The peaks are not as high as you imagine, and the troughs are not as low as you imagine.

Video Source: I Met Dan Romero, Creator Of Farcaster

Translation: Ismay, BlockBeats

Editor’s Note: Clanker has continuously broken historical highs, bringing a lot of attention back to Farcaster. In this podcast interview, we see how a veteran from Coinbase leads Farcaster from its startup phase to becoming a pioneering platform exploring decentralized social networks. From expectations for Frames V2, to collaboration with Base, to the vision of Bitcoin as a strategic reserve, Dan not only shares his vision but also faces the ups and downs and challenges of a decade in the industry, admitting, "The peaks are not as high as you imagine, and the troughs are not as low as you imagine."

Left: Dan; Right: Threadguy

The following is the original content of the interview:

Threadguy: The last time I posted a Cast was about five months ago, and I think I discovered Farcaster about ten months ago. I had heard of it before and knew about Lens and such, but I didn’t pay much attention. Once I joined, I was hooked.

Dan: Wow, really?

Threadguy: Yes, I was completely obsessed for two months, couldn’t do anything else, just listened to your interviews, especially those two interviews you did on Bankless, which absolutely fascinated me.

Dan: Wow, that makes me very happy!

Threadguy: What attracted me at that time was actually Frames; I think Frames is the coolest thing on social media. The one-click NFT minting and the Warp feature are truly revolutionary. Listening to you talk about these things, I felt you really know your stuff and have great insights.

Dan: Thank you for saying that!

Threadguy: Then Degen came out, and that period was just crazy. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Degen; it was definitely a strange and intense time.

Dan: Yeah, it was indeed an interesting time, and a bit unsettling.

Threadguy: Right, when Degen happened, I was completely immersed in Farcaster. Then the pace slowed down, and things on Twitter became more and more, making it really hard to balance both platforms.

Dan: Exactly, I completely understand.

Threadguy: But what impresses me is that you’ve always found ways to attract more core users step by step. It seems like the entire Base S1 season is unfolding on Farcaster.

Dan: Yes, there is indeed a warming trend now.

Threadguy: How about the past three to six months?

Dan: It’s been up and down. I think you summed it up well; at the beginning of the year, we did have a wave of growth, and then the excitement level dropped a bit, as if some air had been let out of a balloon. People started asking, "What’s next?" but there wasn’t a clear "next step" at that time. So naturally, everyone went back to Twitter, attracted by new things.

Threadguy: Yes, that’s quite normal.

Dan: But our team has been working hard, focusing on improvements. For example, how to make Frames better, how to strengthen the social network on Base, or if you forget to post a Cast one day, we’ll remind you to come back.

Threadguy: Indeed, it’s easy to form habits and also easy to lose them.

Dan: Yes, that’s exactly it. If you don’t post a Cast for a week, you’ll feel a bit of psychological barrier.

Threadguy: Yes, there’s that feeling of "Ah, will it be awkward to post now?" It’s like not replying to a friend’s text for two weeks; it feels strange to have missed out.

Dan: But I’m the kind of good friend who, even if you come back after six months or two years, I’ll just say "GM" and welcome you back. As long as people are willing to return to Farcaster, I’m happy.

Threadguy: So how do you see the current state of Farcaster?

Dan: I think we’re probably back to the levels of January to March this year; February was a peak, and now we’re starting to see growth in new user registrations. As you said, people’s interest in Ethereum on-chain activities seems to be coming back. Earlier this year, those activities shifted to Solana, and now they’re starting to flow back to Base.

Threadguy: Why is that? It feels like Farcaster is an extension of Base; any activity on Base seems to happen on Farcaster. Is there a connection between the two?

Dan: Interestingly, while Farcaster itself retains very little on-chain presence, we’re not actually running on the Base chain. However, I have to commend Jesse—I worked with him when I was at Coinbase. When we launched Frames, he quickly got up to speed and rapidly developed some tools that significantly lowered the barrier for developers to build Frames on the Base chain.

Threadguy: Wow, that’s great.

Dan: To be honest, others haven’t seized this opportunity yet, but Jesse jumped in and grabbed it; he’s really impressive, a true Chad.

Threadguy: He really works hard, almost every day, right?

Dan: So I think our relationship with Base is very close, largely because they invested in Farcaster early on. They were one of the first teams to open channels and are the largest channel on Farcaster. Jesse personally uses it, and so does Jacob from Zora. I used to work with him at Coinbase too.

Threadguy: Yes, there are indeed quite a few former Coinbase people here; it’s like a "Coinbase gang."

Dan: To be honest, I don’t really like that label. First, I think the "PayPal gang" is indeed impressive, and it feels a bit awkward to compare myself to a group of very successful people; second, while there are many former Coinbase people here, I think it’s more because Brian and Fred hired a lot of entrepreneurial-minded people during their time at Coinbase. These people learned a lot at Coinbase and are now trying to apply it to their own projects. And Jesse is obviously still working at Coinbase, doing a great job.

Degen Interlude and Coinbase History

Threadguy: As a founder, how do you respond to rapid growth like Degen? Degen can be said to be Farcaster’s first "native peak."

Dan: Yes, it was indeed a native peak that attracted a lot of people, but they came just for Degen, thinking it was a money-making opportunity; in short, it was just a short-term phenomenon, and as Degen left, many people left with it.

Threadguy: That must have felt a bit strange, like leaving a void. How did you cope?

Dan: To be honest, I’ve been building Farcaster for the past four years and have witnessed this 90% decline, whether at Coinbase or Farcaster, so this isn’t my first experience. It’s psychologically tough, especially when you feel like everything is working, but then three weeks later it suddenly feels like everything is wrong.

But the most important thing is that the core community of Farcaster has remained stable over the past year and a half to two years. Even amidst the huge fluctuations in growth, there’s a group of core users—several thousand, I’d say—who actively post interesting content every day. Some might call it "Christian rap" or "awkward motivational content," which is somewhat similar, but I don’t think it’s bad.

Threadguy: The term "Christian rap" is just too funny.

Dan: Haha, call it whatever you want; the key is that our community is very "builder"-centric, with many people working on entrepreneurial projects or NFT projects. It’s precisely because these developers and builders form the core of the network that we can leverage the "blocks" of developers for innovation and programming.

Threadguy: So why does Vitalik post so much content on Farcaster? What’s your relationship with him?

Dan: I’ve never met him in person. He attended a Coinbase talk in 2016 when hardly anyone took Ethereum seriously. At that time, Coinbase was still a Bitcoin-focused company, and Ethereum was generally seen as a "shitcoin." Vitalik was brought to the company by Olaf to share. During lunch, everyone was still discussing this "sudden person." To be honest, most people weren’t interested in his project, but a few had already started quietly buying Ethereum.

Threadguy: Did you participate in Ethereum’s ICO?

Dan: I didn’t buy in.

Threadguy: Was there an opportunity for you to participate at that time?

Dan: Of course, it was open back then; anyone could participate with Bitcoin.

Threadguy: Got it. When did Coinbase later list Ethereum?

Dan: We listed Ethereum later that year, which was a big shift for Coinbase because we had been focused on Bitcoin. At that time, Bitcoin mining was causing a lot of controversy in China, and the platform only allowed buying and selling Bitcoin, with no other assets.

Threadguy: Did you have an app back then?

Dan: No, it was initially just a web version. In fact, due to Apple’s policy issues, we were kicked out of the App Store for two years. Later, we relaunched the app and gradually added Ethereum and Litecoin as the second and third assets.

Threadguy: So why did the addition of assets slow down later?

Dan: Internal politics was one reason; although Gary Gensler wasn’t there at the time, people were very wary of SEC regulations. Later, when Balaji (Coinbase’s former CTO) joined, he broke many internal concerns about adding new assets and pushed for more assets to be listed.

We had to do this; it’s comparable to Google not indexing all websites; you need to cover all assets. Of course, Coinbase doesn’t cover all assets, but this was actually a cultural shift, so when he came in, he said: this is what we’re going to do.

Threadguy: What was he doing before joining Coinbase?

Dan: He was running Earn.com, which started as a Bitcoin mining company and later transformed into a "earn Bitcoin" company. He was the CTO of Coinbase, and then he sold Earn.com to Coinbase.

Threadguy: Did he only stay at Coinbase for a year?

Dan: Yes, just a year, but he accomplished a lot during that time.

Why Vitalik Uses Farcaster

Threadguy: You met Vitalik in 2016, right?

Dan: Actually, no. I didn’t know who he was at the time, and he didn’t know who I was either. We gradually got to know each other when we started working on Farcaster in 2021; we hadn’t interacted for over a year.

Threadguy: Don’t you attend conferences?

Dan: Yes, we hardly go to conferences; that might be a mistake. Maybe I should attend all the Ethereum conferences to promote Farcaster.

Threadguy: So you attended conferences before for Coinbase?

Dan: Yes, I attended many conferences for Coinbase. I was responsible for business development and some other tasks. But honestly, I found that most conferences were a waste of time.

Threadguy: Indeed, they are quite wasteful.

Dan: Yeah, so after starting Farcaster, I stopped going to those conferences. I basically stayed in the office working, which made me miss opportunities to meet these people. It wasn’t until 2022 that someone introduced us through Signal.

Threadguy: Did Vitalik join in November 2022?

Dan: Yes, two years ago. The day he joined was our platform's most active day, with about 4,000 new accounts created; it was crazy.

Threadguy: Wow, how did you get him to join?

Dan: Someone referred him, but I can’t remember who it was. At that time, we were still a platform that required an invitation to join. His joining brought tremendous growth.

Threadguy: How did he use Farcaster after joining?

Dan: He continues to use Farcaster and also uses Lens and some other platforms. But ultimately, I think Vitalik is a very pure person. He focuses on decentralization and genuinely uses these tools. In fact, many people in the Ethereum community talk a good game about decentralization but don’t actually practice it.

Threadguy: They still continue to use Twitter for those lofty ideals; it’s understandable since their audience is there. How do you compete with Twitter every day? It seems tough to gradually eat into its market and gain users.

Dan: Yeah, if I had known a year ago that we could achieve ten times our current scale a year later, I would have been very satisfied. And now we’ve actually done it, but there have been ups and downs along the way. If you want to enter the decentralized social media space and develop protocols and such, you have to be prepared to face these challenges.

Is Twitter a Competitor?

Threadguy: Twitter isn’t even the ultimate "number one enemy," right? The real big players should be Meta, YouTube, TikTok, and Telegram; those are the real applications.

Dan: Right, I think Twitter has lost a lot of users. Many of those users have shifted to Threads and BlueSky. Of course, these aren’t the crypto Twitter users, but there are indeed quite a few people using BlueSky. I remember since the election, their registered user count has exceeded ten million.

Threadguy: Are they really using it? Or did they just tweet a statement and then go to BlueSky?

Dan: That’s possible; I can’t verify. But I think the bigger issue is how to attract the general public, or the next billion users. No matter what trendy phrases you use, these people are actually on Instagram and TikTok. The recent incident on Solana is an example, where a token suddenly went viral on these platforms due to someone’s influence.

Threadguy: Right, that’s the real scale effect.

Dan: Yes, and given the current state of Twitter, I guess crypto-related content might be intentionally suppressed by the algorithm.

Threadguy: Really?

Dan: If I had to guess, I would think Musk might be very annoyed by the spam related to crypto in the comments.

Threadguy: Do you think he would care?

Dan: Of course. I’ve published quite a bit of marketing content on X, so I have a rough idea of what kind of content performs well in the algorithm, like the like-to-view ratio. But if you mention keywords like Ethereum, your content might get suppressed by the algorithm.

Of course, if the content is of very high quality, it might still break through the algorithm’s limitations, but the overall baseline will be suppressed. That’s also why most of the content in the current information flow is images and videos, as these can extend user engagement time, and the algorithm finds it harder to analyze this content. You can "exploit" the algorithm by posting videos or images.

Threadguy: Do you think Elon will eventually acquire you?

Dan: I don’t think so; he rarely acquires companies.

Threadguy: Why?

Dan: He believes he can outpace his competitors, and he has a track record of doing so. Companies like Facebook are more inclined to buy out their competitors directly, but they wouldn’t buy us.

Threadguy: Do you think the launch of Threads is a threat to Twitter?

Dan: Yes, they directly transferred 100 million users from Instagram to Threads, which is a very efficient migration. I believe Threads will continue to challenge Twitter.

Threadguy: Do you really think so?

Dan: Yes.

Threadguy: Oh, are you worried about them? After all, they are the biggest competitor. You probably don’t want to be targeted by Zuck.

Dan: Absolutely not! They’ve already started to imitate us, like adding a following feed. Because BlueSky started growing within just a week, they are now testing some features from BlueSky. It’s like what happened with Snapchat; it rose quickly, but Instagram copied the Stories feature and directly took Snapchat down.

Threadguy: Wow, yeah, now even Telegram has a Stories feature.

Dan: Yes, you don’t want to compete with Meta because Meta will beat you. They even acquired a VPN company to monitor competitors' web traffic.

Threadguy: Really?

Dan: Yes, they once offered free VPN services just to see which emerging applications were rising, like Snapchat, and then they would strike directly to crush them; they are really ruthless.

Threadguy: Wow, have you met Zuck?

Dan: I met him once.

Threadguy: Really? Where?

Dan: At a wedding.

Threadguy: What’s he like? Cool?

Dan: He’s quite impressive; he really has strength.

Threadguy: You actually met him; that’s crazy!

Dan: Yeah, that was during his "new style" period; it was indeed a bit cool.

Threadguy: What do you think of their rebranding?

Dan: It’s pretty good; it used to be really bad. You know, his hands were shaking when he was drinking water during congressional testimony. But now he looks like an MMA fighter, which is pretty cool. They even redesigned their visual identity (VI).

Threadguy: Haha, do I look like Zuck?

Dan: That’s hilarious.

Threadguy: So you focus more on Facebook (Meta)?

Dan: I focus more on my own growth. But I have to say, the real concern is Facebook. They can implement any good feature at any time or just take it directly.

Farcaster Ecosystem Alpha and Frames

Threadguy: How big is the Farcaster team?

Dan: 14 people.

Threadguy: Is your team all developers?

Dan: Yes, there’s only one designer; the rest are all developers.

Threadguy: What do you think is Farcaster’s advantage?

Dan: A small team that can flexibly adjust direction; we are now starting to focus more on on-chain content.

In fact, we tried similar things in 2021 and 2022, like a dedicated NFT dynamic feed. But at that time, the market bottomed out, and after the FTX incident, almost nothing happened, so we removed those features from the app, thinking they were a complete waste of space.

For example, the NFT tag on user profile pages doesn’t exist on the web version at all; it’s only still there on mobile. This feature was added during the bull market in 2021 when people were investing in things like Chain Runners.

Now, perhaps some components are starting to make sense, and we might consider adding them back. However, there are already many good applications in the ecosystem, like Interface; have you heard of it?

Threadguy: I haven’t heard of it; what does it do?

Dan: It’s pretty cool; it’s a social blockchain explorer where you can receive push notifications for anyone’s on-chain actions. For example, recently Vitalik bought a token, and then a bunch of people followed him on Interface. As a result, someone took a screenshot, and everyone’s feed was filled with "Vitalik bought this token."

Threadguy: Wow, that’s really cool!

Dan: There’s also an app called Friends, which is currently in beta. I think it will be very popular this cycle; it’s about to launch. It’s a chat application but deeply integrated with trading features. Imagine what it would be like if Telegram were natively on-chain.

Threadguy: That sounds very promising!

Dan: Yes, both of these applications belong to the Farcaster ecosystem; they use Farcaster’s data and enrich their own application data. I still think Frames is the coolest thing.

Threadguy: Frames?

Dan: Yes, the new version of Frames is launching tomorrow!

Threadguy: What is Frames V2? How does it work?

Dan: You can think of it as a mini app like Telegram. Remember the original Frames V1? When it first launched, you would click on content in the feed and think, "Oh, this is pretty cool."

Frames V2 takes it a step further; you can launch any application you want. For example, we could create a live streaming app within Frames.

Threadguy: Really?

Dan: Yes, and you can watch live streams directly in the feed, which is a great experience. Even better, you can install it into Warpcast, so you can come back to check it anytime. Plus, the developers of Frames can send you notifications, like "Live streaming now, come join," and these notifications are pushed through the Warpcast app, which is very convenient.

Threadguy: What do you think about Solana "stealing" Farcaster's Blinks feature?

Dan: Has anyone used Blinks?

Threadguy: No.

Dan: Yeah, not many people use it. This was actually an idea from Farcaster, and I don’t want to criticize others because it’s good that people are building things. But at the time, I did post a cryptic message saying I would reveal the answer in 90 days. I honestly think this feature wouldn’t be used because it doesn’t work properly. You can barely run it on the web, but I don’t use the web version of Twitter.

Threadguy: I completely agree; after all, 90% of Twitter's usage is on mobile. If a feature doesn’t work on mobile, it’s almost useless.

Dan: Yes, so if Twitter is willing to support Frames, theoretically they could implement it tomorrow. If they support Frames or Blinks, it’s totally fine; they just need to convince Elon. But I think he’s pretty busy right now.

Threadguy: What do you think makes Farcaster's Frames unique?

Dan: The advantage of Frames is that, although our application and network scale are smaller, because the application natively supports Frames, you can experience it directly in the feed. It doesn’t weaken the effect of the links, and Frames can connect directly to your crypto wallet, which is a significant differentiator.

How Does Base Compete with Solana?

Threadguy: So how does Base beat Solana?

Dan: I think it’s the direct connection of Coinbase’s 100 million users to the blockchain; that’s a huge advantage. For example, Phantom is a fantastic app with strong execution and ranks high in the app store. But that’s not even in the same league as Coinbase’s 100 million users, and they’ve now directly integrated Base. You can play on both sides, but my point is that any Coinbase user can directly use Base, and this might become the default option. For instance, if you want to withdraw USDC, it will go directly to Base.

Threadguy: How many users does Coinbase have?

Dan: At least 100 million KYC accounts, I think that’s a massive moat, but many people in the crypto space don’t realize this. Because all these accounts can directly access the blockchain without needing special access permissions. No matter what assets you hold, you can trade on any chain’s DEX directly through Coinbase.

The close integration of Coinbase and Base—if you ask me why they will succeed, it’s clear that Jesse is like a founder-level employee. It’s very rare to have someone like that in a big company, and his drive is the same as any startup founder. He’s also recruiting a very talented team; the team he’s quietly building behind the scenes is incredibly strong, and you’ll be amazed, thinking, "Oh my god, their team level is so high."

Jesse is also in charge of Coinbase Wallet. When I saw this, I thought, imagine a year from now, Coinbase Wallet will be more closely integrated with Base’s features. Instead of making a tool that can adapt to all chains, it might prioritize supporting other Ethereum chains or Solana, Bitcoin, etc., but the best user experience will definitely be on Base. So, they not only have Coinbase but now also their own wallet. I think this distribution capability and ecosystem will be very powerful.

Threadguy: Do you think Base needs to beat Solana by dominating meme hype like Degen, or can it win in other ways?

Dan: No, I think the market overall will become large enough. There’s a possibility that both Base and Solana can succeed. Clearly, Solana has already been very successful, but the current situation feels a bit like a zero-sum game; most people’s on-chain activities are just these, and the user base isn’t that large yet.

That’s another issue; the scale of the crypto market is still relatively small. But my personal view is that Bitcoin will be the core driver of this cycle. When Bitcoin rises significantly, it will pull everything else up, resulting in people having funds to buy NFTs again, and people will start buying art. Look at Cryptopunks; since the election, the price has risen from $60,000 to $130,000.

Coinbase's 20th Employee Dan

Threadguy: Do you have a Punk?

Dan: I have a Punk.

Threadguy: Why does Armstrong use a fake Punk?

Dan: I’ve given him that feedback too; I really wish I had taken a screenshot of the text I sent him that said, "Dude, what is this?" You have a nice house, you’ve gone through an IPO; maybe it’s time to buy a real Punk?

Threadguy: What’s going on with that?

Dan: But he’s quite pure; he just doesn’t care about these things and focuses on other matters, like winning elections. U.S. crypto policy will change because Coinbase has invested heavily in Ohio and Montana. Forget about the presidential election; Coinbase has spent a lot of money trying to get those anti-crypto senators out, like Sherrod Brown. No hard feelings!

Threadguy: How long did you work at Coinbase?

Dan: Five years.

Threadguy: Which years?

Dan: From 2014 to 2019.

Threadguy: You were the 20th employee at Coinbase?

Dan: Yes.

Threadguy: What were you doing before joining Coinbase?

Dan: I worked at a small startup for a year; it was a company that made iPad registration software. Before that, I was a management consultant. Although it was tough work, I learned a lot.

Threadguy: Management consulting? So you started buying Bitcoin back then and thought, "Oh, I should apply to Coinbase"?

Dan: No, Fred is a friend from college, but we weren’t particularly close. In our junior year, he lived across the hall from me in the dorm, and we kept in touch. One time, when he was working with Brian, they had just completed a Series A funding round from Fred Wilson at USV; that was in 2013. He told me, "Hey, we’re looking for a jack-of-all-trades."

You know, the kind of employee who does everything, like handling customer support, ordering food, and so on; they just needed someone to help out. The company was growing quickly, but when I heard the word "Bitcoin," I thought it was a Ponzi scheme and directly declined, saying, "No thanks." Later, I worked at a SaaS company for a year. After that, I moved to San Francisco in 2013, when almost all engineers were talking about Bitcoin. I thought, "What is this thing?"

Threadguy: At that time, you didn’t really understand it, right?

Dan: Right, later I finally read the Bitcoin white paper and thought, "Oh, this is actually pretty cool." I gradually started to understand it a bit. Then in the fall of 2013, I bought my first Bitcoin.

Threadguy: What was the price at that time?

Dan: It was really bad; I remember I bought it for around $100 to $120. The worst part is that I sold it later at $300.

Threadguy: Oh no!

Dan: Yeah, at that time I felt like George Soros, thinking, wow, I tripled my money; I’m so awesome! But looking back, that experience was quite painful. However, it did pay off later.

A year later, I applied for a job and started trying to get merchants to accept Bitcoin payments, like dell.com. At that time, Dell launched an ad campaign saying, "Dude, you’re getting a Dell," and their products could be purchased with Bitcoin. Budweiser also had some series of events across the U.S. where you could buy beer with Bitcoin.

Threadguy: It seems not many people are doing that now, right?

Dan: Yeah, but I think stablecoins might become a trend.

Threadguy: Did you think that would become "the next big thing"?

Dan: Looking back, it was really silly to buy a pack of something with Bitcoin. What you want is a tax burden, and it’s super volatile, taking 10 minutes to confirm. Anyway, people will always do some silly things.

Threadguy: When was that?

Dan: 2014.

Threadguy: I was only 12 years old then. So what was it like working at Coinbase back then?

Dan: Coinbase in 2014 had a really strong team. But to be honest, working at a Bitcoin company at that time was quite strange and marginalized. I might have been one of the most "serious" people in the company, aside from the compliance officer and lawyers.

Threadguy: Really?

Dan: Yeah, think about it; what kind of person would be interested in Bitcoin? At that time, the only associations with Bitcoin were "Silk Road" and "Mt. Gox," with absolutely no positive connotations.

Threadguy: Did you feel anything about the future in 2014?

Dan: Not at all; the first few years were completely stagnant or even declining. Our team grew to 50 people in 2014, but half of them voluntarily left later. They felt the company had no future and sold their shares on the secondary market for low prices, almost like selling them as scrap paper.

Threadguy: No way!

Dan: Yeah, at that time the company was valued at about $400 million, but if those people had held on until the IPO, their shares could have been worth $100 billion. That’s a 200x return.

Threadguy: Wow, that’s indeed a huge return.

Dan: Yes, but it was really tough back then. Until 2017, we were hoping to achieve $10 million in revenue that year. We added Ethereum trading in 2016, so we were pretty excited because we had actually reached $10 million in revenue the previous year. But by 2017, Bitcoin really "took off" for the first time, and we made $1 billion in revenue that year.

Threadguy: Your original goal was $10 million?

Dan: Yes, we thought we could reach $10 million, but we ended up making $300 million just in December alone. That year was absolutely insane; it was the craziest year of my life.

Threadguy: After 2017, did you really believe that cryptocurrency was viable?

Dan: Absolutely, after that I was convinced that cryptocurrency would succeed. I was living in San Francisco at the time, and the whole atmosphere was very exhilarating, like a carnival.

Threadguy: Oh, that must have been wild. When you told others you worked at Coinbase, they would immediately ask you to help solve customer support issues and such. Were those responsibilities yours? It sounds like a complete disaster.

Dan: Yes, it was indeed a chaotic mess at that time. We were all working in the office, and it felt like everyone was going crazy. Nobody left the office; the air was just filled with people…

Threadguy: What? Did people stay for several days without leaving?

Dan: Yes, there were indeed people who stayed in the office for several days without leaving. Then in 2018, the market crashed, but we raised funds and brought in a "professionalized" executive team. The atmosphere in the company at that time felt a bit like a political struggle with knives drawn.

Threadguy: A "professionalized" team?

Dan: Yes, it was like adults took over the room. Then Balaji came in and cleared out the unsuitable people.

Threadguy: Wait, what do you mean by cleared out?

Dan: He convinced everyone through memos, theoretically defeating them.

Threadguy: Was he crazy? What was his style like?

Dan: He was indeed very assertive; he’s a very smart person and more invested in cryptocurrency than anyone else. When he came in, he directly questioned, "What gives these non-technical people the right to voice their opinions?"

Threadguy: The phrase "non-technical people voicing opinions" is hilarious.

Dan: It really was; that was the company culture at the time. But most of the executives we brought in were indeed saying the wrong things. I agreed with Balaji's views, and he was the only one who could convince Brian that these executives were unsuitable.

Threadguy: So you could say he saved Coinbase?

Dan: You could say that; he played a very important role in redirecting Coinbase's direction. Of course, many others contributed as well.

Threadguy: What were you doing at that time?

Dan: I was in charge of Coinbase's consumer business, which is Coinbase.com, overseeing all retail trading operations.

Threadguy: Wow, that was an important position!

Dan: Yes, so many people on Farcaster think I don’t understand retail, but in reality, your first Bitcoin or Ethereum might have been purchased through me.

Threadguy: So you were a "big shot" back then!

Dan: Right, I was in that room, but that was a long time ago. However, I have been in the cryptocurrency space for a long time; this year marks exactly 10 years.

Threadguy: So you must have seen some really crazy things, especially during your years at Coinbase.

Dan: Yes, some strange and crazy things did happen during those years. Speaking of which, F, do you have any questions?

F: Yes, I’ve always been curious about how large institutions and trading platforms store private keys worth hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. How do they ensure the security of these assets, and where do they hide the private keys?

Dan: I remember Coinbase wrote a blog post specifically about this, and the content was quite astonishing; Coinbase's security team is incredibly strong.

Since 2014, Coinbase has had a very interesting policy: the only positions that can earn extremely high salaries are security-related roles. Because they know that to attract top talent in the security field, compensation is key.

Think about it; managing the security of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars in cryptocurrency is one of the coolest security challenges on Earth, probably second only to nuclear weapons security.

Threadguy: I never thought about that; it sounds crazy.

Dan: Yes, they used extreme security measures for generating private keys in cold storage. They generate private keys in a Faraday cage to prevent nation-state-level hacking attacks, such as intercepting keys by stealing data from laptop CPUs. The level of security is beyond imagination, and I’m sure they have further optimized these processes over the years.

After generating the keys, they distribute them across the globe and use a technique called Shamir Secret Sharing to split and distribute the keys worldwide. The entire process is extremely complex and secure.

Additionally, they have a whole set of custody services, and the reason their custody services are so good is that they already need to achieve that level of security in their retail business. For example, Coinbase's retail business might manage $20 billion worth of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other crypto assets during peak times.

Threadguy: How much does Coinbase's head of security earn?

Dan: He should earn a lot.

Threadguy: Wow, that’s really enviable.

Dan: He’s very low-key and doesn’t flaunt it on Twitter. You can find out who he is, but you wouldn’t want to mess with him. He’s a very serious person, and he has been in that position for a long time; he’s still there now.

Threadguy: Really?

Dan: Yes.

Threadguy: What did Coinbase do early on to stand out? What innovations or decisions did they make?

Dan: I think the most obvious thing is that Coinbase was very willing to accept regulation; they were willing to take the time to comply with the rules. In fact, I was involved in a lot of this work. I was responsible for managing all the banking relationships, which is why you can deposit dollars into Coinbase.

Threadguy: So you were dealing directly with institutions like American banks?

Dan: Yes, but they all rejected us. In the end, we could only find some smaller banks in very remote locations. I visited probably 20 different states, all very rural banks, like some small places in Pennsylvania, and it was the same in Europe.

I was also responsible for international expansion for a while. Talking about these things regarding Coinbase now sounds like a veteran's war story because everything has become so professionalized.

Threadguy: Okay, one last question about Coinbase before we move on to other topics. What do you think was the most helpful thing you learned at Coinbase that assisted you in building Farcaster later?

Dan: I wrote a blog post about Coinbase's pragmatic crypto culture. I believe Coinbase is very good at finding a balance between ideology and practical operation. In the crypto space, it’s easy to fall into two extremes: one is completely decentralized, open-source, user-controlled, like the philosophy of Bitcoin; the other is purely profit-driven, only concerned with extracting value.

Coinbase found a balance between these two cultures. They not only achieved this within the company culture but also reflected it well in specific decisions. Their starting point is to provide a high-quality user experience while also making decisions that benefit the blockchain ecosystem.

For example, Coinbase could have chosen to "lock" the cryptocurrencies purchased by users, preventing them from being transferred to the blockchain, which might have been more beneficial for their business interests, but it wouldn’t help the development of the blockchain ecosystem. At certain critical moments in the company’s development, Coinbase could have opted for this simpler approach, such as limiting the amount of cryptocurrency users could transfer out of Coinbase.

For most users, such restrictions might not matter, but in the long run, this approach would severely harm the development of the entire crypto industry. To avoid such harm, Coinbase was willing to bear significant pressure in certain decisions, such as public and private criticism from federal regulators. This is a great example of Coinbase's pragmatic culture: focusing on user experience while insisting on doing the right thing.

The Lazy Student's Cold Start Memoir

Threadguy: Have you made similar decisions during the development of Farcaster?

Dan: Well, I think many times we focus on making Warpcast as simple and user-friendly as possible, rather than getting too caught up in some details. For example, some people would say, "You shouldn’t use the name Warpcast; just use Farcaster directly."

Threadguy: Why is it called Warpcast?

Dan: We initially used Farcaster as the name of the app, but later we felt that it would give the core team an "unfair advantage."

Looking back, I might not have changed the name so early; perhaps I would have delayed it to a later time. But at that time, we were motivated by a more ideological consideration, wanting to be fairer.

From a pragmatic perspective, this approach might not have been as efficient. Because if the name hadn’t changed, you could just say, "Hey, download Farcaster," instead of now having to explain, "First register for Farcaster, then use Warpcast."

However, there were also some pragmatic decisions, like on the homepage of Farcaster's official website, we directly wrote "Download this app," with domain names like for.com or Farcaster.xyz. We put Warpcast on there; some people suggested we list all the clients, but I think for most people, they just want the simplest way to get started, and that is Warpcast.

So, these things are about trade-offs. I’m not entirely sure if the decision we made at that time was optimal, but that was the decision we made.

Threadguy: Can you tell the story about calling the first 100 users?

Dan: Actually, it was about 400 users.

Threadguy: That’s a bit crazy.

Dan: I contacted about 100 people through Twitter DMs, text messages, Signal group chats, and asked them, "Hey, can I take 15 minutes to help you join this project?" And I did that for about four weeks or even longer.

After that, people started recommending others to join on their own. However, the most frustrating part was that most of the people in my social network never came back after completing the process.

Threadguy: Would you mind that a bit?

Dan: A little, I keep it in mind.

Threadguy: You know what I like about you? You come across as very sincere, easygoing, and friendly, but I feel like deep down you're a tough character, which is really cool.

Dan: Interestingly, people on Farcaster don’t find me very friendly.

Threadguy: Maybe you've become sharper over these six months? But I think you need to have a bit of edge. I wouldn’t say your image on Twitter or Farcaster is particularly "friendly," but rather quite serious.

Dan: Yes, I am a serious person.

Threadguy: You're career-focused and don't mess around or post casually. I like that; to win, you need to take it seriously.

Dan: Exactly, our initial 400+ users were mostly guided through videos.

Many users actually joined through recommendations. But at that time, many people were asking, "Who is this person? He left Coinbase a year and a half ago; he probably knows nothing about blockchain." In fact, even now, some people still comment like that about me on Farcaster.

Threadguy: Really? People say that about you?

Dan: Yeah, especially those developers. But I consider myself self-taught; I wrote a lot of early code.

Threadguy: So you speak "developer language"?

Dan: Yes, I think our team’s developers would say I’m decent. I majored in English in college.

Threadguy: Really? Why?

Dan: Because I was lazy.

Threadguy: Really? Just because the courses were easy?

Dan: Yes, the courses were easy. But it was actually quite hard to get in.

Threadguy: Where did you go to college?

Dan: Massachusetts. I worked hard in high school and got into college, but once I got there, I kind of slacked off.

Threadguy: Did you do any entrepreneurial projects in college?

Dan: I had a coupon startup project.

Threadguy: Really? Trying to compete with Groupon?

Dan: Well, actually, it was even before Groupon came out.

Threadguy: Wow, that could have been successful.

Dan: Yeah.

Threadguy: What was that project called?

Dan: It was called Coupon Degen.

Threadguy: That’s a nice name, but what about the logo?

Dan: The logo was terrible; one of the things I’m known for is making bad logos. The Farcaster logo isn’t great either, and the Coupon Degen logo was a disaster.

Threadguy: What kind of logo?

Dan: It was just a big W, really ugly, looked like a university emblem, not nice at all.

Threadguy: Yeah, that won’t do. The Rainbow logo looks great.

Dan: Yes, the Rainbow logo is really nice.

Threadguy: Do you think Farcaster needs a plush toy? But it’s not a plush toy company, right? I feel like you look like someone who would like plush toys. What happened to that coupon company later?

Dan: In the first year, we received an acquisition offer to work for a spam text company in Silicon Valley. But we had to drop out of school. I was actually a bit excited at the time, but my parents didn’t think so, and my roommate's parents weren’t very supportive either. We were both the eldest sons in our families, so there was a lot of pressure.

Threadguy: Is he in the cryptocurrency industry?

Dan: No, he’s not in the cryptocurrency industry.

Threadguy: Do you ever feel guilty about the people close to you in life, like siblings, who haven’t entered the cryptocurrency industry and don’t know what’s happening in the crypto space? Have you tried to bring them into the circle?

Dan: No.

Threadguy: Do you feel a responsibility to bring these people into the crypto industry? For example, I sometimes think I have friends who could be persuaded to enter the crypto space, but the last time I convinced them to join, they bought at the top and then started resenting me. Do you feel a social responsibility to bring these people into the crypto industry?

Dan: When I first joined Coinbase, I told everyone to buy some Bitcoin, and they listened; about 50% of them bought. Those people are still friends with me, while the others are my family. (laughs)

I would say that of the 50% who bought, half sold, and the other half are still holding. So those who are holding have made a decent profit on Bitcoin.

However, I generally try to avoid actively discussing cryptocurrency with people. If someone asks, I can talk endlessly, but I won’t bring it up myself.

How to Balance the Use of Different Social Media?

Threadguy: So how do you balance the opportunity cost of not being on Twitter with the long-term focus on Farcaster? I think that’s a problem; at least it is for me personally.

Dan: I think continuously using Twitter is a very smart choice. I’m not saying everyone should completely leave Twitter because it does have the largest user base, especially in the crypto industry; Twitter is definitely the main battlefield.

But I would suggest to everyone: if you can allocate 5% to 10% of your time to Farcaster, you can actually build a more loyal community there. Those "real interactors" are more likely to see your content; they might be more willing to support you, and you can share links online to distribute content.

You can post some drafts on Farcaster to see if they resonate, and then move them to Twitter. I often do this myself; for example, I might post a meme or joke on Farcaster first, and if it gets a good response, I’ll move it directly to Twitter, which also improves the quality of my Twitter content.

However, if I were to advise someone to completely quit Twitter, that would be unsustainable and completely unrealistic.

Threadguy: Yes, so it’s a bit like "Do you have space to use both tools simultaneously?" I’ve given up using Telegram for a long time, and I don’t feel like I’ve lost anything. In fact, I think most of the things people do on Telegram, like saying it’s suitable for business development or other purposes, if you have a large enough audience on Twitter, people will actively find you. They will reach out to you in various ways.

Dan: Yes, they will contact you directly through Twitter DMs. Although Twitter DMs are a bit messy now, if you really want to reach someone, you can always find a way.

This is actually a question from another angle: if you can reduce the use of some social media, it’s not a zero-sum competition but purely time management. If you can free up a little more time in a day, that would be great, like taking an "infinity pill," and then you can use that extra time elsewhere. But I think you need to be clear about the goals of using each platform, and if you don’t use a certain tool, you shouldn’t feel guilty about it.

Threadguy: Right, it does feel much lighter. You can use Farcaster freely.

Dan: Yes, just go try it out, experiment on Farcaster or other platforms. There are actually some really interesting people on Farcaster, even though some think it’s a small circle.

How to View This Cycle?

Threadguy: You entered the crypto space in 2014 when you joined Coinbase and experienced the bull market of 2017, which I wasn’t around for. Later, in 2020 and 2021, I became one of the many NFT "newbies" and participated in that craze. Now, we are back in the third round of the bull-bear cycle, or the third round among more rounds. How crazy will this round be? Is it the legendary "super cycle"? How crazy will it get next? What stage are we currently in this cycle?

Dan: I think we are entering the bull market phase. People were saying the bull market had arrived at the beginning of this year, but I didn’t think so; I thought it was just a head fake. Because on one hand, there are still many uncertainties to resolve with the U.S. elections. The situation is different now because as the elections approach, U.S. crypto policy will likely improve. And this will be the first real policy benefit in history.

Threadguy: How big of an impact will that have?

Dan: It will have a significant impact on the quality of projects we are about to see. Personally, I still believe that Bitcoin is at the core of everything. I strongly believe in the narrative of the "Sovereign Cycle." Matt Huang from Paradigm wrote a short article mentioning this, and I think it makes a lot of sense.

I believe you will see some countries directly announce that they have Bitcoin reserves. This may seem simple, like establishing a "Bitcoin strategic reserve." It sounds a bit unbelievable, but it could indeed happen. In fact, they don’t even need to buy Bitcoin because they already own it—they just haven’t sold it yet.

For example, the Bitcoin they seized from Silk Road or elsewhere just needs to be kept as policy dictates. Whenever they shut down a dark web market or seize Bitcoin from some drug dealers or similar organizations, they just need to keep that Bitcoin in reserve. We have gold reserves, so why can’t we have Bitcoin reserves?

Threadguy: Don’t they already have a lot of Bitcoin from Silk Road and other places?

Dan: Yes, they do have a lot of Bitcoin.

Threadguy: Right, that’s a multi-billion dollar market. So, I think this "meme," although it sounds silly, if the U.S. really does this, other countries will have to ask themselves: why haven’t we included Bitcoin on our balance sheets? What do you think? If this really happens, it would be perfect; it’s what’s called a super cycle. Then, this effect would transmit to the entire crypto asset market. Because when people become very wealthy through Bitcoin, they will start wanting to diversify their investments.

Dan: Yes, and then they will invest in other assets. Once they enter those assets, what will people do? For example, "I feel rich now; I want to buy an NFT." Right? Buy some things. But that’s not the core of the cycle; the core of the cycle comes from the changes in cryptocurrency monetary policy triggered by Bitcoin. So your Coinbase stock might soar. Of course, this is not investment advice; you should do your own research, but Coinbase stock is indeed a good index for the entire crypto market.

Threadguy: So, is this the "unlock moment" that you (Coinbase) have been waiting for? I can imagine Coinbase has been waiting for clear regulations and protections.

Dan: Yes, but I think a big issue for Coinbase is that they still need talent—people who can come in and develop interesting applications. And now, for the first time in my ten years in the crypto industry, I see a situation where the infrastructure is ahead of the talent.

In previous bull markets, many very talented people would flood in, wanting to do something on-chain, but they found themselves facing long confirmation times and high gas fees—issues that didn’t exist before. Although the last cycle improved things a bit, the current situation is completely different.

Now, we are in a world where Base and Solana are working together to lower transaction costs and increase transaction throughput. This is a huge boon for the entire crypto industry.

As a result, people can build any application they want; for example, Blackbird is a great case. Do you know this company? It’s a restaurant reservation platform, but its founder previously sold Resi (a very well-known platform) to American Express. He’s the kind of exceptional entrepreneur.

In the next few years, there will be hundreds or even thousands of cases like this in the crypto space. They might sell a reservation platform and then go on to create a similar new project, which is quite common in the industry. Although the new projects may be somewhat different, they have all the connections and resources to do it again.

Threadguy: That’s just crazy.

Dan: So I think this cycle is like this: major assets will experience significant price increases, attracting more people into the field. When these people arrive, they will find, "Wow, this Layer 2 infrastructure is really well-developed." The experience of embedded wallets is also great, allowing people to truly build what they want.

Threadguy: It sounds like you think we are still in the first phase?

Dan: Yes, I think we are still in the first phase. However, the market may still experience some volatility and may consolidate for a while. But if tax policies are adjusted, it could also drive further development.

How to View AI + Crypto

Threadguy: Do you think the current AI craze will bring more talent back to the crypto space? Or more broadly, what do you think about the relationship between AI and crypto?

Dan: I might not be as familiar with all the details as you are; you know more about the dynamics on Twitter. But from my understanding, Marc Andreessen suddenly turning to support Bitcoin—doesn’t that seem a bit "old-fashioned"? He sent Bitcoin to the "Truth Terminal" people, and then "Truth Terminal" was born. After that, people started asking, "Can you create a new cryptocurrency?" and then "boom," a new project appeared. I can’t quite remember which one he created.

So now everyone is focused on the meta-narrative of AI agents. Then everyone is thinking, "Okay, I want to try this too; how do I do it?" I think this naturally extends to Farcaster because building applications on Farcaster is much easier than on Twitter. If you try to use Twitter’s API, they charge high fees and have access restrictions, so the number of queries you can make is limited.

If you are a developer who knows nothing about this, what can you do on Farcaster that you can’t do on Twitter? You don’t need to ask anyone for permission; just create an account and you can start right away.

Threadguy: What do you think of these tools?

Dan: I think they are pretty cool; they are interesting experiments. Of course, you might not spend all day interacting with them, but I think there’s also a bit of a performative aspect. There’s an AI that used another AI to create a tool that can deploy tokens, and this tool deployed a token on Farcaster, which is the first case that has recently gained attention on Base.

The result is that now everyone is starting to deploy tokens frequently. Throughout my time using Farcaster, initially, there were only a few assets on Farcaster, like tipping mechanisms. But in the past three weeks, about 3,000 assets have emerged.

Threadguy: So are you encouraging this phenomenon, opposing it, or remaining neutral?

Dan: We need to align with on-chain activities. If you take a high-and-mighty attitude and think "meme coins are bad," then fine, you might have built a crypto-native social network, but that network has no intersection with people’s actual on-chain behavior. Meanwhile, if you dive headfirst into a purely "degenerate casino," it will also ruin the platform.

Threadguy: Yes, you might encounter some people doing strange things during live streams.

Dan: Exactly, so my point is that you need to find some balance; that’s my understanding.

Content Moderation on Platforms

Threadguy: How do you moderate content on Farcaster?

Dan: That’s a good question. Farcaster has different levels of moderation mechanisms. The simplest is that Warpcast (the Farcaster client) can make an account "disappear" from Warpcast. But that doesn’t make it truly disappear from the protocol, right?

But in practical terms, if most users are using Warpcast and we make an account "disappear," then that account is blocked from the user’s perspective. However, from the perspective of "censorship," things are not absolute: this user hasn’t been completely banned; they have just violated Warpcast’s terms of service. Therefore, if someone posts very vulgar content, we can take stricter measures.

Threadguy: What do you think of those strange live stream contents?

Dan: I haven’t watched many of those streams, but I did see one guy’s stream where he was trying to stay awake for 24 hours straight, aiming to get his token’s market cap to $100 million; he just kept streaming, even without sleeping.

Threadguy: I thought that was a bit much, a bit dark.

Dan: Yes, I think the problem is that once people realize they can make money in some way, they fall into a state of constantly "inwardly competing" for attention. In the U.S., if content like "Pump Fun" isn’t taken down, they might face legal liability. Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, they do indeed have risks. However, I heard they shut down the live stream and plan to relaunch under some level of content moderation.

Threadguy: Is it a big deal to have platforms shut down in the U.S.?

Dan: Well, it’s actually quite difficult to have platforms shut down in the U.S. due to content issues.

Threadguy: Oh, really?

Dan: Yes, even though those large social media platforms take many actions regarding content moderation, the First Amendment actually gives platforms a lot of leeway to allow various content. However, that doesn’t mean all content is permitted. For example, if someone threatens to murder someone else during a live stream, the platform might face some legal liability. Additionally, such content is also very damaging to brand image.

Threadguy: But what if the platform is not in the U.S.?

Dan: If a company like "Pump Fun" is headquartered outside the U.S. and has no banking connections with fiat currency, then banks cannot cut off their funding. If they rely entirely on on-chain operations, perhaps the server hosting provider can shut down their servers, but from a crypto technology perspective, theoretically, they can continue to operate.

That’s why I find this situation quite ironic. Interestingly, many people on Twitter are saying, "This is terrible; Pump Fun must be shut down." Those who advocate for decentralization are calling for Pump Fun to stop streaming, which is itself a bit ironic.

What is ANON?

Threadguy: Hmm, this is indeed a centralized platform, and they never claimed to be decentralized. However, discussions about this topic are always varied. By the way, can you tell me what this "anon coin" is? What is Vitalik buying? I saw someone on Twitter mention it and tag me in a tweet; what’s going on?

Dan: Oh, this is actually an application that started on Farcaster; to be precise, it was originally developed on Farcaster. The developer of this project is a veteran who has been working in the ecosystem for a while and previously worked at OpenSea, making him a top developer in the NFT space. He released this application about a week ago, so it’s only been seven or eight days.

The way this application works is that it has a website called "Anon Coin." To post on this website, you need to hold a certain amount of tokens. The specific amount of tokens required is dynamically changing. If you go to that website now, you can see the required token amount.

The process is that after you click to post, the backend performs some complex calculations using zero-knowledge proofs to verify whether you have enough tokens in your crypto wallet. Once verified, you can post under a group account.

Threadguy: So this is like an anonymous group on Farcaster? Anyone can join?

Dan: Yes, that’s about the idea. The concept of "anonymous posting" is basically like that, but it uses zero-knowledge proof technology and some really impressive open-source code. So when Vitalik saw this project, he became interested in the zero-knowledge proof technology and went to look at the source code. He does occasionally participate in some projects. I don’t keep track of what Vitalik regularly buys, but he seems to think this application is cool enough to get involved.

The current issue is that any time you see content from "anonymous posting," some of it might be speculated to be posted by Vitalik. If you participate in anonymous posting, no one knows whether you are Vitalik, Threadguy, or someone else, which avoids a "reveal the poster" situation.

However, they now have a new feature called the "Claim Feature." If the content you posted becomes very popular, you can claim it later, like saying, "Actually, I posted this!" This introduces a lot of innovation.

Threadguy: But what if the website gets hacked?

Dan: Theoretically, even if the website is attacked, it cannot alter the content from past data.

Threadguy: But what if hackers can monitor and change the code in real-time?

Dan: Yes, but I think people are already considering how to make all of this more decentralized, such as using zero-knowledge proof technology to access accounts. That’s really cool, and I think we will see more similar things in the future.

Life of the Farcaster Founder

Threadguy: Yes, do you communicate with these developers, saying, "Wow, that's a great idea, you should focus on this, you could try this direction"?

Dan: I promote them on Farcaster and then post it on Twitter. Sometimes I DM them, and sometimes I reply directly under their posts, like "You should add these features." Last week I made a suggestion, and they implemented it the next day. Honestly, I can't even remember how much information I absorb from Farcaster every day; it's just too much. I basically spend all day immersed in Farcaster.

Threadguy: What time do you wake up every day?

Dan: I have kids, so I usually have to get up at six.

Threadguy: How old are your kids?

Dan: One is three and a half, one is two, and another is due to be born in a few weeks.

Threadguy: Wow, you must be super busy.

Dan: Yeah, so I wake up really early every day. Coffee is a must, and then I open the app, and usually, I see someone "shouting at me," which is how I start my day.

Threadguy: Are you the type to get up and walk around before checking your phone, or do you grab your phone right away?

Dan: I grab my phone right away. There's no zen about it, no coffee journaling or anything. However, my office is very close to where I live, just a few minutes away. There are only two people in my office: me and Veron.

Threadguy: So it's just you two in the office, and the rest of the team works remotely?

Dan: Yes, the rest of the team members are remote. But I like it this way. I remember attending their development Zoom meetings in the past, and I had no idea what they were talking about, but I joined anyway, just to "get in the trenches" (laughs). I tried to learn, but there were nine different development tools that were useless to me at the time. But now it's different; now we have AI.

Threadguy: Are you the type who holds a lot of meetings, or do you prefer to have fewer meetings?

Dan: We have one meeting every day, sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes only 15 minutes, trying to keep it short. After that, we quickly sync in small groups based on everyone's work situation; for example, the Frames team will have their own small meeting. But our team basically has no red tape; we don’t need too many meetings.

Threadguy: Do you think Frames 2 will become a big hit?

Dan: I think it will; we will work hard to promote it.

Threadguy: I notice you are quite low-key and never deliberately hype things up. Even when Farcaster was gaining traction and everyone was super excited, with some saying, "I can earn a million dollars a year from Degen tips," you remained calm and simply responded, "New features, very cool."

Dan: Yes, I am indeed quite calm. I learned this from Brian Armstrong. His attitude is very philosophical: "The highs aren’t as high as you think, and the lows aren’t as low as you think." If you get too excited during the peak, when the low comes, you might crash, burn out, or even give up. So emotions need to be regulated appropriately.

Threadguy: Do you enjoy reading books in your spare time?

Dan: I do, but I haven’t been reading much lately. I basically spend all day "plugged into the information stream" (laughs). However, I did enjoy reading before.

Threadguy: You mentioned you watched some live streams; those are really popular.

Dan: Yes, they are indeed great.

Threadguy: Do you like Twitch?

Dan: Yeah, I like it; I think live streaming is cool and interesting.

Threadguy: Oh, what happened to that Farcaster app called Stream?

Dan: That app has shifted to Solana, so we don’t mention it anymore.

Threadguy: Why?

Dan: I don’t know; you can ask that developer (laughs). But we are still waiting for a native Farcaster live app. There’s an app called Streamm, which was initially developed by the 3M team; they might still be working on it. Maybe one day we can do a live stream together; that would be cool.

Threadguy: The competition for live streaming must be fierce, right?

Dan: Yes, it’s very capital-intensive. I can imagine how difficult it is to compete with Amazon.

Threadguy: But it seems easier to beat Amazon than to beat Meta, right?

Dan: Exactly, because Amazon's culture leans more towards serious business models, and they lack some consumer-oriented flexibility in their DNA. So they are not as strong in consumer apps.

What is Clanker?

Threadguy: What is "Clanker"? It sounds interesting; do you have any ideas?

Dan: Clanker.World is a project asset name. I tweeted about it to get more people like you to notice it, so they would remember Farcaster.

Threadguy: Indeed, that tweet had a good effect.

Dan: Yes, that was the purpose of my tweet—to get people to hear "Farcaster" multiple times. If you hear "Farcaster" 30 times in the next month, I guarantee you will at least come back to check it out once. That’s the goal, so I usually keep a low profile but occasionally pop up. This is my first media appearance.

Threadguy: I saw a tweet saying Clanker World achieved 20% of Pump Pump's trading volume in a day.

Dan: Well, they were using Dune Dashboard to compile the data, but I found that calculation method had some issues. I looked at that Dune Dashboard; while its statistics were accurate at the time, I later deleted it because someone pointed out that the data was not quite right.

I have great respect for Solana and the developers in the Solana ecosystem, including those founders. A few people reached out to me via DM in a friendly manner, saying they didn’t intend to publicly point out my mistake but wanted to remind me that the data was not very accurate. So I deleted it. However, Clanker World did generate quite a bit of revenue, which did catch the attention of the Farcaster community.

Threadguy: So you’re saying you can deploy a token just by replying directly on Farcaster?

Dan: Yes. That’s what’s happening on Farcaster right now. For example, if I post a meme or other content, a message you posted on Farcaster might have already been used by someone else to deploy a token. Even if you just say "hey," it could become a new token.

Threadguy: Really? Just saying "@Clanker World create token" can create a token?

Dan: Pretty much. And it’s based on a large language model (LLM) that can detect your content and also supports images and other features. So what people are deploying now is just crazy. And we didn’t directly develop these features; it’s other developers in the ecosystem doing it, like Proxy Studio, which is an anonymous development team.

Threadguy: I tried to DM them to invite them to join the conversation, but they replied that they are anonymous. However, their "intern" might make an appearance.

Dan: Cool. They are a two-person team and have only been at it for two or three weeks, but they are already growing quickly; I’d say they are a success story. Our goal is to have 100 similar success stories on Farcaster.

The Crazy Farcaster Funding Story

Threadguy: Do you think Base and Farcaster are almost synonymous now? It feels like everything happening on Base is closely related to Farcaster. Is it because the overlap between these two communities is high, or is there another reason?

Dan: I think the overlap is indeed very high. As I mentioned earlier, Jesse is very smart; he saw the Frames project and then took decisive action.

Threadguy: Do you communicate with him often?

Dan: Yes, frequently. He’s actually a bit low-key, but he has been quietly following the development of Farcaster. However, their team is now doing their own thing. I think we are highly complementary; some of the things they are doing, like developing smart wallets, will greatly benefit the Farcaster ecosystem.

Threadguy: Like what?

Dan: For example, in the next two years, the user experience (UX) of all crypto applications will improve significantly compared to 2021. Imagine trying to teach someone how to buy an NFT back then; that process was complex and clunky. This time, our user experience will be unbelievably good, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Threadguy: Do you think if the crypto industry enters a hyper-growth phase, Farcaster will also explode?

Dan: I certainly hope so. If not, then there might be some issues (laughs).

Threadguy: You recently raised a large funding round, right?

Dan: Yes. Earlier this year, we completed a funding round. It took some time to finalize after the growth data came out, but we eventually secured an investment letter from Paradigm in February.

Threadguy: Paradigm? That’s just crazy! Was the whole funding process difficult? Was it torturous?

Dan: My situation might be a bit special… I didn’t have a business plan, so at the time it was… yeah, just like you said, I attended some meetings and made a few calls. There were no video meetings; really, no videos.

Threadguy: No business plan at all? Has that happened before?

Dan: I believe others might have had similar situations, but we operate under a "public building" model where people can see directly what we are doing.

Threadguy: So, you didn’t have a business plan, and you just went to them, introduced yourself as Dan, and said, "I’m raising funds, the amount is this, and the valuation is this"?

Dan: Yes, that’s the kind of conversation it was—no prepared "pitch."

Threadguy: Are you serious? No pitch at all?

Dan: You can ask those people; there was really no pitch, and no pre-prepared business plan. The whole process was "I am the pitch." Our network, team, and the community we built are the best showcase.

Threadguy: That’s just crazy! So you think there’s no need to prepare a meticulously crafted proposal behind the scenes?

Dan: Right, no need. We are building in public; people can see the results directly.

Threadguy: You downplay it, but this is really insane! Most of the funding is already in place, right? Your team only has 14 people?

Dan: Yes, we still maintain a small team model. However, everyone has their own opinions on how we should spend this money.

Threadguy: What do people think you should do?

Dan: For example, some have suggested that we should form a marketing team.

Threadguy: But I don't think you need a marketing team.

Dan: Right, the users of Farcaster also have a lot of discussions about these kinds of suggestions.

Threadguy: So this approach actually gives you a lot of confidence, right?

Dan: Yes, we don’t need a marketing team. It’s fine not to have a business plan.

Threadguy: That’s really crazy. Did you use any dashboard tools, like Dune Dashboard?

Dan: Yes, we used some tools. But the funding process was actually very quick.

Threadguy: Was the whole process particularly cumbersome?

Dan: No, it was quick; it was done within 48 hours. But since it was a large funding round, with a total amount exceeding $50 million, it took some time to handle the follow-up.

Threadguy: You only made three to five calls to get it done?

Dan: Yes, about five calls.

Threadguy: Oh my god! Were you the only one making those calls?

Dan: Yes, just me, and I even completed it in a parking lot.

Threadguy: That’s unbelievable! Is this model applicable to everyone?

Dan: It’s not applicable to everyone, but it has worked for us.

Threadguy: I think this approach definitely doesn’t work for everyone.

Dan: Yeah, but look, we raised the money, and now we need to figure out how to achieve growth. It’s a bit like getting a mortgage; once you get the loan, you have to figure out how to pay it back.

Threadguy: When you raised $225 million, did your focus change?

Dan: Actually, it was $150 million. We had already raised $30 million before, and now we have over $170 million in our account, basically without spending much.

Threadguy: Are you particularly frugal with the funds, not wasting anything at all?

Dan: Yes, for example, I’ve been using my personal laptop. But I just bought a Mac Mini for $1,200, which is the first one for our team. I think it’s great, fast performance, completely sufficient.

Threadguy: What’s that PC on your desk for? Gaming?

Dan: I have a 4090 graphics card, but I never play games.

Threadguy: That graphics card could still be used for mining Ethereum, right?

Dan: Yes, but not anymore. I don’t mine; I just use it for live streaming. I think live streaming doesn’t require high performance from the graphics card since I don’t play games or do much else.

Threadguy: Oh, so that computer sounds pretty powerful?

Dan: Yes, and that computer was gifted by Frank; it seems to be part of the D-Gods card.

Threadguy: Your team only has 14 people? Many people say you should form a marketing team.

Dan: Yes, but I think we don’t need one at all.

Threadguy: So how do you think you can achieve growth? How to leverage opportunities in the crypto market?

Dan: The key is to make the core application’s basic functions very user-friendly, especially the foundational aspects of social features. At the same time, we need to make Frames and the transaction process as smooth as possible.

Threadguy: It sounds like Frames is a "killer feature"?

Dan: Yes, but we need to further optimize it and persuade others to develop features based on it. For example, someone on Twitter made some very constructive criticisms of Farcaster, and we need to take that seriously.

Threadguy: I forgot his username. He’s that guy called friend pet surf coder or something. Anyway, he has a cool game on Base that’s on-chain. We need to get him to want to build a framework for Farcaster. If we can’t make the platform good enough for his application to want to migrate over, then that’s our problem. It will take a lot of effort to achieve that.

Dan: I think you have some very sharp insights, and one of my favorite points is your view on the success of the Farcaster protocol. You believe that a killer application must be built, rather than relying on others to develop applications online, even if the network itself has almost no content.

Threadguy: Right, just like in the movie "Field of Dreams," it says, "If you build it, they will come." But in reality, that doesn’t happen automatically. You have to actively push to make it a reality.

Dan: Exactly, what’s actually driving the growth of Farcaster now are the developers on the network. However, they are not currently developing a competitor to Warpcast; instead, they are building other applications like Clanker and Anoncast, which are actually integrating into our network and leveraging the distribution advantages of Warpcast.

Some Gossip

Threadguy: Yes, I know there are other clients, like Supercast. I was going to ask how Supercast is doing.

Dan: Supercast is still around; they just rebranded to "Super" today. They are now fully focused on asset functionality, supporting you to complete all these crazy operations on-chain. For Supercast or now Super, the best scenario is when you see on Twitter, "Farcaster or Warpcast is temporarily down, investigating," their performance will shine.

Threadguy: By the way, Woj is a great guy from Poland; it would be awesome if he could come to live stream.

Dan: Oh, W, I know him; he’s indeed great, very smart and capable. But there are many other applications now.

I think we have finally reached a stage where Warpcast doesn’t have to bear all the growth work alone anymore. Now there will be other applications to help drive development. But even so, I think it’s still very important to maintain focus and keep pushing forward. This focus also allows applications like Clanker and Anoncast to emerge and continue to develop.

Threadguy: What about Perl? Is it still around?

Dan: Yes, it is. I really like Ace. He’s a very passionate person, and I like him a lot. They seem to be developing a new application now, which I heard is related to prediction markets, called offmarket or something like that. I can’t remember exactly; Ace was one of the earliest Farcaster developers. One time he came to our office when I was still willing to meet anyone online, and at that time, there were only about 100 daily active users.

Threadguy: Frank was one of the earliest Farcaster users, right?

Dan: Yes, he left for a while but has come back now; one day we will get him to fully return.

Threadguy: Is Brian still using Farcaster?

Dan: He logs in occasionally; he’s quite busy, but he might log in for about five minutes or so.

Threadguy: Will Brian come to live stream?

Dan: He doesn’t really like doing media-related things, but I might be able to persuade him to live stream once.

Threadguy: Do you think you can persuade him?

Dan: You have to perform perfectly for that.

Threadguy: Well, it depends on how the chat area performs. Would people want to see Brian live stream? That would definitely be very interesting!

Dan: I think you can’t ask about that Dogecoin thing, the one from his wedding, what was it called?

Threadguy: Okay, we can’t ask about that. Your phone contact list must be crazy.

Dan: Yes, it’s a nice list. But I usually don’t give people access to my phone contact list.

Threadguy: Who is the most famous person in your phone? Of course, you don’t have to answer.

Dan: I won’t answer that question.

Threadguy: Hey, have you had any contact with Sam Bankman-Fried?

Dan: Yes. My only interaction with Sam was in 2019. At that time, I had just transitioned from the consumer business department at Coinbase to the institutional sales team, which was in a phase of needing restructuring; you could say it was a "cleanup job." During this process, I met almost all the large institutional traders, including Sam, who was still at Alameda at the time. He was very confident on the phone and had many clear and strong opinions on how we could improve the product.

Threadguy: Was that a voice or video chat?

Dan: It was a video chat. We were in a conference room, and he connected via video. He looked very excited and might have been doing other things.

Threadguy: Was he playing League of Legends in the background?

Dan: I think he might have been. He did seem to be "jumping around," haha.

Threadguy: What do you think about CZ's situation?

Dan: I think he handled this situation quite beautifully. Four months of imprisonment and still keeping all the money; that’s crazy, right?

Threadguy: Yeah, SPF got a long sentence, while CZ is safe and holding $60 billion.

Dan: What if the situation were reversed? If FTX were fully compliant, what impact would that have on Coinbase?

Threadguy: I think in that case, Coinbase would face more competition now.

Dan: Yes, I think if those competitors hadn’t "evaporated," Coinbase’s profit margins would definitely be lower, and the stock wouldn’t be as high as it is now. But you could say they have basically cleared out all the competitors.

Threadguy: Well, those competitors did break the law. But you feel like you’re competing with one hand tied behind your back because you’re the only one following the rules. Brian is really impressive. Do you think Coinbase will become one of the largest companies in the world by 2025?

Dan: I’m not sure if it can become the largest company in the world, but I think as long as there’s a cryptocurrency bull market, Coinbase will grow with the market. But this is not investment advice, NFA.

Threadguy: Haha, okay, NFA. So when are you getting that danromero.org?

Dan: Oh, that domain is indeed pretty cool. But if you look at dromero.com, it’s even worse. That’s a wealth management consultant who shares my name.

Threadguy: Haha, Romero is indeed a common name, like an Italian name?

Dan: Actually, it's a Spanish name. But in Mexico, "Romero" is quite common. I'm not Mexican, but the name Romero is particularly prevalent there. That guy owns danromero.com, and the domain redirects to a wealth management website. A few years ago, I contacted him and said I was willing to pay $10,000 to buy it. He replied that he wanted a million dollars. I thought, well, I'll just stick with danromero.org; it's pretty good.

Threadguy: Haha, that's indeed pretty good, and your website has some interesting stuff.

Dan: I'm not sure if "interesting" is the right word to describe it. Those contents were created when I was bored. At that time, I had just left Base and hadn't started working on Farcaster, so I was just writing random things on the blog.

Threadguy: How long was that period?

Dan: About a year and a half.

Threadguy: I heard you learned some history during that time?

Dan: Yes, I was reading and traveling a bit. I didn't have kids back then, so I had more free time.

Dan: During that time, I traveled for about nine months. Another thing is, I played Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA 5. I had been saving them up but didn't have time to play.

Threadguy: So you were just gaming during that time?

Dan: Yeah, I was living in a basement in San Francisco. My wife had never seen me so obsessed with gaming. She said, "You wake up every day to play games, from morning until 10 PM, and then go straight to sleep." That was back in 2020.

Threadguy: Wait, did you ever say why you left Coinbase?

Dan: No, I just felt it was time. I had been there for five years, and I wanted to do something new.

Threadguy: And then you took a year off for yourself?

Dan: About a year to a year and a half. I just played games, read some books, and learned a few things.

Threadguy: Did that time have an impact on you? Did it feel important?

Dan: Well, I think that year was very important for me. I felt a bit "disconnected" and got away from the particularly woke atmosphere in San Francisco. Working in a tech company, if you focus solely on work, you rarely think about those political issues. During that time, through traveling, I realized that I didn't need to agree with all the viewpoints that everyone told me. I could choose to believe in what I truly resonated with, rather than what others wanted me to believe.

Threadguy: Was that revolutionary for you?

Dan: I don't think it was revolutionary, but it was helpful for me. It allowed me to express my personality more.

Threadguy: Did you not feel like you had your own personality before? Were you just that typical corporate employee? Following established processes and doing things step by step?

Dan: Yeah, I was that kind of "corporate person." And Coinbase had a similar style, right? Brian (the founder of Coinbase) even wrote a blog post about "not discussing politics," and 5% of people resigned because of it.

Threadguy: If you hadn't founded Farcaster, what were you planning to do?

Dan: I was trying to persuade Verun to start a computer company, really to create a competitor to the Mac.

Threadguy: Really?

Dan: Yeah, he had previously worked on a hardware startup related to hearing aids. But he said, absolutely not! He was very averse to hardware.

Threadguy: Why did you want to do hardware?

Dan: I thought it sounded interesting. But Farcaster was actually another idea. It was just before Musk took over Twitter, and I felt that Twitter was being managed by a bunch of incompetent people, leaning left, when it should actually be more neutral. Of course, it might have shifted to the right now, but that doesn't matter. Founding Farcaster felt very mission-driven for me because the "public square" of the internet should be an open protocol, not controlled by a single company. I still firmly believe in that.

Threadguy: Did you know the management of the old Twitter?

Dan: I knew some people.

Threadguy: What about Jack Dorsey?

Dan: He's a cool guy; I met him once. He's very successful, having founded Twitter and Square, which is already impressive.

Threadguy: Some say he is Satoshi Nakamoto; what do you think?

Dan: I think Satoshi Nakamoto might be one of those deceased cryptographers, like Hal Finney, or others like Szabo.

Threadguy: Have you seen any related documentaries?

Dan: I haven't seen it; that documentary is not good; it's pretty trashy.

Threadguy: What do you think of Peter Todd?

Dan: I think Bitcoin is a great asset, but I'm completely uninterested in its dynamics. It doesn't matter at all. For me, Bitcoin is like a reverse signal. No matter what happens in the Bitcoin community, this thing will stabilize itself and ultimately be very successful, even hugely successful, completely independent of what the Bitcoin community is doing.

Threadguy: I wanted to ask earlier, do you think MicroStrategy could become a potential risk point for Bitcoin? After all, they currently hold about 2% of Bitcoin.

Dan: That question feels a bit too "financial engineering" for me. However, I do admire MicroStrategy's conviction.

Threadguy: Have you met Michael Saylor?

Dan: No, I've never met Saylor.

Threadguy: Really?

Dan: Yes, I don't know anyone in the "modern Bitcoin community." The people I know are from around 2014, and then from 2015 to 2016, my focus completely shifted from Bitcoin to Ethereum and the cryptocurrency space.

Threadguy: Got it. So about Dan Romero, there are some cool things—"cool" is the right word, I think. For example, you once posted some ideas about things people could build.

Dan: Yes, I do have some ideas. Before Farcaster, I had some entrepreneurial thoughts, like "Here are a few startup ideas." But now I can't remember most of them. Later, I proposed about 50 ideas that could be developed based on Farcaster.

Threadguy: Okay, so even beyond Farcaster, what do you think is currently the most lacking in the crypto space? Are there any crazy ideas that you can't understand why no one has done them yet? Maybe some smart people watching the live stream can tell you the reason. But for example, why isn't there…

Dan: Well, this needs to be done outside the United States. So again, you need to research the relevant laws yourself. But why isn't there an online Blackjack based on crypto yet?

Think about it; there are so many people who just want to play money-related games like Blackjack or similar games every day. But why hasn't anyone done something like that? We have so much block space to utilize. However, I think the U.S. might directly ban such things, but there are many people in other parts of the world who actually want to play those games.

Threadguy: Maybe the answer is that these people would rather do 100x leveraged contract trading than play Blackjack?

Dan: That might be the reason, but it still sounds pretty strange.

Threadguy: Have you ever done contract trading before?

Dan: No.

Threadguy: Can you trade contracts on Coinbase?

Dan: In the early days, yes, because there was no SEC regulation at that time. Everyone thought these were commodity-type trades. But by 2017, when the market started to explode, regulation caught up, and after that, trading was completely banned. So, I was never a trader.

Threadguy: What crypto assets do you currently hold?

Dan: The crypto assets I currently hold in larger proportions are Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a bit of Solana and Uniswap, that's it.

Threadguy: Oh, Uniswap! Are you friends with Hayden?

Dan: I know him, but just casually; I'm actually an early angel investor.

Threadguy: Nice, congratulations! And you mentioned Solana?

Dan: Well, I bought Solana during this market downturn. I respect what they are doing.

Threadguy: Farcaster supports Solana, right?

Dan: You can add a Solana address, but currently, we don't have a "Frame" feature that works with it. That might be an area for improvement for us, but there isn't much demand right now; many people are more interested in "Blink."

Threadguy: Really? Are there really people interested?

Dan: I think if we launch Frame V2 and add support for Solana, people from the Solana community will definitely come back. But there's a strange "religious divide" in between because there are some activities based on the Ethereum chain on Farcaster, and the Solana community might feel, "Oh no, this is a completely different belief system; we can't touch it."

Threadguy: Yes, I understand what you mean. By the way, I want to ask you a question. Since Brian Armstrong is going to meet with Trump and others, what do you think is the most important thing that the president or government can do for the development of the crypto space? For example, what would be the biggest regulatory breakthrough or policy improvement?

Dan: I think there are two points. First, the FIT 21 bill that passed the House last summer, but then got stuck in the Senate due to the obstruction of Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown. Sherrod Brown has now left office, but Elizabeth Warren is still there. So, it depends on whether this will be secretly slipped into the government budget proposal; Congress is currently controlled by the Republicans.

Secondly, I think the concept of a "strategic Bitcoin reserve" is very clear. If the U.S. announces the establishment of a strategic Bitcoin reserve and clearly states that it will not sell these reserve assets, believing that this is an appreciating asset, other countries will definitely follow suit.

Threadguy: Well, then what is our strategy? Could it be that the price has already reflected this, as people may not have considered the possibility that they would sell? If they say we won't sell, isn't that just assuming or believing…

Dan: Well, I think when people say "it's already reflected in the price," they are actually referring to the possibilities of anything. Once it starts being discussed, it has already been taken into account, regardless of whether it actually happens. But what I want to say is that the second-order effects will make it harder for large funds to place bets.

For example, if we really get closer to the reality of a potential strategic Bitcoin reserve, I think smart people will start to think about what the second-order effects of this situation might be. For instance, other countries might follow suit, and it could even be that the second-largest country in the world publicly announces that they also hold Bitcoin.

Threadguy: Could this become a "availability cascading effect"?

Dan: Absolutely correct! This would put pressure on the U.S. to want to buy Bitcoin at a lower price. However, I think other countries might be more inclined to want to send a signal that they also hold Bitcoin.

Threadguy: Wow, that's cool! The reason for holding dollars is that other countries also hold dollars or U.S. Treasuries. In short, countries are like a group of trend-following "lemmings"; most countries are not pioneers; they just follow in the footsteps of others.

Threadguy: By the way, have you asked him about his price target for Bitcoin?

Dan: We didn't get any specific numbers, and I have no clue. But I think we can look at gold's performance first. Legendary investors like Stanley Druckenmiller and Paul Tudor Jones have publicly stated that they have made large-scale purchases of Bitcoin over the past few years, even in a poor regulatory environment. Now with Bitcoin ETFs and Ethereum ETFs, there might be a Solana ETF coming next, and institutional funds are slowly flowing into the market.

But I believe that one day, Warren Buffett's influence will gradually fade, and the metaphor of "poison" will become history. If the U.S. really incorporates Bitcoin into its strategic reserves, it would lead to a very large bull market cycle—not just for Bitcoin, but for the entire cryptocurrency space. However, the question is timing.

Threadguy: Yeah, of course, I think this will definitely happen. But it might be next year or three years from now. Alright, I have three more questions for you, and then I'll let you go. The first question is a bit random—what was the worst day you experienced at Coinbase?

Dan: We experienced what is called a "flash crash." The system was running as designed, but from a first principles perspective, it was a bad design. Do you know what a stop-loss order is?

Threadguy: Yes.

Dan: Well, a series of stop-loss orders can trigger a chain reaction, and at that time, it directly "nuked" the price. I remember it was Ethereum, and then the market fell into chaos.

Threadguy: Was it your fault?

Dan: Uh, it wasn't us "doing" it; it was the market that triggered the situation. Then we received a lot of complaints, and a bunch of federal regulators got involved.

Threadguy: Was this in 2020?

Dan: No, this was in 2017. The same year the Bitcoin Cash fork happened.

Threadguy: Oh my god.

Dan: Later, there were accusations of insider trading at Coinbase. At that time, we actually had a policy against trading. I'm not really clear on the investigation results because I had already left by the time it was completed. But according to public information, no employees were found to have participated in trading. However, two employees were indeed caught for other reasons about a year or two later.

But the damage from that incident had already been done. There was a lot of opposition in the community; for example, Cobe (a well-known commentator) was very dissatisfied with Coinbase, feeling that the whole situation was the result of insider trading.

Threadguy: Well, that's basically how it was. At that time, we encountered a huge problem where we needed to allow users to access their Bitcoin Cash. As a result, our API leaked information indicating that Bitcoin Cash would become a trading pair, so some people started buying Bitcoin Cash days before we opened withdrawals. However, Bitcoin Cash is not a security, right? Insider trading generally only applies to securities, so you can't casually say this is insider trading for a commodity. But it was indeed a huge stain.

I remember the pressure was immense at that time, with various federal subpoenas coming in, and I was in a key position in an important department of the company, which felt really bad, but you just had to grit your teeth and keep going.

Threadguy: What do you think about the current state and future of crypto media?

Dan: I think one interesting aspect of the crypto space is that traditional media isn't that important in this field. Things like what you guys are doing—native crypto media, podcasts, streaming shows, and some content active on X—these are the truly influential things.

However, I still believe traditional media is very important for institutional investors. Over the past decade, I've noticed that traditional media generally holds a negative bias against cryptocurrencies, whether it's Bitcoin or Ethereum, so I hope that native crypto media can build a bridge in this regard.

On one hand, we have those "too immersed in internet culture" contents, which are the foundation of building crypto culture; but on the other hand, I don't know how to elevate some more mature and sophisticated viewpoints to bridge the gap and allow institutional investors to access this content.

I think this is a huge opportunity—not the overly technical content, nor the completely speculative or overly entertaining content, but allowing some smart crypto insights to stand out and compete in discourse with the garbage content of CNBC.

Threadguy: Where do you think independent, more speculative, on-the-ground crypto media like us will go?

Dan: I think live streaming is the purest form of the future; it will replace all traditional television. But the question is, how to solve the distribution channel issue? Currently, I think one challenge of live streaming is, for example, if you're on Twitch, if you post a live stream link on Farcaster, maybe no one will watch it at all. So the question is, should you use a multi-platform streaming tool like OBS to stream simultaneously to places like Twitter? Maybe that's the answer; live streaming needs broad coverage.

Threadguy: The live streaming experience is poor; it's completely unachievable.

Dan: Right, live streaming is a must. But there's another issue; streamers should give feedback to the platform, like directly tagging Musk on Twitter, saying, "Hey, I have a huge fan base." He’s streaming Diablo, so he knows what the problem is. Obviously, X needs to improve this feature.

Threadguy: He definitely knows it's bad.

Dan: Yeah, when he interviews people like Trump, the live stream crashes, and he must go and scold his team. But I feel that before people find better solutions, like I tried to do a live Q&A on Farcaster this weekend using YouTube's streaming feature, and it was a disaster. I used an external microphone, and it couldn't recognize it. Then I thought, how do I do this? Trying some random platforms like Riverside or OBS. I think if I'm smart enough to figure out OBS, I could stream simultaneously on every platform.

Threadguy: So are you live streaming on YouTube now?

Dan: No. So for me, the focus should be to expand coverage as much as possible, but maybe you have better reasons. I used to stream on both Twitter and Twitch simultaneously, but the experience on Twitter was too poor. After clicking the live link on Twitter, you might not even go to Twitch to watch the stream and just give up. So I later thought, forget it, and focused on Twitch. If someone wants to watch, they are more likely to stay and subscribe to the channel.

Threadguy: Is subscribing important to you?

Dan: Yes, but the problem is the revenue share is too poor.

Threadguy: How much does the platform take?

Dan: First of all, if you have Amazon Prime, you can get a free subscription every month, which is nice. But even so, the income Amazon gives you is very little.

Threadguy: You see, the more subscriptions someone has, the more cost-effective it becomes. But if you only subscribe once, it costs $7, and I only get $2.5. That's the reason for the "zero revenue share"—the content is created by you, but they take the lion's share, which feels almost illegal, right?

Dan: Yes, Twitch does that, but Kick is a bit better. However, Kick is supported by Stake, and it's a complete mess over there. It's filled with gambling streams; they actually launched a similar product imitating Twitch but claim that anything can be streamed and spend money to attract streamers over. So it becomes that those who want to make money go to Kick, while those who want traffic still go to Twitch. Once Kick runs out of money, the streamers will return to Twitch.

Threadguy: Do you think Twitch's distribution helps you, or do you mainly rely on Twitter and Telegram for traffic?

Dan: I think 98% comes from Twitter. That's also one reason why everyone is starting to turn to Telegram, because they can build their own Telegram groups and have a certain degree of autonomy. They can post links in the group, and I think that's something many people want to do. We also hope that Farcaster can achieve this in the future, for example, we will respect external links. And the key is to have enough people using our platform; this is the classic "chicken or egg" problem.

Threadguy: You mean that on-chain activities can attract enough people back? For example, earlier this year with Frames and Dapp, if the user base could grow 10 times again to reach a new peak, maybe the platform would be big enough for people to be willing to promote live stream links?

Dan: Exactly, that's what we hope to see. When I first got into Farcaster, I was very obsessed with it. I thought this had to become my focus. I quickly attracted about 17,000 followers on Farcaster. For a new platform, that's already quite a lot, right?

Threadguy: Yeah, completely without using bots to inflate followers; the quality is great.

Dan: Yes, that's the benefit of Farcaster; the quality of followers is very high. And if we tweet something now, my Twitter replies might be a complete mess (laughs), just out of control.

Threadguy: That's not particularly bad, but it is a bit chaotic. However, if I post content on Farcaster, I can receive very genuine replies.

Dan: Interestingly, many of those using Farcaster have never really had an audience on Twitter. When they receive a bot reply on Farcaster, they exclaim, "Oh my god, this platform is so trash; it's all garbage information!" I think to myself, "Why can't you understand this?" But that's also the interesting part of Farcaster.

Threadguy: Yes, my initial feeling was that the people with followers on Farcaster are usually really cool developers. At the peak, for example, Christian WRA's content was particularly funny. That was the height of Frames; if you posted an amazing Frame, it would become very popular.

Dan: Yes, that's also the goal of launching Frames V2; we want them to be cooler and more attractive. Honestly, I’m optimistic about this. If you can dedicate 5% of your energy to Farcaster and treat it as an additional distribution channel, I think it makes sense. Gradually accumulating, maybe it will grow from 5% to 7%, 10%, 15%, little by little.

Threadguy: I understand what you mean; I can do that. You just need to let me open this app; it's that simple.

Dan: No problem, I can get you to open this app. Since you drove all the way here, I will definitely make sure you can open it. And we will also get the people in the chat room to use it together.

Threadguy: Do people still need an invitation code now?

Dan: Currently, anyone can register; you just need to pay $3 through in-app purchases. However, we plan to lower the price while keeping the invitation code system. Because if we open it completely for free, spam might flood in. But this is a more complex topic; I’ll talk about it in detail next time.

Threadguy: Do you think Twitter Blue can solve the verification issue?

Dan: We are preparing some solutions. Additionally, I will give you some invitation codes for your live stream.

Threadguy: Alright, two final questions. First, what is the future direction for Farcaster? I must say, I admire you because your ideas are very bold, even a bit crazy, and I like that. So, where do you see the future of Farcaster? What key points need to be unlocked? What are your expectations? Can you give us a summary of the current state of Farcaster and its future development direction?

Dan: My goal is to focus on capturing the attention of the crypto community, especially the attention of crypto Twitter. We will start with the Ethereum community and then gradually expand. I want to attract all discussions in the crypto world to Farcaster; this is what we need to focus on right now. So, there are no "side quests"; I won't pay attention to the needs of the political circle or CP fans. We are solely focused on the crypto space, aiming to make Farcaster the best social network in the crypto field.

At the same time, at the foundational level, we will ensure that developers' APIs and modules run smoothly so that developers can create cool applications like Clanker and Anon based on this.

The second point is Frames V2. We will launch some new features tomorrow, and there will be more updates in December, continuously generating topics and buzz every week. My goal is to make Farcaster the best tool for interacting with the blockchain, providing the best user experience, especially on mobile. When you're sitting on the couch bored, scrolling through content, and you see something, you should be able to complete the action with just a click. No complicated "connect wallet" steps, and no terrible user experiences—everything should run smoothly. That’s our vision. If we can succeed in this area, then we can consider the next "peak."

Threadguy: Did you rehearse these words in advance?

Dan: No (laughs).

Threadguy: Alright, the last question. Friends in the chat room, can we give Dan Romero a wave of "W" (victory)? Let's show some warm love!

(Chat room floods with: "WWWWWWWWW")

Threadguy: Okay, now there are over 600 people listening. Can you give everyone some encouragement? Especially those who haven't "succeeded" in the crypto space yet; they are working hard to find a way out. How can they achieve success in the crypto industry or in life? What advice do you have for everyone in 2024?

Dan: I still want to repeat something I've said before: the peaks are not as high as you think, and the valleys are not as low as you think. If you can make a little progress every day and sustain that progress for ten years, then I believe you will achieve good results.

Threadguy: Dan Romero, amazing! You are a legend!

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