Linda Xie on How Mini-Apps Are Helping Farcaster Take on Web2 Social Media - Ep. 838

Unchained

Laura Shin

News, Tech News, Business News

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Legacy social media platforms lock you in, control your audience, and exploit your data. Farcaster aims to fix those problems. But how can it attract developers and users in an already saturated media environment? Developer Ecosystem Lead Linda Xie joined the show to explain: How Farcaster addresses social media’s structural flaws How Farcaster’s mini-app ecosystem is helping to grow the user base The most popular apps taking off on the platform How the whole crypto community could benefit from gathering on Farcaster Why she believes crypto communities belong on open, portable networks And why her family’s history helped her grasp the significance of Bitcoin in 2011 Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Bitwise Linda Xie, Developer Ecosystem Lead at Farcaster Previous coverage of Unchained on Farcaster and social media: Farcaster Wants to Win Over Crypto. Here’s How It’s Different From ‘Crypto Twitter’ Ethereum Accounts to Post on Social Media More After Criticism How Decentralized Social Network Farcaster Hopes to Eventually Get to One Billion Users What is Warpcast Wallet? Farcaster’s Snapchain Farcaster’s mini-apps Understanding Farcaster: A Sufficiently Decentralized Social Graph Protocol Timestamps: 🤝 0:00 Introduction 🤯 3:55 How an unusual situation in her family got Linda crypto-pilled ⚖️ 7:57 How building legitimacy at Coinbase was crucial for the industry 🪜 10:20 Xie’s journey from VC to founder 🌐 13:04 How crypto’s adoption has evolved around the world 🔍 16:44 Why Linda decided to build and focus on Farcaster 🔧 23:31 How Farcaster addresses social media’s structural flaws 👀 31:14 How mini-apps build Farcaster’s user base 💲 37:32 Why Warpcast Wallet is a “game changer,” according to Linda ❓ 40:19 How Snapchain is used for storing data 👷 44:29 What types of developers the Farcaster ecosystem attracts 💡 45:20 How Linda aims to make Farcaster easy to understand ✨ 49:50 Linda’s favorite Farcaster mini-apps 😀 55:10 Attracting the whole crypto community to Farcaster Thank you to our sponsors!Guest:Links Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're building a consumer app, like the single most important thing is getting your initial user base.
0:06.3	And so it's a really hard like hold start problem.
0:09.5	And we went to that ourselves of like, hey, like now I've released this app.
0:13.4	And now I'm just going to start posting about it nonstop and like getting people to download it or use it.
0:18.7	But if it's within something like Firecaster, where it's,
0:22.1	you know, you're never leaving the app, a user doesn't have to drop off and like download something,
0:26.7	it's using the wallet that's already embedded to like participate in the app. And then users can now
0:32.8	share the mini app within the feed. Like we help with that virality for these users.
0:42.3	And so this has been like a really huge selling point for a lot of developers.
0:46.4	Plus, like Coinbase Wallet is being a farcaster client as well. So they have like millions of users.
0:48.3	So you're just getting in front of so many more users as a developer.
0:52.3	And so to me, like, that's just been like a really,
0:55.9	like, huge selling point to them.
1:01.3	Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unchained, your no hype resource for all things crypto. I'm your host,
1:05.9	Laura Shin. We love reading your thoughts on Unchained. In every episode, we feature your reviews or comments on the show.
1:12.9	Here's what SS Harvey Dude Muffin had to say on Apple Podcasts. I don't know much about crypto,
1:18.2	but want to know literally everything about crypto people going rogue in crypto. Laura, you're my
1:22.9	new favorite podcast, especially because you talk like me and make me laugh as these wild details unfold.
1:29.1	Thank you. We'd love to know your thoughts on our show or a specific episode. Leave a comment on
1:34.2	Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Farcaster, or X. This is the May 20th, 2025 episode of Unchained.
1:41.2	Crypto moves fast. It's why Bitwise launched the weekly CIO memo, a jargon-free
1:46.8	summary of what's moving crypto markets, written by one of the best in the business, CIO Matt Hogan.
	...

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