This post is taking part in the Farcaster 2026 writing contest

The problem with Farcaster and growth is that Web3 social media is a product nobody asked for. To put it in a more optimistic light, it's a product that nobody has asked for, yet. The problem with Farcaster and growth is that its founders treat it like just another social media network. This makes sense: they are, quite literally, building a social media network—but with crypto!

Unlike legacy social media platforms, which all differentiate themselves via content, crypto is not merely a new type of content; it's a mechanism that changes the shape of the content that exists on the protocol. This is why it appears that Farcaster's problem is that it "needs more interesting content," but that's looking at the problem through a Web2 lens. Adding crypto to social media is new. This is obvious to everyone early to Farcaster, but it bears repeating: Farcaster is a new thing.

The thing about new things is that they must transform the world—or they die. The new must supplant the old. For Farcaster to grow, it needs people to use it and to get people to use it, Farcaster must transform how people use social media. Otherwise, they will never give up what they already have.

People are comfortable with what they know—in fact, they can't imagine anything else. There's a famous line about introducing new technology, attributed to Henry Ford, but probably apocryphal: "If I had asked what people wanted, they would have said faster horses." People cannot ask for something new; they will, instead, continue to ask for the old thing—the thing they know and recognize. The thing already in their head. The new is, well, new.

The car was new once, and nobody asked for it. They asked for faster horses, but a bunch of technology tinkerers gave everyone a car instead.

Farcaster is also a car.

So, how do you market a car when everyone is asking for better horses?

The first test drive

It wasn't immediately evident to people that cars were useful. They broke down all the time; there was no infrastructure to support them; innovations were making existing models quickly obsolete; they were expensive and seen as weird hobby toys.

The car's inventor, Karl Benz, struggled to market them effectively. He was focused on the technical details rather than the practical concerns of marketing his tech. It took his wife, Bertha Benz, to make it happen. In 1888 she performed the first long-distance travel in an automobile. Per Wikipedia: "Although the ostensible purpose of the trip was to visit her mother, Bertha Benz had other motives—to prove to her husband, who had failed to adequately consider marketing his invention, that the automobile in which they both had heavily invested would become a financial success, once it was shown to be useful to the general public; and to give her husband the confidence that his constructions had a future."

In performing the stunt, Benz discovered what was needed to make the automobile work for the general public. She had to stop at a specialized apothecary shop to buy fuel—inventing the first gas station. She had to visit a cobbler to repair the wooden brakes with leather—inventing the first brake linings and the first repair shop. The car couldn't get up hills, and she and her sons had to get out and push the car over them—inventing the first additional gear.

But most importantly of all, Bertha Benz showed that test drives were the missing marketing piece for cars. One hundred and thirty-six years later, cars are still sold with test drives. The buyer needs to get a feel for the car.

Farcaster is similar to the early car. It is a promising new piece of technology still looking for its killer use case. What the protocol needs is a Bertha Benz—someone who can perform marketing in its truest sense, not "user acquisition" activities or "growth tactics" but connecting directly to people's feelings and imaginations—to show how Farcaster is useful, and not just a niche toy for hobbyists.

It's tempting to look at how social media platforms of the past grew their networks, but I think it's a misleading exercise. It's akin to asking people in 1880 what upgrades they want to their horse-drawn carriages. It doesn't matter what they say, because soon, they will all be driving cars. Web3 social needs to break free of Web2 paradigms. What worked to grow social networks in the 2010s will not work for Farcaster in the 2020s.

The medium is the message

Incumbent Web2 social platforms grew largely by focusing on a particular medium, ones that were unlocked by progressive advancements in technology:

• Twitter: short-form text; unlocked by the sudden ubiquity of smartphones

• Instagram: photos; unlocked by better cameras in smartphones

• TikTok: short-form video; unlocked by better video capabilities

But what's interesting about these successful social media platforms—ones that found their product market fit—is that they did so by using the medium to enable new online behaviors:

• Twitter: public conversation

• Instagram: visual self-expression

• TikTok: creative remixing

Twitter was not just "short form text," but that medium created a global town square. When you used Twitter in its heyday, you did not just update your followers with short-text updates, you became an active participant in the discourse. Instagram turned everyone into (halfway) competent photographers, turning all your activities into a chance to build a consistent personal brand. TikTok turned the public into filmmakers by making it easier than ever to create engaging videos through features like remixing and duets.

You can see a democratization effect: skills and abilities that were once difficult to acquire, or behaviors that were locked behind gatekeepers, preserved for privileged priestly classes, were quickly made accessible to the broader public.

So, what new medium does Farcaster introduce, and how does this medium generate a new type of online behavior? It's not clear, in its current iteration what that could be. Today, Farcaster (via its only viable app, Warpcast) looks and feels like watered-down Twitter with Reddit-like features stapled on. But the Twitter era is over, and the discourse has balkanized into politically-aligned app clones. There's no hope for Farcaster in this arrangement, least of all because its political alignment directly competes with the OG Twitter clone, X.

For Farcaster to generate a new medium, it needs to lean into new forms of expression unlocked by advancing technology: namely, crypto. The answer is a supercharged online self, what I will call the "mobile self" is one that can exist consistently and coherently across the entire web. A self that can move across social graphs, who can exist in wildly different contexts and milieux, and remain the same. Not unlike driving a car, which substantially augments the human organism's ability to move and move without altering the consistent, coherent identity of the humans inside it. We did not have to transform into a new organism to travel one hundred miles per hour; we can do so with our technology while remaining, basically, the same organism we've been for hundreds of thousands of years.

Today, if you want to move from one social media network to another, you are forced to literally start from zero. None of your content comes with you, nor your social graph, nor the rich history of your engagement patterns. It is as if your entire online self dissipates, forcing you to cobble together a new one on a new platform. The mobile self doesn't have this problem; it brings everything with it. It travels across the web as a stable, coherent identity, learning and growing as it goes.

Just like a test drive shows humans how a car augments their abilities, a Farcaster test drive needs to show how Web3 social media augments their online abilities across three dimensions:

• Portability: show how you can use multiple apps or clients seamlessly with your identity intact

• Sovereignty: demonstrate how you can own (and monetize) your audience without fear of platform cancellation

• Composability: show how you can create and interact with Web artifacts (like meme coins, NFTs, frames, etc.) that remember who you are

But all this still points to a new medium. What does a supercharged online self do with these powers? What new behaviors are unlocked? If Farcaster is a car, and incumbent social platforms a horse, what is the central element of the old paradigm that's ripe for disruption? What is it about Farcaster that makes it more than a "faster horse"?

Restoring the context collapse

In How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, Jenny Odell writes about how Web2 technology resulted in context collapse: our social media platforms flatten different contexts into a single flat space. Human interaction exists across many contexts—we behave and communicate differently with family, colleagues, friends, or strangers, and we consume different types of media in different ways and at different times. But social media platforms collapse these distinct contexts into one feed, one profile, one way of presenting ourselves and consuming others' output, resulting in the pressure to develop a single, consistent (and, therefore, circumscribed) identity that works for all audiences simultaneously.

As Odell writes, "Spatial and temporal context both have to do with the neighboring entities around something that help define it. Context also helps establish the order of events. Obviously, the bits of information that we're assailed with on Twitter and Facebook feeds are missing both these kinds of context." By throwing everything into a single, never-ending feed—from a news report about Gaza to a meme about AI, to a poem about loss, to a funny video with cats, to an update from your mom—incumbent Web2 platforms annihilate any contextual relationship between its elements, producing a disorienting, numbing effect. Odell: "Many things in there seem important, but the sum total is nonsense, and it produces not understanding but a dull and stupefying dread." It's no surprise we now call the activity of scrolling social media "doomscrolling," as doom is the only emotion that this soup of content can consistently generate.

But by generating the mobile self, through Web3 technology that unlocks portability, sovereignty, and composability, Farcaster has the unique opportunity to restore our collapsed context. Farcaster's unique medium isn't just about creating new content types (in the way Twitter emphasized short-form text, Instagram photos, and TikTok video remixing), but in creating new types of relationships between content, identity, and value. This is a fundamentally different paradigm to Web2 platforms where relationships are fixed and controlled by the platform. If you own your audience, if your identity can travel across apps, and if the elements of the protocol are composable, you have the power to restore context—in any manner you see fit.

The test drive, the "aha moment" for Farcaster will be when users can see that they have the power to design their own social media experience rather than passively consume one.

How is this possible? By side-stepping the client diversity problem entirely and giving users the tools to build their own.

Not users, builders

Farcaster faces the same problem today that the early car faced: how to scale usage without the necessary infrastructure that in turn needs heavy usage to justify building.

• Both represent a paradigm shift that requires further ecosystem development to realize

• Both face(d) the chicken-and-egg problem of infrastructure and adoption

• Both require(d) people to imagine a future different from their current habits

Just like a car needs an entire ecosystem to be successful—roads, parking, gas stations, repair shops, garages, signage, curbs, guardrails, etc.—Farcaster needs a robust ecosystem of apps to sell its unique benefits: the ability to browse the web while maintaining a consistent identity.

There's a nasty chicken-and-egg problem here: for Farcaster to demonstrate the new mobile self, it needs a robust ecosystem of different apps that can showcase contextual flexibility; but before developers and investors put in the time, money, and effort to make them, they want to see more users on the protocol.

It's evident how this is an existential problem, and why the Farcaster team has chosen to prioritize Warpcast—by focusing on growing a single, killer app, they can grow the protocol, and, eventually more killer apps. Again, it's like the early days of the car, when Henry Ford created the assembly line by dismissing individual choice—at least initially. In response to a desire for more customizability in his Model T, he was quoted as saying, "You can have any color as long as it's black." Today, Farcaster feels in the same position when it comes to client customizability: "You can have any client as long as it's Warpcast."

But as long as Warpcast remains the only truly viable client for Farcaster, there's no way for users to effectively "test drive" the mobile self, kneecapping the protocol's growth. I invite the Farcaster team to see the problem flipped: they need to grow the protocol first, which will then grow all the apps.

Cars and early Farcaster are alike in this way:

• One standard option (Model T; Warpcast)

• Limited customization; limited interface options

• Standardized experience; standardized social feed

But we can imagine a future where, like the car, the Farcaster protocol has expanded dramatically:

• Vast variety of vehicles; personalized social clients

• Different cars for different needs; different interfaces for different contexts

• Common road rules; common protocol standards

• Aftermarket modifications; custom features and frames

Warpcast is too much like a Web2 social platform, forcing everyone into the same digital space, like forcing everyone to drive the same car, regardless of their needs. But in real life:

• Families drive minivans

• Contractors drive trucks

• Commuters drive compact cars

• Enthusiasts drive sports cars

In a similar vein, Farcaster needs different clients for different use cases. I don't think this is a novel thought for the team or any early user. We're back to the chicken-and-egg dilemma.

But I think there's a way to sidestep the problem entirely by embracing the second major piece of emerging technology: AI. With tools like Cursor, Claude, GitHub Copilot, and OpenAI o1, it has never been easier for low or no-code users to build their own applications. I think Farcaster should lean in this direction and not only make it possible but encourage users to build their own social media experience by creating out-of-the-box, tinkerable clients that demonstrate the potential of the protocol.

In this way, the creative medium for Farcaster can become software. In the same way that TikTok made it possible for the general audience to become video creators, Farcaster can make it possible for the general audience to become software developers. Let users design their own feeds, and their own social clients, all under the protocol hood. If Web2 was "anyone can create content," then Web3 becomes "anyone can create context."

Farcaster has already laid powerful cultural groundwork for this revolution, by drawing in builders early in the protocol's life. Builder culture is strong on Farcaster, and marketing the protocol should lean heavily into this culture. Not by establishing Farcaster as the "home for builders" but by establishing it as the place where "users are the builders." You are not handed a social media experience, but rather given the tools to create one.

If this sounds like asking too much of today's users, I once again return to the car analogy. A car is an extremely deadly piece of machinery that requires mastering a complicated series of activities; however, today almost anyone can learn how to do it, and driver's education is a standard part of the American teenage experience. The "rules of the road" is a protocol that makes the complicated and dangerous action of driving a car relatively simple for almost anyone to learn. In the same way, the Farcaster protocol can make it relatively simple for anyone to learn and create (and "drive") their own social client.

Just like the car is a potent symbol of freedom, Farcaster can become a potent symbol of self-authorship via the mobile self. Instead of asking "What platform should I use?" people will ask, "What platform do I want to build?"

These archetypal clients wouldn't just be products created by the Farcaster team—they would serve as templates and inspiration for users to build upon. Just as car manufacturers provide base models that owners then customize to their needs, Farcaster could provide foundational client types that users can modify and enhance. I want to explore what these different client types might look like, and how they could serve different contexts and communities.

A car for every driver, a client for every user

Just like how different people use different cars for different purposes, there are many ways to browse the web. Though there, theoretically, an infinite number of ways to build a car, there are a handful of common archetypes—with variations on a theme. The Wrangler, the Cherokee, and the Renegade are all slightly different, and all recognizably a Jeep.

Farcaster clients would cluster similarly. Instead of developing a bunch of different features and throwing them all at the same main client, the Farcaster team could batch these features into consistent archetypes centered on different use cases. I'll use the car as a jumping-off point to showcase the possibilities in client diversity.

Sports car

• Streamlined, high-performance interface for power users

• Focused on rapid consumption and creation

• Advanced threading features and data analytics

• Post scheduling, brand accounts, easy switching between them

Minivan

• Family or small-group focused

• Emphasis on private group conversations

• Strong content moderation features

• Easy sharing features (calendars, photo albums)

• Great for families and friends

Truck

• Built for "heavy lifting"—long-form content creation and consumption

• Strong curation features

• Emphasis on collaboration and "stickiness"

• Great for writers, DAOs, or professional communities

Limousine

• Premium, luxury experience

• Highly curated feeds—someone else "drives" and you just relax

• White-glove content moderation and amplification

• Exclusive communities and conversations

• Great for subscription-based communities and content creators (newsletters with concierge features)

Jeep

• Built for exploration

• Emphasis on discovering new people and new communities

• Content feed has an "off the beaten" path feel; more likely to surface "hidden gems"

• Rugged, no-frills interface that puts the content front-and-center

Microcar

• Ultra-minimalist interface

• Focus on essential features only

• Perfect for quick checks and basic interactions

• Great introductory or default client

Classic Car

• Retro Internet interface

• Focus on preservation and archiving

• Web1 style simplicity

• Text-heavy, minimal media (like the web forums of old)

Rally Car

• Built for rapid response

• Real-time event coverage

• Breaking news features

• Live commentary tools

• Perfect for journalists, news junkies, and chart watchers

School Bus

• Educational focus

• Structured learning environments

• Content organization by subject

• Built-in citation and reference tools

• Good for academic communities and school-aged users

Taxi

• Optimized for temporary use

• Publication location features (who else is in the area)

• Public space features

• Location-based content

• Perfect for events and conferences

In this framework, existing Farcaster features like channels, location features, chat, frames, etc. all get repackaged and bundled around dedicated use cases. Channels that come alive around specific events become core pieces of the Taxi client. Frames that encourage deep engagement of a subject are core parts of the Truck or Limousine clients. Chat enhancements are folded into Minivan clients. Memecoin manias get bundled into different Rally car clients. And so on. But these archetypal clients are just the beginning. There's nothing stopping someone from taking a Limousine and adding Rally car features to it, to create their own personalized experience.

The beauty of this framework is that you could seamlessly move from one client to the other, engaging in the unique context that each client offers, while your identity remains intact. In the same way that you can drive a truck, a minivan or a taxi, engaging in dramatically different "roles" while you remain the same person, users could switch between clients for different types of online experiences. When you first wake up, you might jump into your Sports car client to get a quick feel for what's happening. Then, you want to get some serious work done so you get into your Truck client. Around lunch, you slide into the Minivan client to check up with your family and IRL friends. In the evening, you want to expand your context, so you hop into your Jeep client to explore what's new out in the digital world. Before bed, you slip into your Limousine client for a highly curated story-like experience.

Just like some people always drive one type of car and others have multiple cars for different purposes, some users may find themselves drawn to a single, highly-customized client and others may hop between different ones as their moods for different contexts change.

People also attach the car they drive to their personal values. Truck drivers don't just drive trucks, they're "truck drivers." Sports car enthusiasts identify with other sports car enthusiasts. Jeep drivers wave to each other out on the road, as a sign of appreciation for one another and to show their connection to a wider community. When users are in control of their own clients, clients become expressions of personal values. How you browse the web shows who you are; how you browse puts you in direct contact with people who browse in similar ways, leading to natural community building. When you can tie your protocol to people's identities, to their communities, you unlock a powerful engine for growth—the most powerful one that exists.

From extraction to value creation

There's marketing magic in attaching your protocol to peoples' identities. Rather than paying people to use your protocol (which is unsustainable, and is the same ZIRP trap that so many software startups fall into), you could charge people to use it by actually giving them something they want. Just like everyone wants a car (needs it, in fact) and is willing to pay for it, the same could be said of a social media client that actually supplies people with value, instead of extracting something from them in exchange for peanuts.

People drive cars because they are useful. But as Bertha Benz's story shows, people needed to see that usefulness in action. Her journey didn't just prove the car's viability—it revealed what infrastructure was needed to make the automobile truly transformative. Similarly, Farcaster needs to show the public not just that its protocol works, but that it enables a fundamentally better way of experiencing the web.

I think people are hungry for this kind of contextual freedom. They're tired of the same infinite scroll experience where every type of content, every type of interaction, every type of social arrangement is squashed into the same endless buffet of stimulation. People want to connect and experience the web, but Web2 social platforms have flattened their experience into a two-dimensional shadow of what it could be.

If Web2 allowed for self-expression, Web3 can unlock self-contextualization. It's the next leap forward in social design. Just as the car transformed not just how we move but how we live—creating suburbs, shopping malls, drive-in movies, road trips, and countless other innovations we couldn't have imagined in the horse-and-buggy era—Farcaster could transform not just how we post but how we exist online.

The automobile's story is quintessentially American—a tale of innovation, freedom, and democratization. The same spirit that drove the early days of Silicon Valley. Where incumbent Web2 platforms have become like the old-world structures they once disrupted—entrenched, aristocratic, sclerotic—Farcaster represents a return to those foundational values. A chance to recapture that feeling of the Internet as a place of possibility and adventure, a space you travel through rather than a feed you're trapped within.

But unlike the early automobile, which required massive industrial infrastructure before it could transform society, Farcaster has a unique advantage: AI can democratize the creation of its infrastructure. Just as Bertha Benz's journey revealed what was needed—gas stations, repair shops, better roads—the early adopters of Farcaster can build what they need. Every user can be both driver and builder, contributing to and benefitting from an ever-expanding ecosystem of digital contexts.

The future of social media isn't a single platform or even a collection of platforms—it's a protocol that enables everyone to build their own digital contexts while maintaining their core identity. It's not about finding your voice on someone else's platform; it's about building the exact space where you can be heard.

This is Farcaster's test drive moment. Not just showing that the protocol works, but demonstrating how it transforms the very nature of online social interaction. From the infinite scroll to infinite possibility. From context collapse to context creation. From users to builders.

A wide-open road, waiting to be explored.

Thanks to Claude for assistance with drafting and editing.