We're used to identifying market cycles based on pricing - when ETH goes down, we're in a bear market. Sometimes we need these downturns, they clean out speculators and lock in new builders. It's during bear markets that innovation happens.
Look at what we've gained: AMMs, stablecoins, derivatives, loans, NFTs, collective groups, bonding curves as a product, smart wallets, memecoins - you name it. While many projects behind these initiatives wind down, their building blocks remain for new builders to explore and experiment with.
Despite all these innovations, we haven't seen a whole new wave of users that stayed in the market. But that's about time. We've improved so much that now you can use a consumer app without even realizing you're onchain. Take glimmer by Kartik as an example, using existing infra to create a seamless onchain experience.
The Farcaster ecosystem is a clear example of this progress. Both on similar warpcast-clients and apps. You got Supercast, Recaster, and Wildcard offering greater feed control, bookmarks, claiming rewards, or even chat groups. On the other side, we're seeing a lot of apps leveraging its social graph:
Buoy: your daily engine for Farcaster content search
Interface: stay updated with anything that's happening onchain
Hypersub: an improved patronage protocol with creator incentives
Bracket: social markets for sports and live events
Rounds: a fun way to grow community by rewarding contributors
Zora: the onchain Instagram with referral rewards
Rodeo: share what you're up to onchain
Moshicam: brings that nostalgic Polaroid vibe onchain
Kiosk: a hub to track friends' activity on Zora and Rodeo, with a chronological farcaster feed
And we have some volumes in there:
Hypersub has reached $1M in creator earnings.
Zora is the most-used app with over 43.8k addresses.
Base has become the go-to chain for consumer apps, with over 5M active wallets.
I'm optimistic about the future of onchain consumer apps. Onchain adds a new layer where users are rewarded for using the internet. Ccarrela puts it well:
We’ve got the building blocks, and with every new experience, we're improving onboarding, payments, and creating fun onchain experiences. I think we’ve learned the lesson that bonding curves and sexy tokenomics won't get normies hyped, but something they can have fun with or that solves a need.
There won't be a button to onboard billions of users overnight. However, with each innovative app and new experience, we're getting closer to more adoption - to that moment when crypto really matters outside our bubble. We might be at a point where the infrastructure is robust enough; now we just need that 'iPhone moment' for crypto.
