Decentralized social network Friend.tech, which garnered attention with its high-profile launch earlier this month, is now under intense scrutiny as key metrics rapidly deteriorate, playing on previous concerns about the platform’s viability and intent.
Critics on social media are beginning to declare the platform ‘dead’ after a significant drop in activity, inflow and volume – within just three weeks of launch. Not to mention other justifiable concerns during the early life cycle.
What is Friend.tech?
Friend.tech made a splash with its beta debut on Coinbase’s Layer-2 Base platform on Aug. 11, which elevates the level (and ego) of today’s influencers by allowing them to unlock “keys.” sales linked directly to their “X” accounts (formerly TwitterR) that allow fans/supporters to private message them. The platform reportedly gets a 5% discount on these transactions.
Its appeal extended to both cryptocurrency and non-crypto influencers, attracting personalities such as Cobie from the UpOnly podcast, Faze Banks from YouTube, and Russian protest group Pussy Riot.
The fall in inflows also points to a significant shift, with Friend.tech witnessing a drop from its high of $16.8 million on Aug. 21 to around $1.6 million on Aug. means almost 90.5 percent.
This “promising platform” comes in the wake of X CEO Elon Musk’s decision to ban anyone who isn’t subscribed to Twitter Blue from messaging anyone who is – the irony here, of course, is that Musk’s previous beliefs that the platform’s “corrupt” blue badge verification programs alienated people and simply took on another disguised form, fueled purely by greed and politicized ad revenue. And don’t forget about X’s new creator cash-out program, which is based solely on impressions, rather than quality control.
Launched on Coinbase’s Layer-2 Base blockchain, Friend.tech quickly gained traction among social media influencers and others with large followings. During this “honeymoon” launch period, fees for the platform rose to over $1 million within 24 hours on August 19, surpassing notable platforms like Uniswap and the Bitcoin network.
In previous nft now coverage, we’ve highlighted the differing opinions and comments on whether this new platform was a “paradigm shift” or simply a fad that comes and goes to the detriment of investors – all fueled by artificial hype and a bad equipped organizational structure. .
Alex Valaitis, a controversial personality in this new cryptolandscape, referred to Friend.tech as a “high stakes musical chairs game” – indicating his belief that the only ones who will make it out with any profit will be “the first ones in… and the first is out.”
The fate of the platform has now taken a sharp turn. Fees, which once peaked at $1.7 million on Aug. 21, are now down more than 87% to about $215,000 as of Aug. 26, according to data from DefiLlama.
In a candid post on “X” (formerly Twitter) on August 27, Coinbase’s payment risk manager Lisandro Rodriguez expressed his belief that the platform is now “dead” because of “greed and bad execution.”
The drop in fees was mirrored by a sharp decline in buyers and sellers, recording about 10,000 buyers and 7,800 sellers on Aug. 27, compared to the peak of over 58,000 buyers and 27,000 sellers on Aug. 21, as reported by Dune data.
At the same time, the number of transactions on Friend.tech has seen a staggering drop of more than 90% from its peak of nearly 525,000 on Aug. 21, plummeting to just over 51,000 on Aug. 27, according to data compiled by Crypto Koryo.
One of the biggest concerns surrounding Friend.tech was the lack of a privacy policy, along with potential regulatory issues, as it involved the public release of user data related to 100,000 user accounts that many believed was a leak – despite what Friend.tech referred to as “public data.”
As Friend.tech faces these challenges, parallels have been drawn with the 2021 DeSo app BitCloud. Pseudonymous Web3 marketer Legendary expressed his belief that Friend.tech could meet a similar fate, stating that he believes that it “will collapse like BitClout did.”
Could this be yet another disguised example of greed and quick profit?