Decentralized Social Network Friend.tech Surpasses $1 Million in 24-Hour Fees, Leaving Uniswap and Bitcoin Behind

Decentralized social network Friend.tech has generated over $1 million in fees within just 24 hours of its release, outperforming well-established players like Uniswap and the Bitcoin (BTC) network.

According to data from crypto data aggregator DefiLlama, Friend.tech has generated $1.12 million in fees within a single day, and a total of $2.8 million since its inception. 

As of now, the platform has accumulated $818,620 in total project revenue, facilitating over 650,000 transactions on the social platform with more than 60,000 distinct traders. 

The driving force behind this project is believed to be a developer operating under the pseudonym Racer. 

Racer has previously designed social media networks such as TweetDAO and Stealcam, both of which were based on non-fungible tokens (NFTs). 

With Friend.tech, Racer aims to attract crypto influencers with substantial fan bases, providing them the opportunity to earn royalties from trading fees. 

Additionally, the platform is also seeking to strengthen relationships between Web3 projects, venture capitalists, and important figures in the crypto industry.

Launched as a beta version on August 11, Friend.tech allows users to tokenize their social networks by purchasing and selling “shares” of their connections. 

This feature enables individuals who acquire someone else’s share to communicate privately with each other. 

Friend.tech applies a 5% fee on transactions, with the owner profiting from the trade spread. The project is built on Coinbase‘s layer-2 network Base.

Friend.tech’s Huge Success Sparks Concerns

The massive success of Friend.tech has sparked discussions about its revenue model, risks, and future potential. 

Ignas, a pseudonymous DeFi researcher, has pointed out that the platform’s current business model relies solely on trading fees and does not consider the number of shareholders involved. 

Additionally, he raised concerns that controversial personalities might exploit the system to earn higher fees or even use fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) as a strategy. 

“So controversial personalities might earn more or even creating FUD will be used as a strategy to earn fees,” the user said. 

Good take.

One thing that bothers me: revenue comes only from trading fees but not from having more shareholders per se.

So controversial personalities might earn more or even creating FUD will be used as a strategy to earn fees.

— Ignas | DeFi Research (@DefiIgnas) August 20, 2023

Lux Moreau, the founder of Talk.Markets, also emphasized that the increasing prices of shares may lead to the formation of smaller groups or alternative group creations within the platform.

“As shares get sold, the prices also significantly increase. For example, the 500th member pays around 15.6Ξ, the 250th member pays 3.9Ξ, and the 100th member pays 0.625Ξ,” the crypto veteran said in a tweet last week. 

More worryingly, Twitter user Spot On Chain has noted that Friend.Tech’s API can be used to extract sensitive data from the platform, like showing the wallets created by the users. 

Soon after the tweet, a core developer for Yearn Finance, published a list of 101,000+ users with their wallet address and Twitter username. 

Additionally, the developer claims that every user on the platform had (unknowingly) given Friends.Tech permission to post on their behalf on Twitter.

2. The API of @friendtech also leaks the information

You can check the wallet generated by FriendTech by this API:https://t.co/uqb7V0FxLi

Just replace "0x317931c6b64f6058f688c7d62e84e1491a319dff" with the address you see on the contract. pic.twitter.com/mGrRax4Jd6

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) August 21, 2023