Key Points:
- 📈 Generated $1M+ in 24h, overtaking Uniswap & Bitcoin networks.
- 💡 Tokenizes social connections via share trading.
- 🔒 Built on Coinbase’s layer-2 Base, targeting crypto influencers.
Friend.tech, a decentralized social (DeSo) network that launched in beta on August 11th, has demonstrated remarkable performance by generating over $1 million in fees within a 24-hour period on August 19th. This achievement surpasses well-established players in the crypto landscape, including Uniswap and the Bitcoin network.
The platform’s unique concept enables users to tokenize their social connections by trading “shares” linked to these connections. This functionality allows purchasers of these shares to communicate privately with the person whose share they acquire. The protocol follows a transaction fee structure of 5%, with the difference between trade prices serving as the owner’s profit.
Leveraging Coinbase’s layer-2 Base technology, Friend.tech has enjoyed considerable user engagement. According to data from DefiLlama, the platform garnered $1.12 million in fees during a 24-hour period and has accumulated a total of $2.8 million since its inception. As of now, the project has accrued $818,620 in revenue, facilitated over 650,000 transactions on its social platform, and engaged more than 60,000 distinct traders.
The brainchild behind this project is widely believed to be a pseudonymous developer known as Racer. This developer has a history of creating social media networks such as TweetDAO and Stealcam, both of which operated on the basis of nonfungible tokens. With Friend.tech, Racer aims to attract crypto influencers boasting substantial followings, enabling them to earn royalties through trading fees. Additionally, the platform targets Web3 projects seeking to solidify relationships with venture capitalists and influential figures within the cryptocurrency realm.
This wave of excitement surrounding Friend.tech has also prompted in-depth discussions about the platform’s revenue model, potential risks, and future prospects. A pseudonymous researcher in the decentralized finance space, Ignas, highlighted that the platform’s current revenue model solely relies on trading fees and not on the expansion of shareholder numbers. Ignas noted that this might lead to controversial figures or deliberate misinformation being used to strategically earn fees.
2/6 Potential issue with this approach:
As shares get sold, the prices also significantly increase. For example, the 500th member pays around 15.6Ξ, the 250th member pays 3.9Ξ, and the 100th member pays 0.625Ξ.
This encourages smaller groups or alt group creations. pic.twitter.com/WVAjxFh0ee
— Lux Moreau ✨ (@MentionLux) August 12, 2023
Lux Moreau, the founder of Talk.Markets, added that the selling of shares could trigger significant price hikes, possibly encouraging the formation of smaller user groups or alternative group formations within the platform.
