Original author:Jason Choi, Founder of BlockCrunch; Ex-Spartan Partner

Original compilation: Leo, Joyce, BlcokBeats

The popularity of Friend.tech seems to have brought dawn to the SocialFi track, but at present, it seems that regardless of whether Friend.tech will become the next X version of the encryption industry, the popularity of this application can help us understand encryption more deeply. A Brief History of Social, Founder of BlockCrunch, Former Partner of The Spartan GroupJason ChoiThe author introduced the Vertical History of Encrypted Social, compiled by BlcokBeats as follows:

Almost since the advent of Crypto, there have been many predictions that blockchain will be used to create a decentralized version of Facebook (Meta) or Twitter (X), where users own the data, or some kind of on-chain reputation system to support social use cases .

2016,steemitSTEEM tokens are rewarded to bloggers and content curators on its Reddit-like platform. Steemit has 1.3 million registered users and is built on its native chain. But in 2018, with the failed ICO, Steemit laid off most of its staff, and the company slowly failed.

Also in 2018, a namedPeepethA Twitter clone app has emerged, with data stored on the Ethereum chain, promising users that no centralized company can own their data. However, each interaction with L1 requires expensive gas payment, which is too expensive for most users and then fades away.

In 2020, there wereGary VaynerchukInvestors have invested in “Roll + social token” platforms where creators can issue their own ERC-20 tokens to fans in exchange for services/access, but such platforms have hindered their development due to enforceability and new user friction. (Like Rally) went out of business very quickly.

In 2021, for content creators, NFT has accomplished what social tokens have never done. NFT is mainly used to bet on content and content creators themselves. When a complete social dApp for creators + fans has not yet appeared, NFT has brought us a glimpse of the potential of encrypted social.

2021,DeSoOfficially launched (formerly BitClout), which was founded by the former founder of Basis and collapsed after raising more than $130 million from investors, BitClout promises to launch a Twitter clone where users can buy tokens representing Twitter users.

The project was supported by many well-known VC institutions such as a16z and Sequoia. Unfortunately, the project later aroused public dissatisfaction and anger (including the Prime Minister of Singapore). The main reason for the dissatisfaction was that BitClout was operating without the permission of users. With consent, the profile is pre-populated with data from Twitter.

2022-The social giant Reddit enters the market with its own NFT strategy. Subreddit (originally DAO) issued its own tokens (like $MOON) and to date has over 200,000 addresses on Arbitrum NOVA.

That same year, Farcaster launched a fully decentralized Web3 Twitter desktop app, followed by mobile apps. Today, there are over 1 million broadcasts (tweets) and 4.6K monthly active users on Farcaster.

As Phaver begins to emerge, cryptocurrencies are further integrated into the mobile space. Phavers front end and most interactions run on the Web2 platform, using protocols such as Lens Protocol and Cyber ​​Connect, but the social graph runs on Web3.

In 2023, friend.tech will be reintroduced by BitClout based on the idea of ​​bonding curve algorithm to price user tokens. This time backed by Paradigm, the mobile-native app built on Coinbases BASE L2 quickly amassed 100,000 users.

Although it is doubtful whether friend.tech’s business model of monetization and circulation (traders) can develop a business that is essentially user retention (subscribers), they have clearly attracted the attention of crypto Twitter recently.

Whatever the killer app for crypto social is, I firmly believe that successful social apps will bring crypto to users, not bring users into crypto.