Welcome to the 49 new people who joined the Onchain Letters community since Tuesday!
I'm thankful for all 900 of you and I hope everyone is having an awesome Friday 🔥
If you're enjoying my writing, please share Onchain Letters with your friends in Crypto and join the /onchainletters channel on Farcaster 🤝
Key Takeaways
Channels started as an experiment in June 2023 and are now a crucial component of Farcaster. They promote content diversity, improve user feeds, and allow for people to express their full identities across multiple sub-communities.
Up until now, brands in crypto used Twitter & Discord channels to market their product. However, channels are increasingly becoming the growth tool with the highest signal in the space due to the quality of daily active users.
We're starting to see the most interesting crypto projects all launch on Farcaster first. Builders & creators are doing so because they are receiving quality engagement and feedback from the Farcaster community. Additionally, the onchain composability (especially with frames) makes it simple stupid to experiment with onchain marketing.
I asked 20 channel hosts on Farcaster for their tips and best practices on how to run an effective channel.
Check out the advice from them in this letter!
The first part covers the lore of channels and how a fun few experiments changed the trajectory of Farcaster. If you don't really care or have been around on the purple app for a while, feel free to skip to the last section to read the tips from the hosts 🤝
Today's letter will have 4 sections:
Boston, Purple, and the Nuggets
The fork from crypto Twitter
q/DAU and the case for channels
Bookmark these tips!
Let's dive in 🚀
Boston, Purple, & the Nuggets
Before I dive into Farcaster, I wanted to share a quick story about the early days of Reddit.
Initially, Reddit was a single feed where everyone posted their thoughts without any filters for topics. However, as the platform started to grow, there were some users posting content that was a bit more...questionable.
So, the Reddit team decided to add a second feed that was meant for private viewing.
"Presumably after one too many complaints about getting caught looking at pictures of breasts "on accident" on Reddit, they added the very first subreddit specifically for NSFW content: /r/NSFW" - Randal Olson
What stands out here is that Reddit was thinking of r/NSFW as an experiment. In fact, they even mention how the team is planning to try "more of these sub-sections".
And now, almost 18 years later, as Reddit gets ready to IPO, there are over 1 million active subreddits on the site! In fact, there are 140,000 subreddits active at any given time 🤯
It's amazing to see how a simple workaround for a niche use case (NSFW content) led to one of the most important product features on the internet.
Similarly, Farcaster had it's moment of experimentation last summer. In June 2023, there was one week where a few events happened on the purple app that arguably transitioned the product into its next phase.
The first was the initial channel test on June 7th. Dan announced two use cases to start off with: FarCon 2023 & Purple.
Purple was an obvious choice as there was a ton of discussion going on regarding the DAO's mission, props, etc. And FarCon because it was set for that weekend in Boston (shoutout Cameron & Grin)!
The goal was to help clear out some of the content not fully relevant to the main feed (i.e. only a small group of casters were invested in the topic). One thing to note here is that anyone could still cast in and read the channels - the goal wasn't to gate content. I remember having a blast reading through the FarCon channel the weekend it was happening.
After a successful inaugural FarCon weekend, there was another experiment the following Monday for game 5 of the NBA finals. In the morning, Dan put out an NFT that anyone could mint and then participate in the channel. What's ironic is that all this was happening right when 7000+ subreddits had gone dark to protest Reddit's brutal API changes.
Farcaster channels are like decentralized subreddits organized around an NFT.
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Around ~280 people minted and joined the channel to discuss the game together that night. It was an absolute blast! I was less focused on the game and more so enjoying the feed - people were making score predictions, giving insight (@coach), and overall just having a good time.
The next morning it was obvious that channels were here to stay. Everyone on the app was excited about them and there was clearly something big happening.
The fork from crypto twitter
In the following weeks, the Warpcast team slowly added more channels. Lots of people were asking for their own but fortunately Dan was clear that channels were new territory and would be curated at the beginning. In fact, channels were strictly on mobile up until that point - everyone was unsure of how things would play out.
After seeing the success of Purple, the next obvious channels were NounsDAO & BuilderDAO.
Then, a month after the Game 5 experiment, some of the most popular channels on the app today were added: memes, books, dev, etc.
And by the end of July, channels were on Warpcast web!
Active users had gotten the hang of posting in channels and the # of new topics Dan announced were growing by the week.
In 2023, the goto complaint from people on crypto twitter was that Farcaster was boring and only talked about crypto. Where were the memes? Where was the drama? Where was the weird internet discussion happening?
Channels were the answer and led to a huge shift in the diversity of content.
Around September/October, it was clear that Farcaster was no longer simply a "twitter clone".
The UX had shifted to become this hybrid that took the best of both Reddit & Twitter.
Then finally, 6 months after FarCon, channels went permissionless. Immediately, on a Friday night, everyone was racing to buy 2500 warps to launch their own topic.
My first one I went for was /techarchive! I didn't even think too much - I just saw all the craziness in the feed that night and went for it.
By the end of December, Farcaster was already looking like a different app again - there was a huge explosion of channels.
People had a new canvas to experiment with. The next race to grow your own channel had begun.
But why even participate in the race at all? What's the advantage of starting a channel?
q/DAU & the case for channels
Last October, the Farcaster community was having fun with some memes that had come up in regards to quality of content and replies in the feed (i.e. wowow).
Around then, Woj & Grin decided to add q/dau to their handles for fun. But as more people got curious, Woj replied with this lore and it immediately resonated with many people including myself.
The idea is simple yet powerful.
I bring this up because it provides the core reasoning of why Farcaster is different from crypto Twitter. The initial community that the Warpcast team invited to the app are all kind, consistent, ambitious, creative, and quality people. This initial Farcaster user base quickly became the home for builders and creators in crypto that were looking to have meaningful discussions, experiment with new ideas, and set the tone for this next cycle of innovation.
Why does this matter?
Because we're starting to see the most interesting crypto projects all launch on Farcaster first. Builders & creators are doing so because they are receiving the highest quality engagement and feedback from the Farcaster community.
Additionally, the onchain composability (especially with frames) makes it simple stupid to experiment with cutting edge onchain projects.
I mentioned this in my "Farcaster Arbitrage" post, but there's a serious advantage of being on Farcaster. It's still early!
This week, Bitcoin climbed back above $60k and everyone felt a sense of early bull market vibes. I won't make a prediction on price action but if this next year or two is in fact a bull, then we can expect to see the usual large inflow of new people trying to join the next set of projects & trends.
However, this cycle, it's clear to me that the growth and discovery will be happening on Farcaster first.
@LGHT mentioned this in a recent essay and I 100% agree. The reasons below in the screenshot along with the fact that high signal accounts from crypto twitter are started spending more time on Farcaster (i.e. Vitalik) makes it clear that at least within this space, the alpha will be found on the bird purple app.
This is not me saying Farcaster has found product market fit - there's still a ways to go before it goes mainstream. Rather, I'm claiming that within the crypto ecosystem, there is a non-trivial amount of traction & signal on the app and it's best not to ignore it.
OK SO WHAT'S MY POINT...WHY START A CHANNEL?
Because if you are building any kind of brand in crypto, you will be receiving the highest quality engagement on Farcaster.
The brand can be for your product (/supercast) or content (/onchainletters) or even for yourself (/six).
With channels & token gated group messages, the need for spreading your marketing efforts across multiple platforms also goes away. You can build with your community in public and get the message across to people who care.
Customer service
Product feedback
Onboarding
Feature brainstorms
Marketing/announcements
Why try to engage your community in three different places when you can just have them join your channel in an app that they're already spending time in?
Channels combine the best parts of Twitter, Discord, & Telegram.
And on top of that, they provide functionality not possible on web2 platforms. It's now easier than ever to experiment with onchain growth hacks!
It's worth noting that as of right now the number of users on Farcaster is still limited so I'm not saying to ignore Twitter completely. Rather, I'm saying to get started on growing your channel in parallel asap so you can tap into the great network and creative experimentation.
And since you'll already have established your brand's presence on Farcaster, as the # of daily active users grows, it'll be much easier to funnel in new people to your community...first mover advantage does in fact matter!
I hope the above reasons convince you to make a channel. As I mentioned earlier, you can even have a channel for yourself and build your own home on Farcaster. Don't worry about growing it or coming up with a grand strategy, just use it as a place to post your thoughts. I'm willing to bet that you start casting a lot more than you thought you would. And the beauty of it is you never know who you'll end up resonating with.
Folks like July, Ted, and Six did a great job of this early on. Their channels eventually morphed into something that got others excited enough to post there themselves.
With that being said, let's get into the best practices for hosting a channel 🖋
Going into this post, I was unsure if hosts would have anything to say. However, after messaging the first few friends, it was clear that channel hosts had a ton to share and that these interviews would be useful.
As a starting point, I gave the hosts the following questions to help them brainstorm. But most ended up brain dumping a lot more than I expected.
I got a ton of notes and feedback. After going through all of it, I found the common trends and put together a list. Hopefully this helps you get started (or improve) your journey with channel building.
A huge shoutout to all the hosts of these channels!
Bookmark these tips!
Overtime, a theme will emerge for your channel. Don't force it at the beginning. Rather, just post what you feel most comfortable with and if you do it consistently enough, people who resonate will find their way. The theme may change over time as well, be flexible but don't go out of your way to change the vibes for a few people.
If you're running a channel for your company, be extremely responsive to customer questions, feedback, and reports. Reply to them, engage with them, and make sure they know that you are listening. If someone is taking the time to go out of their way to post in your channel, that means they give a damn...don't let them down. Prioritize the folks who see the value in your product first.
Be welcoming and make people feel heard. Ask open ended questions and engage in back-and-forths with people who reply. Share content from other channels in Farcaster, Twitter, and general links on a consistent basis, it's the best way to spark conversation. Be the #1 fan of your channel and the most active reply-guy.
Nothing is more important than consistency. You don't know which casts will be bangers or duds. The only thing in your control is to continue casting. You'll be able to do this if you enjoy the channel...if not it'll feel like a drag/another job.
Try experimenting with recurring weekly questions or "segments". For example, what's your favorite thing you've done onchain this week? Or something even more relaxed like six's thesis Thursdays. For some channels it may make sense to even do a roundup of the best content in that channel every week.
The north star is a healthy amount of repeat casters & consistency. Focus primarily on likes/replies and reducing low effort content or engagement bait.
When it comes to spam, don't overthink it (h/t Dan). It's your channel so experiment and make it yours. Being a channel host means taking ownership and authorship, it's up to you to determine the best ~vibes~ that will improve the long term health of the channel. There's nothing wrong with using warn & hide. Let people learn from warnings. On some level, it is up to the members at large to police themselves. If you feed the birds, the birds will keep coming.
Have a good bio and pinned cast so that people can sense the vibe when they look at the channel. It’s helpful to allow people to “anchor” channels in their minds: like channel A is for B and channel X is for Y. When users go to post something or have a thought related to that topic, they will remember that your channel is the place for it.
Share information (i.e. quote casts) in other relevant channels. Don't be annoying, do it gracefully - this only works if you regularly contribute to other channels. It's worth sending direct casts to people who you consider friends on Farcaster about your channel...again, do it with taste (it's pretty easy to tell the difference).
Talk to people. Make friends. Have fun with it! Vibes are a real thing. If you're having a great time posting and doing your thing, others will notice and want to join in 🤝
I think of my channel as somewhere between Twitter and a big public discord, which creates a unique environment with both familiarity and potential for stumbling upon something brand new - Tervo
engage! recast! lift others up, make it feel like a rising tide for all boats - Dawufi
I think channels are a very powerful way for casters to be able to have an open ended conversation with a particular audience. It’s not too different than a big Twitter thread or a subreddit, so talking with people is just like other platforms. We have to focus on making sure that audience is heard and engaged - Chris Wallace
I view my role as a host from two perspectives: as a moderator (spam and quality control) and as a curator (mostly for pinned messages). The main challenge is finding the right balance between my personal taste and detached moderation (if someone's artwork doesn't resonate with me, it doesn't mean it's "bad" or should not be acknowledged, but the overall quality should be maintained) - Kugusha
I think of Farcaster channels as replacing your Twitter brand account or that community you have been growing on Discord/Reddit - Ildi
I tell every Hypersub artist to go make a Farcaster channel and start building a community. It's the absolute best way to start from nothing and get a small following. Even if its 5 people following your channel, it's a dedicated place for you to build. The more you post, the more people will come - Jonny
Our best practices for growth around being an intentional channel are to prioritize community building and slow, organic growth over fast / incentivized growth, so obvious growth hacking / engagement farming is low hanging fruit for moderation - Ivy
That's all for today's letter.
If you found it helpful - please share it with others!
Let me know if you decide to make a channel after reading this, would love to give you a shoutout in Sunday's letter :)
- YB
