LibraryData and agents2022Design paperCorpus record
Farcaster: identity contracts and off-chain messages
Farcaster. Farcaster.
Farcaster publishes an identity on a settlement chain and messages stored off that chain, so a social post is not itself an Ethereum transaction.
A reading of the project's public design document. Not a copy, not a benchmark, and not an offer.
Farcaster publishes an identity on a settlement chain and messages stored off that chain, so a social post is not itself an Ethereum transaction.
- Evidence
- Primary paper
- Re-measured
- No
- Assumptions
- 3
- Records linked
- 4
01 Claim ledger
What the paper is allowed to say
Each row is a sentence already in the study. The status is the same on every row: a model claim, not a live measurement.
Claim 01 · Paper model
The defect
A sufficiently decentralised social network is a claim about who can host the messages. The contracts alone are not the network.
Claim 02 · Paper model
The proposal
Farcaster publishes an identity on a settlement chain and messages stored off that chain, so a social post is not itself an Ethereum transaction.
Claim 03 · Paper model
The mechanism
The registry binds a key to an identifier. That binding is on-chain. The cast, the follow, and the frame payload are messages signed by that key.
Claim 04 · Paper model
The bound
No user count is stated here.
02 Three cuts
Observation, model, falsifier
A desk does not stop at the summary. Each claim is cut three ways, using only this study's own assumptions and checks. Nothing here is a new figure.
01 The defect
Observation
What the study says
A sufficiently decentralised social network is a claim about who can host the messages. The contracts alone are not the network.
Model
What has to hold
You are reading Farcaster's protocol docs, not a client's ranking algorithm.
Falsifier
What would retire it
What does the on-chain contract actually store?
02 The proposal
Observation
What the study says
Farcaster publishes an identity on a settlement chain and messages stored off that chain, so a social post is not itself an Ethereum transaction.
Model
What has to hold
You are reading Farcaster's protocol docs, not a client's ranking algorithm.
Falsifier
What would retire it
What does the on-chain contract actually store?
03 The mechanism
Observation
What the study says
The registry binds a key to an identifier. That binding is on-chain. The cast, the follow, and the frame payload are messages signed by that key.
Model
What has to hold
No price, supply, yield, or adoption figure is added by this desk.
Falsifier
What would retire it
What does the on-chain contract actually store?
04 The bound
Observation
What the study says
No user count is stated here.
Model
What has to hold
You are reading Farcaster's protocol docs, not a client's ranking algorithm.
Falsifier
What would retire it
What does the on-chain contract actually store?
03 Sequence
One action, as an operating tape
- 01The registry binds a key to an identifier. That binding is on-chain. The cast, the follow, and the frame payload are messages signed by that key.
- 02Hubs store and gossip those messages. A hub is not a blockchain, and two hubs can disagree until the protocol's rules say who wins.
- 03An application can censor what it displays without censoring the signed message. Display and availability are different.
04 Load-bearing
The argument, and where a pitch drops it
What the name has to mean
The cut
Farcaster publishes an identity on a settlement chain and messages stored off that chain, so a social post is not itself an Ethereum transaction.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
A later client, parameter or reward formula is a different object from this paragraph.
What actually moves
The cut
Hubs store and gossip those messages. A hub is not a blockchain, and two hubs can disagree until the protocol's rules say who wins.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
A hosted client is not the protocol.
What a later deployment may change
The cut
An application can censor what it displays without censoring the signed message. Display and availability are different.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
A later client, parameter or reward formula is a different object from this paragraph.
05 Register
What has to be true
Model · Not re-measured
You are reading Farcaster's protocol docs, not a client's ranking algorithm.
Model · Not re-measured
The document is the one at the source URL. A marketing page with the same brand is not this text.
Model · Not re-measured
No price, supply, yield, or adoption figure is added by this desk.
06 Divergence
What happened after the paper
Storage fees or rents, if the docs specify them, are parameters and are not copied here.
A later client, parameter set, or reward formula is a different object. Cite this paper for the mechanism. Cite a primary release for the network. This desk has not re-run the proof.
07 Pre-mortem
What to check before you use the idea
- 0 of 3 marked on this browser. A mark is a reading note, not a pass, a rating, or a recommendation.
08 Anatomy
The paper, in the order a builder needs
The problem it names
A sufficiently decentralised social network is a claim about who can host the messages. The contracts alone are not the network.
What the design proposes
- The registry binds a key to an identifier. That binding is on-chain. The cast, the follow, and the frame payload are messages signed by that key.
- Hubs store and gossip those messages. A hub is not a blockchain, and two hubs can disagree until the protocol's rules say who wins.
- An application can censor what it displays without censoring the signed message. Display and availability are different.
How the mechanism is specified
- The registry binds a key to an identifier. That binding is on-chain. The cast, the follow, and the frame payload are messages signed by that key.
- Hubs store and gossip those messages. A hub is not a blockchain, and two hubs can disagree until the protocol's rules say who wins.
- An application can censor what it displays without censoring the signed message. Display and availability are different.
What this page does not treat as proven
- No user count is stated here.
- A hosted client is not the protocol.
- Storage fees or rents, if the docs specify them, are parameters and are not copied here.
Why the desk still reads it
Farcaster publishes an identity on a settlement chain and messages stored off that chain, so a social post is not itself an Ethereum transaction.
09 Lexicon
Terms, opened into the record
- Hub
- A server that stores signed messages. It is not a validator of a chain.
- Signer
- The key authorised by the identity contract to publish messages.
10 Repository
Every linked record on this page
Underlined words open a page that already exists: a concept, a protocol profile, a failure record, or another paper. If a word is not underlined, this desk does not have a record for it.
Concepts
Protocols
This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.
Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.