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@ Eric FJ
2025-04-30 12:48:37
For some reason I cannot respond in thread to your comment about Farcaster. I’ve never used it but from what I can tell it’s nowhere near decentralized (AI assisted summary):
1. Wallet-bound identity:
Farcaster ties your account to your Ethereum wallet, exposing it to blockchain fees, governance risk, and potential censorship. Lose your wallet, lose your identity. (Vs infinite lightning wallets separate from keypair)
2. Centralized data hosting:
User data lives on Hubs, which are hard to self-host. Most people rely on a few trusted operators — a real chokepoint. (Nostr shares this problem with relays in practice right now, but spinning up a relay is a weekend project vs. a hub seeming a lot more technical)
3. Pay-to-play identity leasing:
Joining requires a fee or invite, and usernames must be renewed annually. It’s a rent-based system, not true ownership. (Yikes?)
4. Core-team-controlled governance:
Protocol changes come from a small internal team. There’s no open standard process like Nostr’s NIPs — even if messy, Nostr is at least public and forkable.
5. Feature creep increases centralization risk:
Frames and other “smart” features rely on external servers, making the protocol more powerful — but also more fragile and dependent.