Web3 Social and Alfafrens
Here's some random thoughts about Web3 Social and Alfafrens
I think @farcaster_xyz is being an incremental decentralization, general principle and framework are based on blockchain, partially opting for centralization to make it easier for users to use, as well as oriented towards real socializing instead of social farming, it could be Social+Fi instead of SocialFi.
I've been playing with Alfafrens recently, and it looks very SocialFi, but it's actually very restrained, and I prefer it's Defi+Social (the mechanism is very restrained, and there's not a lot of preferential treatment for KOLs, you could even say it's inhibiting). Its‘s subscription system uses stream payments ( @Superfluid_HQ), which are calculated by the second, rather than a one-time monthly deduction. Because it's a stream payment, deposit 10k $degen allows you to subscribe to a lot of Channels, I'm subscribed to 101 channels, and still often check the high yielding channels to subscribe.
In fact, I paid attention to Alfafrens a long time ago, I didn't notice it was a streaming payment at that time, I thought it was a direct one-time monthly deduction, then it was too expensive to subscribe, just like subscribing to something like @friendtech, are going to hype KOLs. Actually found KOLs only has few advantage (not counting the decisive), in other sides, it's equal to common users ...... for above misunderstanding, i missed playing alfafrens for a long time!
Alfafrens subscription can only be added manually one by one, each to spend 3~5 seconds, it's heavily restrained KOLs advantage and multi-account operations, they are on the same starting line as common users.
In terms of effect, I think Alfafrens is using Social to restrain the rate of Defi Ponzi, greater than the expansion of Social to Alfafrens. You can't batch subscribe, and earnings change dynamically based on subscriptions. The project is even releasing invitation codes in a very restrained state, only 3 per person, and you have to wait although you run out. In short, all kinds of restraint for the Matthew effect, greatly slowing down the Ponzi rate.
I'm more optimistic about such projects that knowing restraint!
About #Defi and #SocialFi
Recently ETH and Defi have been fud a lot. I think Defi is fine, but it just needs to be internalized and sunk to become the underlying infrastructure and optional Lego component for every applications. Except for a few specialized players, most people don't touch it directly. Depending on the center of gravity bias, I'm more agree with Social+Fi or Fi+Social than the SocialFi concept that seems overly financialized. Further, Social, Gaming, and other applications are widely and deeper integration of with Defi, will eventually evolves into #Desoc.