251: Farcaster, Digital Identity and Decentralized Social Media with Guest Co-Host Laura Walsh

Laura Walsh joins the show again this week as guest co-host as we explore the potential link between digital identity and decentralized social media through the lens of the Farcaster protocol, its challenges, user growth, and the future potential of a decentralized online ecosystem.

Show Notes
Guest Profile

Laura Walsh is the Chief Marketing Officer and part of the founding team of Kaskade Finance, and she and I worked together closely for the past two years on the Techstars Web3 accelerator. Laura is a Techstars All-Star Mentor, advisor, founder, web3 O.G., and friend.

In this episode, Laura helps me unpack my developing thesis on the intersection of digital identity and decentralized social media. Our muse for this discussion is Farcaster, a decentralized protocol designed specifically for building and connecting social apps as it allows users to create public social profiles and communities to interact with others.

Armed with some learnings on digital identity from my recent conversation with Mai Santamaria on episode 247, I was struck by the opportunity to enable decentralized digital identity through something like Farcaster, but only if user growth spurred a massive diversity of apps built on the Farcaster protocol, and not just social media apps. I’ve engaged with several early-stage founders recently on the concept of a decentralized WeChat, which has its roots as a social media app in China but is now well advanced down the path of becoming a single “one-stop shop” for every conceivable digital need including content, payments, commerce and access to public services. Laura brings in a whole slew of insights from her experience living in Asian markets and helps me to pinpoint whether my thesis holds any water yet.

LINKS:

Bankless episode with Farcaster's Dan Romero on Spotify

Deeper dive into 'Sufficient Decentralization for Social Networks' from Varun Srinivasan

Learn more about Kaskade Finance: https://www.kaskade.finance/

Connect with Laura Walsh on social media:

-Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauralwalsh/

-Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheOGLauraWalsh

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