans for live audio in app any time soon

What are the benefits of hosting images on imgur?

We don’t have to handle image compliance. Imgur machine learning and if you upload something illegal they will pass that along to authorities. Farcaster clients are pulling in images like a browser would.

Would be cool for a Farcaster client (maybe CLI?) that was 100% text-based.

https://plaintextsports.com

I think a music oriented client Farcaster client would do well:

- parse Spotify, YoutTube links shared in global feed to create “Farcaster Radio”

- music NFTs

- music discussions / recommendations etc.

Is an API Key that is hard-coded into a mobile app considered safe? If not, what are safe ways to store an API Key?

The Farcaster client is an Ethereum wallet under the hood.

Weird to think OpenGraph is something Facebook invented but today is much more important for Twitter, esp. for big images.

OG great across the board. Excited for dynamic OG with Vercel’s update.

Curious how long FC caches OG, because there’s oppty for dynamic OG content if not cached for ~week (Twitter).

https://vercel.com/blog/introducing-vercel-og-image-generation-fast-dynamic-social-card-images

I'd like to extend OpenGraph for Farcaster clients / content to make it awesome / developer playground...

Farcaster client download link:

farcaster.xyz/download

iOS
Mac

Android soon (limited to a few people right now in the alpha)

Web client later this year / early next

beyond desktop and mobile, what are the next 1, 2, or 3 user interfaces farcaster will be in, on the future?

Today iOS and Mac. Android is only OK. Need to improve that. Then web.

I suspect the next one from us would be a CLI that's more of a developer package. Need to make setting up a hello world Farcaster client as straighforward as possible

Sunday AMA — Farcaster protocol, purple app clients, crypto or anything else!

What are the incentives to build a FC client?

today, minimal

generally, addressable DAU (i.e. number of people who have a Farcaster client / app on their home screen) growth feels like an attractive proposition.

Fun fact: the more steps (i.e. friction) we've added to the Farcaster app sign up flow, the better retention has been.

What're some examples of frictions?

Has the conversion rate changed?

OG Farcaster client:
1. Register username
2. Back up mnemonic

Current client:
1. Back up
2. Email verification
3. Connect address
4. Username
5. Profile
6. Follow people

Hard to measure conversion rate since the biggest drop off is people not DMing me in the first place.

What if new users visiting a dApp could setup up their wallet on the same interface. (website/mobile)

Instead of having people go all over the place which increases cognitive load & decreases user success.

Thinking that trusted hardware will be an unlock here.

Farcaster client onboarding sets up a full Ethereum wallet (connecting an address is just a quality control filter for now)

Would love to hear how you all are thinking about feed curation and the algorithm @dwr. I usually default to latest on the bird app to avoid that particular bias.

I prefer latest as well. As long as I'm working on a Farcaster client, that will be a default for those that want it. I would imagine we would add a lightweight, simple heuristic algo for popular casts at some point for users to switch between, esp. for discovery

Potentially useful for a Farcaster client from @betashop built with React Native

https://devpost.com/software/canary-01mx8z

https://github.com/PLG-Works/canary

@df / dwrs-farcaster-client-ideas