Farcaster
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Farcaster is a protocol for building decentralized social apps. It is a sufficiently decentralized protocol where users control their data, and developers can build apps permissionlessly on the network.
Neynar acquired Farcaster; co-founders stepped back
Infrastructure firm Neynar announced it was acquiring the Farcaster protocol, the Farcaster app and Clanker, after which co-founders Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan stepped back from daily operations.
Acquired AI token launchpad Clanker
Farcaster acquired Clanker, an AI-agent-powered token launchpad on Base originally built by ecosystem developers, and began using Clanker's protocol fees to buy and hold CLANKER tokens.
Launched Snapchain on mainnet
Farcaster launched Snapchain, a new "blockchain-like" data layer built with BFT consensus that replaced its earlier CRDT-based Hub system, offering over 10,000 transactions per second with sub-second finality.
Raised $150 million at a $1 billion valuation
Farcaster secured a $150 million Series A led by Paradigm, with participation from a16z crypto, Haun Ventures, USV, Variant and Standard Crypto, valuing the company at $1 billion.
Launched Frames (interactive posts)
Farcaster launched Frames, a feature that turns posts into interactive applications enabling actions such as purchases, NFT minting and games, driving a sharp increase in developer and user activity.
Farcaster opened to the public
Co-founder Dan Romero announced that Farcaster was opening to the public, allowing anyone to create an account and use applications built on the protocol after roughly a year of invite-only access.
Raised $30 million led by a16z
Merkle Manufactory announced a $30 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Standard Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, 1confirmation, Multicoin Capital and others, to fund development of the Farcaster protocol.
Farcaster project concept began
Former Coinbase executives Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan began developing the concept behind Farcaster (originally an idea called "RSS+"), later building it through their company Merkle Manufactory.