The Web3 experience has changed and developed immensely over the past few years. For a long time now, conversations around blockchain and experiences using it have been very isolated. Anyone who spends time in this space can tell you that they have a wide variety of apps on their phone that they have to cycle through in order to keep up with everything.
Blockchains were created with the idea to build on top of them. More recently in Web3, there are dApps that are doing the same. The idea behind interoperability is that it removes some of the friction of creating from scratch, as well as helps to influence the user base of an application immediately, given there is already an existing community who would be interested in exploring what is being built.
Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Samuel Huber, the Founder of dTech. Samuel helps developers who want to utilize Farcaster, a SocialFi platform native to Base, to build on top of. Samuel breaks down the Farcaster experience for both users and developers alike, as well as comments a little on his experience within Web3.
DepressiveHacks (DH): Thanks for taking the time. Let’s start with a brief background. What brought you into Web3 and what was your journey that led you to start working on Base and developing on Farcaster?
Samuel Huber (S): Initially using my new GPU in 2016 to mine some ETH before realizing I can’t play video games at the same time and then turning off the mining, music brought me back to web3. An artist I was following dropped lifetime supporter benefits as NFT, so I set up a Metamask and tried to buy ETH with a credit card there. Then Gary Vaynerchuck kept talking about it and I bought a VeeFriend NFT for 3 years of conference access from him. That community of VeeFriends had me explain the technology to them which meant I went deeper to learn and explain more.
This vicious cycle led me to develop smart contracts for teams and artists. As that business slowed I saw a Dan Romero post about some Ethereum developer social network, hoping to find clients I joined and quickly found people speaking my language. I was addicted to these conversations and saw them develop Farcaster apps. When Mini Apps dropped I knew this is ground zero, I can catch up and lead here. So I did.
DH: Tell me a bit more about your company, dTech. How do you help builders on Farcaster and assist in aligning the visions of developers and teams with the platform and community on Base?
S: We scope, improve and develop Mini Apps and whole applications. Since we never compromise on delivering a delightful user experience we are able to lift the product to new heights reducing friction and thus increasing usage.
Since most Farcaster and Base projects are too complicated or face technical challenges that experts need to solve while they’re team works on new features and the actual application instead of debugging they leverage dTech. A lot of teams also use our product focus to advise on how they can grow in the ecosystem or hire us to find partnerships for them. Since we cover the whole range we’re grateful to work with most teams end to end.
DH: How would you describe Farcaster to a non-Web3 native user? What is similar to the standard social media experience and what improvements exist onchain for this vertical?
S: Farcaster is where you post and reply as you’re used to. Though you gain access to apps that bring websites and every app you usually use, every tool you touch right into the app. It makes it so you don’t have to remember webpages and tools you used months ago, you have them all right there and can play games too! It also has a payment system built in in case you want to split the bill, tip someone or earn/spend some money.
DH: Let’s say it’s your first day on Farcaster. What would you recommend that someone do on day one to make onboarding to a new platform as easy as possible?
S: User? Leverage search to find topics one likes and reply thoughtfully to as many as possible. Never stop doing that. As a Developer, read https://dtech.vision/farcaster/start and get familiar with all the possibilities. Read it twice, then continue with the documentation on the same page (dtech.vision/farcaster) to build your first apps and integrations. Make sure to leverage what you read in the first page to increase your chance at going viral.
DH: How important are Channels on Farcaster, which are topic-related conversation tags, to reaching other people? How can new users best locate channels that interest them and begin connecting with others?
S: Channels group content together. This is where you can find people talking about your interests and continuously find like-minded folks.
DH: What are Mini Apps? How do Mini Apps tie into the Farcaster experience?
S: Mini Apps are mini applications that bring the web right into your social media app. You don’t need to go somewhere else anymore. You can play the game your friend shared, but the cool outfit you just saw in a few clicks without having to open another app or enter your credit card. Mini Apps reduce the friction to have fun and get things done.
DH: How can users best navigate Mini Apps? There seem to be a lot of them and there is only so much time in the day to manually test Mini Apps that seem appealing to use.
S: You can save the ones you found useful and ask your friends and community (channels, group chats) what Mini Apps they like.
DH: What makes Base unique as an ecosystem to build in? Why should users want to explore more Base applications like Farcaster and the products that are being built on and with the platform?
S: Base is unique because Coinbase really cares about supporting developers and teams who develop applications on Base.
DH: How does building alongside Farcaster help developers? Are there initial hurdles in creating a quality application that are easier to overcome when paired with Farcaster?
S: Every application lives and dies by being used. No users, no motivated developer, no app. Eventually it all comes down to getting feedback, being motivated and or being paid.
How Farcaster helps is that it brings users. You get access to users spending time on their social media feeds. Your app is right in front of them, one click away! Entice them to click and you are now in your onboarding flow. The same goes for sharing. Virality becomes easier, when you can prompt to share and get a high click rate easily.
Then once you found a userbase through it, you get social context and can monetize as Farcaster brings a payment system via blockchain integration. It’s easier than credit card payments online by being one click away once more. So technically from someone sharing your link to buying is 3 clicks (open app, click buy button, confirm in app). If you are selling a product that’s incredible!
Farcaster makes user acquisition and monetization easier! Additionally as you can reach those users programmatically to automate retention messaging like follow ups and alerts with notifications, direct messages (think e-Mail) and tagging in the public feed (think Twitter bots) you have a multitude of ways to ensure high retention as well!
One can’t tell me that user acquisition, retention and monetization being made easier doesn’t help!
DH: Who would be your top initial accounts to follow on Farcaster that you’d recommend all new users find as valuable sources of information about the platform and the Base ecosystem at large?
S: That really depends. Are you a creator or developer? I am a developer so I skew heavily to tech focused minds. For creators and regular users https://warpcast.com/pichi/ has great breakdowns. Following the https://warpcast.com/~/channel/fc-updates channel and having notifications on here makes sure you’re always in the know. If you don’t understand something which happens to all of us ask questions.
For developers I’d follow all members of the https://warpcast.com/~/channel/devfc channel. I hand pick developers in that community which I think are the highest signal, lowest noise.
DH: What would be your elevator pitch to new users on why Farcaster is worth trying and why overcoming the initial time commitment to develop a presence on a new platform will be beneficial for them down the road, especially given the recent SocialFi updates to the platform?
S: Farcaster inherently is a Social app. You can make it a gambling app if you follow accounts that only post about it, and some users like it that way. It also reduces friction for finance since you have a built in payment system (the blockchain – namely direct Ethereum integrations and Solana addresses connected to accounts). Reducing friction increases action, so you have lots of users interested in crypto on the platform.
All of these are humans, they have social interests and needs. And not all users care about crypto. Being able to own the niche is key to building an audience. Since people can over focus on finance and crypto you can own every other niche on the network easily. Since the network is not too big, betting on it early can even secure you the crypto and finance communities.
Developing a presence doesn’t mean you devote your whole life to it. You play around and connect with other people in replies and direct messages. As you go along you post about what you observe and tag relevant people to your observations. Make sure to post all your questions. Even if no one answers, getting one right person to see it will provide success to you eventually.
DH: Finally, where do you see Farcaster and Base as a whole heading through the end of 2025 and beyond?
S: 2025 Farcaster and Base focus heavily on crypto applications. We’ll see the financial system used heavily to get liquidity and oil the financial railway. It makes trains easier to run. Every operator (business, developer, creator) will love that! Tapping into rich users provides ways to sustain. That’s what Farcaster is focused on as of me writing this 2025-03-23. The Social features will chug along and be more and more developed while the user base grows.
