Author: Crypto Veda, Source: Author’s Twitter @thecryptoskanda
It’s too late to get on the ship, I feel like a baby boomer, but here I am.
I doubt those who claim that @friendtech has no moat understand its true offering. Those who doubted it so early are NGMI.
Things don’t operate in a vacuum, a “SocialFi” return to the essence may have already begun.
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This is my two cents thread.
Anyone who thinks Friend is a social product hasn’t seriously considered the topic. It tells you from the first screen that it is “The marketplace of your friends,” clearly positioning itself as a DeFi product. The Twitter bio is also very straightforward: Your social network is your net worth.
FUCKING, BRUTALLY, HONEST
This caught my attention, why? First, it truly launched the securitization of influence.
Humans don’t need Crypto to socialize. Whether it’s instant messaging, socializing with acquaintances, or meeting strangers, which existing Web2 solution doesn’t do a good job? You say censorship resistance? Of course, humans need to leave their thoughts on an uncensored network like Nostr, just like primitive people carving in caves. I’m even willing to pay for that. But you say high-frequency socializing?
When it comes to Crypto and socializing, the truly useful part is how to monetize and give value to people’s social behavior.
Last year, I spent a year repeatedly emphasizing that no one cares about personal data sovereignty. The complete set of personal data for 90% of the global population is not as valuable as the eggs sold at a street stall. Are you going to talk to them about data sovereignty?
No pricing, no trading, no speculation = Web2 with a new skin.
Fi>Social
Unfortunately, few people understood it back then.
When Crypto combines with socializing, the only feasible entry point, whether in terms of value proposition or target audience, is:
Securitize “influence,” which could only generate cash flow in the past, and create a trading market with appropriate liquidity levels. This improves the allocation efficiency of this production factor, while giving the “reputation system” fair value, a trading venue, and the possibility of leverage for the first time.
Social DeFi is its true name.
In fact, the gears of history have already started turning.
In the past, influence could only be monetized through traffic intermediaries (advertising or sales). Now, it can become a $162M market value Harry Potter Obama Sonic 10inu polluting your frontal lobe.
The price of a meme coin is the fair valuation of the sum of its concept’s influence and the influence of its propagation chain in the current market.
And what the project specifically does is often not important.
Many “utility enthusiasts” may be indignant about this, so let me ask you, which one would you buy:
– $pepe frog promoted by various whales
– Allow the use of Solidity on Solana with $NEON
You are well aware that the latter can be achieved with money, but it is unlikely that these whales will endorse you at the same cost.
Now, looking back at @zepump’s argument, is it easier to understand?
Secondly, Friend has defined a new distribution method + transaction method. “New” mainly has two aspects:
– Created a target without liquidity (liquidity demand from high to low: Token>NFT>Share);
– Reduced the dissemination cost of the target and shortened the path (from “tokens/NFTs need to find influencers to create transaction liquidity” to “influencers themselves are the target”). Each bull market is initiated by distribution + transaction + market-making mechanism innovation.
Third, it solves the empowerment of the target. Whether it is a token or an NFT, after issuance, it directly faces the problem of “repricing influence.” Therefore, it often needs to “seek empowerment.” Unlike Bitclout, where influencers must join personally, Share takes on the role of Token-gating, forming an exclusive club for influencers. This effectively shifts the pressure of “how can I empower” from the project side from top to bottom to the influencers, becoming a “how do you want to empower” from bottom to top.
As for the doubts about Friend, I see only a few points:
– The product is too poor;
– Pure speculation and Ponzi scheme without sustainability;
– Isn’t this just the buying and selling of friends on Kaixin.com? No moat!
Duh… First of all, the product depends on the audience and demand. The Crypto community must have asset guidance, introduce CT influencers’ asset influence into the trading market, and then provide long-term airdrop incentives. This basic problem is already half solved, and users have enough patience to wait for new features.
Friend’s economic incentive model follows Blur, and this mechanism has been successfully verified (where Blur loses will be discussed in a separate thread later). Future new features are nothing more than a bottom-up toolkit, allowing influencers to issue more assets and empower them (turning the exclusive club into a knowledge planet). As for Ponzi, of course, it exists. Only by doing well in memes and Ponzi schemes can you have users. But how many users are purely speculative compared to various L1 and L2 airdrops?
The positive externality of Friend is very obvious:
– “Permissionless” access to the high-net-worth circle (this is the closest distance to Milady Dog Manor);
– Quantified Share ranking = Influence ranking = Idol ranking (how big is the DYOR industry);
MEV is obviously pre-designed, just to highlight the wealth effect promotion and form the concept of assets + market meme. Low average unit price + liquidity-free market + tax = a low kill rate model that is almost like a casino.
The lack of a moat is nonsense: Being able to have Zhu Su, Cobie, Hsaka, Charlotte, and CT’s top Alpha callers personally open an account, and take the lead in forming a trading market, as well as memes surrounding this concept, is the biggest and most difficult-to-replicate moat. It’s not something that can be replicated by a PM from a big company doing a Web3 friends trading. Of course, in the end, it still depends on the team’s pace, whether the story is new and fast enough, and whether it is a P&G is not the issue.
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