What is Friend.tech?
Friend.tech is a decentralized social network (DeSo) that allows users to tokenize their social connections, granting them access to features like private messaging and interaction rights. Essentially, it permits users to acquire “shares” of individuals on X, formerly Twitter. This innovation has been attributed to pseudonymous developer Racer, who previously delved into decentralized social media with TweetDAO and Stealcam, which later transformed into Friend.tech.
How did Friend.tech become the highest revenue-generating entity in DeFi?
Friend.tech launched on Aug. 10, 2023 and quickly gained as many as 100,000 users in a few days. A variety of sports, business, and social media personalities, including Grayson Allen, Garry Tan, Cobie, and HsakaTrades, were among the first creators on the platform. While the social media project created ripples in the digital asset trading community earlier in the month, it also generated huge fees and revenues for its users and the Base network. At one time, Friend.tech was only second to Ethereum (ETH) in terms of generated fees and revenue. However, it is currently ranked tenth, having earned $215,552 in the previous 24 hours.
Why did Friend.tech’s earnings and users drop by more than 70%?
According to the latest data from DeFiLlama, Friend.tech’s earnings started to fall, with more than 70% lower fees by the end of the week compared to its peak. The number of daily added users also fell, marking an almost 80% decrease. Some analysts suggest that the reduced fees and revenues may be a sign that Friend.tech is losing its spark. Users are reportedly complaining about high trading fees, slow load times, and a steep token pricing curve.
Another factor that may have contributed to Friend.tech’s decline is the heightened bot activity on the platform. In a two-week period, bots secured more than 21,000 keys and later resold them for a $2.1 million profit. According to a Bloomberg report, the same bots are also putting off users of the platform by manipulating transactions and forcing creators to pay higher fees for keys.
How did OnlyFans affect Friend.tech’s popularity?
At the beginning of last week, Friend.tech registered slightly more than 20,000 new users, data shows. It even saw an influx of content creators from OnlyFans after enabling the sending of photos. By the end of last week, at least four OnlyFans content creators had entered Friend.tech’s list of the 50 most valuable accounts. The highest-ranked among them, JenfoxxUwU, reportedly sold her keys for as much as 0.87 ETH each, or about $1,435. In contrast, her monthly OnlyFans subscription costs less than $4.
However, by Aug. 25, after the OnlyFans hype seemed to have faded, the number of new users went down to 4,484. This may indicate that Friend.tech’s appeal to OnlyFans creators was not sustainable or that the platform faced competition from other decentralized social networks that offer similar features.
What is the future of Friend.tech and DeSo?
Friend.tech is one of the pioneers of decentralized social networks (DeSo), which aim to give users more control over their data and monetization options. However, it is not the only one in this space. There are other projects such as BitClout and Dsco that are also trying to disrupt the traditional social media landscape with blockchain technology.
The future of Friend.tech and DeSo may depend on how well they can address the challenges and opportunities that come with this new paradigm. Some of these include:
- Ensuring security and privacy of user data
- Providing a user-friendly and scalable platform
- Attracting and retaining quality content creators and consumers
- Balancing incentives and governance mechanisms
- Complying with legal and regulatory frameworks
- Innovating and adapting to changing market conditions
