Silicon Valley venture capitalist Dan Romero was recently interviewed to share his journey from being on the early team at Coinbase to founding the decentralized social (SocialFi) platform Farcaster. Not only did he talk about the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial ecosystem, but he also gave some good advice on the future of cryptocurrency, personal mentality, and how to get ahead in the Web3 industry.
Five years of Coinbase experience lays the foundation
Dan Romero joined the well-known exchange Coinbase in 2014 and is the 20th employee of Coinbase. He has experienced the development process with Coinbase from a valuation of US$100,000 to a scale of tens of billions. Romero revealed: "It was really difficult in the early days. We worked hard every day, but the outside world has always linked Bitcoin to dark web transactions and exchange crashes." He also smiled and said that most of the engineers attracted to Web3 were aliens.
Romero himself started out as a conspiracy theorist that "Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme". Later, he was completely convinced after reading the Bitcoin white paper and turned to the Web3 field.
The worst experience that year, the flash crash of Ethereum
Romero said that Coinbase actually experienced a major crisis in 2017, which was the "flash crash" incident of Ethereum. Due to system design problems, the price of Ethereum (ETH) collapsed from US$319 that year to US$0.10, attracting a series of users. Complaints and Government Investigations.
Additionally, there is the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) fork. Coinbase was accused of "insider trading," putting the entire team under great pressure. Romero said that was the lowest period for him at Coinbase, but he added: "Every time you fall, you have to get up every time, and you will succeed in the end."
The starting point of Farcaster and the original intention of creating encrypted Twitter
And just in 2020, Romero left Coinbase and spent a year and a half traveling, reading, and rethinking future directions. Later, Romero established the centralized social protocol Farcaster in 2021, trying to create a social network driven by blockchain, aiming to become the core platform of the cryptocurrency community, giving them a more friendly place to communicate and innovate.
He pointed out that the motivation at the time came from disappointment with traditional media: "Public speech should not be controlled by a few companies." He believes that the importance of traditional media is gradually weakening, and live broadcast and decentralization will be more influential in the future. content platform. He suggested: “Live streaming models like Twitch or Twitter will replace traditional media, but how to break through in content promotion is the key.”
The initial promotion was full of setbacks, but in the later period, the situation was turned around by focusing on serving Web3 people.
In the early days of Farcaster's establishment, Romero chose to promote it in the most "home-made steelmaking" way. He personally called 400 friends and industry insiders to explain the product concept in detail and guide them to register. But he admitted that the process was very frustrating. He said: "Many friends never use it after signing up. It's like recommending a bad thing to a friend. It's really difficult to retain users."
After reflection, Romero realized that Farcaster must focus on serving a small group of "developers and creators who truly love blockchain." Not only can these people become loyal users, but they can also attract more like-minded people through Farcaster.
Farcaster is open to developers to participate, Frames V2 will be launched soon
Another key strategy is to allow external developers to participate in the construction of Farcaster. For example, the recently popular social meme distribution platform "Clanker World" and the Base chain social application "Anoncast" are innovative applications developed based on Farcaster. "While we focused on optimizing core functions, developers began to help us complete other innovations. This was a watershed moment for breakthroughs," Romero said.
Speaking of Farcaster’s key innovations, Romero is excited about the upcoming Frames V2. He said that Frames V2 allows users to directly interact with the blockchain on social platforms, such as purchasing NFT or participating in DeFi applications, and can perform on-chain operations with just one click.
A new bull market is taking off as Bitcoin reserves trigger global demand
When asked about his views on the current cryptocurrency market, Romero said: "We are at the beginning of a new bull market, especially with the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs and the influx of more institutional funds, the market potential is quite amazing."
He also specifically mentioned that the possibility of Bitcoin being used as a national "strategic reserve asset" is quite high, which will not only affect the confidence of the crypto market, but also force other countries to re-examine their reserve policies, thereby triggering global demand for Bitcoin. Romero said that this is really unprecedented, and the "Bitcoin Reserve" issue is expected to be the main driving force for the next round of outbreaks.
Leading infrastructure and technological environment promote industry upgrading
At the same time, Romero believes that another highlight of 2024 is the obvious improvement in the infrastructure of the crypto industry, which is completely different from previous bull markets.
Romero recalled that Ethereum’s high fees and slow confirmation times in 2017 prevented many applications from actually being implemented. The situation is completely different now. L2 expansion solutions such as Base and Solana have significantly reduced transaction costs and improved processing efficiency. He said: “In the past, everyone had ideas but could not implement them, but now the technological environment can make almost all ideas possible.”
Finally, Romero encouraged young people based on his own experience: "Progress a little bit every day and persist for ten years, you will be surprised by your growth." He also reminded all entrepreneurs entering the encryption industry to keep a stable mentality: "Don't do it at the peak. Don’t give up even when you are overly excited. Slow down is the key to success.”
(What is Vitalik’s favorite decentralized social protocol? Farcaster product experience introduction)
This article Founder of SocialFi platform Farcaster: Frames V2 is about to be launched, and Bitcoin reserves have become a bull market flash point. First appeared on Chain News ABMedia.
