Farcaster and Solana
Five ideas for frames that are OPOS.
TLDR: You will soon be able to connect a Solana wallet to your Farcaster account & developers will be able to use frames to embed token-gated experiences in the Warpcast feed. In this post, we’ll make the case that enabling Solana transactions within frames can help Farcaster add ~10K DAUs to its network.
Frames convert casts into interactive mini-apps but what really makes them special – beyond the open graph protocol that they extend – is their potential to convert an entire checkout flow into a few clicks within the context of your current app.
Today, frames can read your linked wallet but can’t perform on-chain transactions like accepting a payment or transferring an NFT. However, Varun says he’s thinking about this and would like inputs on the first use cases.
So, in this essay, we’ll welcome Farcaster to Solana by sharing 5 ideas that teams on Solana are capable of & incentivised to build today using Farcaster frames that will potentially add ~10K new DAUs to their already impressive current trend of 10-14K.
#1 DRiP Creator Apps
400K+ unique users collect 2-3 million pieces of content from ~50 creators via DRiP every week. This includes art, memes, podcasts, games, music, sports moments, puzzles, etc.
DRiP is well beyond the stage of “mass free airdrops” because each time you collect from a creator, it costs units of an in-game currency and over a million DRiP accounts have been purged to fight bots and farming.
DRiP is well positioned to onboard the next millions of users and thousands of creators, but by their own admission they aren’t best placed to built niche vertical content consumption experiences; i.e., the UI of the DRiP vault (and upcoming app) will be largely similar whether you’re reading a comic, listening to music or enjoying some art.
However, creators can build custom products and services for their collectors because the underlying content is composable and owned by each user (as an NFT). While in theory these can be separate apps, the ability for creators to embed these experiences within a social feed makes it much easier for them to get distribution.
For example,
Vault Music can build a player for their 44K active DRiP subs so that they enjoy the music they’ve collected on DRiP within a social feed, and potentially buy more.
Andrew Mason can take custom photography orders & ship IRL frames to their 96k active DRiP subs.
The wave can build a player for their 39K active DRiP subs to not only listen to their podcasts but also receive airdrops and perks from the featured brands and founders.
Today, DRiP creators complement their channels by engaging with their audience on Twitter – in fact it is one of the things that Vibhu looks for as he onboards new creators. Allowing them to build a new revenue stream from their most loyal fans will motivate them to prioritise building a following on Warpcast and the wider Farcaster protocol.
#2 The post claim experience for TipLinks
Thousands of POAPs, gift cards and product NFTs have been issued across a range of events like Solana Breakpoint, The Network State Conference, Miami Art Basel, IRL Ecosystem Calls, technical workshops, etc.
Allowing teams to distribute exclusive content & custom products to people who hold these NFTs will incentivise them to build their distribution on Farcaster. For example,
The 5000+ people who claimed a POAP at Breakpoint 2023 could get targeted offers, airdrops and product access from Ecosystem projects who are showing up at the next edition.
The hundreds of people who attended the TNS Conference can get invited to a special premier of the upcoming movie and early access to start-up cities and related products.
The 1000+ people who attend the 50+ IRL Ecosystem Call events across the world could get product credits and airdrops from those who are presenting and want to amplify their launch announcements.
Artists who displayed work at Art Basel could offer special pricing to the 500+ people who showed up and collected their work IRL.
The insight here is that allowing brands, events, artists, etc to pass on their performance marketing costs as a discount to qualified leads gives them a direct financial incentive to build an audience on Farcaster.
There is organic product synergy here as well – because while TipLink has built a seamless distribution experience, it is up to each brand or event to build and attract users for their post claim experience.
But it is incredibly hard to get distribution for these experiences because no existing social media platforms (Twitter, Discord, etc) provide native support for token-gated products. Frames can make Farcaster the default destination for everyone who distributes POAPs through TipLink.
#3 A BONK Arcade
BONK started off as a meme coin, then became the people’s coin and is now the arcade coin on Solana. There are 600K+ unique wallets that hold BONK and 118 project integrations – including the now sold out Solana Saga.
Allowing developers to create mini-games where users can burn & earn BONK will be a definitive driver of both developer and user activity on Farcaster. For e.g., Bonkmas was a Christmas themed weeklong festival where ecosystem projects like Jito, Exchange Art, Solana mobile, MarginFi, MixMob, MoonBoi, GooseFX, DualFinance, etc. offered rewards to thousands of users who signed up and used BONK within their products.
If developers & projects can create frames on Warpcast where users can try out their products with BONK and earn rewards, they will be incentivised to build out a presence there.
#4 Opinion Trading with Griffy
Griffy is a mobile app that rewards users for correctly betting on the outcome of opinion polls related to movies, sports, politics, tech, etc. They are currently tracking at 60K+ MAU and use the Solana blockchain to store user inputs & manage payouts of their in-app token.
The ideal top of funnel experience for Griffy on Warpcast would be that users,
can directly lock tokens & vote on polls from within the feed
get notified when the poll is resolved and are instantly debited or credited
get airdropped free in-app tokens to drive trials
This unlocks both a new audience and a seamless trial experience that can drive growth for both the Farcaster network & the Griffy App.
#5 Superteam Earn
Superteam Earn is the most comprehensive hub for earning opportunities on Solana. Over 5K users across the world have signed up to access 350+ earning opportunities and made over $100K in earnings.
Recently, the most popular bounty format is a twitter thread that projects use to generate organic awareness in the ecosystem. A project can expect anywhere between 30 - 80 submissions for a total payout of $500 - $1000. What makes this more effective than running ads is that each thread goes out from a unique handle with its own voice to its own audience.
The ideal Superteam Earn experience on Warpcast will allows users to,
discover open bounties within their feed
write their thread on Warpcast or other network clients
have their submissions tracked against their Farcaster account ID
get instant payouts within the app when the winners are declared
This creates a new and integrated distributed channel for Earn & helps onboard productive users to the Farcaster network.
The ability to transact is what can really set frames apart and incentivise developers, brands and projects to build their products & presence on the Farcaster network. Solana has shown that it is optimised for a high volume of transactions while maintaining a global shared state. We’re incredibly excited to see what these ecosystems will accomplish together.
Thanks to Shek, Yash A, Greg, Srijan & Akshay for their inputs to this essay. Credit to Yash B for designing the cover image.
The twitter thread bounties have been great! Also love how clearly you've explained what the ideal Superteam Earn experience on Warpcast is. Kudos!