Decentralized social media protocol Farcaster launches 'blockchain-like' data layer Snapchain

Farcaster has quietly rolled out a new “blockchain-like” protocol called Snapchain, according to a company announcement. The launch coincided with the debut of Farcaster’s “Airdrop Offers” program, which rewards active use of the decentralized social media platform.

According to co-founder Varun Srinivasan, who announced the Snapchain testnet in December, the new system can handle over 10,000 transactions per second. The system reportedly went from idea to a working product in just six months. 

Snapchain is said to be built specifically to support social media applications, which require cheap and efficient processing to handle millions of micro-interactions like “favoriting” a post or sharing memes. The system acts as a data storage layer for Farcaster, though it will be routinely pruned.

“Sharding is much easier if transactions only affect a single account,” according to Snapchain’s documentation on GitHub. "Each shard can be assigned specific accounts and inter-shard communication isn't needed."

Farcaster, founded by former Coinbase coders Srinivasan and Dan Romero, is inspired by Twitter. The open Farcaster protocol can support any number of apps, though most people interact with it through the Warpcast instance. 

The application is slowly growing into a larger, contained ecosystem for using crypto in a social context, like sending payments or launching “mini apps.” Warpcast has also integrated a feature called “Frames” that supports in-app smart contracts so users can sell NFTs or build blockchain-based games and the like without moving to a different site. 

The new targeted airdrops incentive program pays people for “completed actions like installing a frame or casting.” According to Romero, Farcaster has close to 70,000 funded wallets.

Farcaster raised $150 million in funding led by Paradigm with participation from a16z Crypto, Haun Ventures, USV, Variant, Standard Crypto, among others. The firm is valued at over $1 billion ,

"Since going permissionless last October, Farcaster has seen 350,000 paid sign-ups and a 50x increase in network activity,” Romero said at the time. "There are hundreds of developers building on the protocol and a growing number of apps and frames for people to use.”