What is Friend.Tech?

Friend.Tech is a social media platform that became famous because it allows users to tokenize their social media accounts.. In this way, Friend.Tech is able to convert our presence and interactions on social networks into unique and transferable digital assets, which allow us to monetize the content we generate on them.

This platform is built on Base, an Ethereum sidechain developed by Coinbase, using the Optimism OP Stack technology. Friend.Tech is not really a decentralized platform per se, but rather a hybrid. On the one hand, its tokenization and payment actions are carried out through the Base sidechain, which decentralizes these actions. However, the control of the keys and wallets associated with these actions, as well as the server that makes Friend.Tech work, is completely centralized.

But beyond this, the main advantage and innovation of Friend.Tech is that it allows users to tokenize their social media accounts for free. Stock buyers on platform profiles gain access to exclusive content, the ability to participate in decisions about the future of the account, and the opportunity to profit from the account. The platform also has the potential to transform the way we interact with social networks, by allowing the monetization of online presence and fostering a more inclusive and participatory community.

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How does Friend.Tech work?

How Friend.Tech works is quite simple in practice. Using the blockchain tokenization capacity provided by Base, Friend.Tech has created an application accessible via a Web browser, in which we can create user profiles that allow us to tokenize our presence on said network.

As an account creator you have the option to sell shares (keys) of your account or, rather, of your social presence. These actions will allow your community to access personalized services that you offer through this network. So, as your network and presence expands, your engagement continues to increase and your stock prices will continue to rise.

In this way, Friend.Tech aims to combine the social benefits of interaction with the financial benefits. For creators, financial benefits include incentives, and for followers, selling shares at higher prices (as long as the creator's popularity increases) is the way to obtain monetary benefits.

Additionally, as the group of influencers expands, the number of shares in the group also increases. In this case, the increase in the number of shares does not dilute the incorporation price or the price at which the shares are sold. Instead, accumulating shares increases the base price of joining the group. People who want to leave the group can sell their shares, a method of liquidation.

But beyond all this, Friend.Tech borrows a lot from platforms like X and develops them into a unique tokenomic perspective. For example, integrated airdrops, shared commissions, and more. This is what changes the usage outlook for Friend.Tech and is what has driven its rapid growth.

Tokenomics within Friend.Tech

One of the most relevant points in Friend.Tech is the tokenomics of the project. Concepts such as “keys” are fundamental to the functioning of Friend.Tech as a platform. The price of these keys is what will impact positively or negatively on the monetization of content on the profiles within the social network, and hence it is relevant to know how this system works.

In this case, the price of a Friend.Tech key is expressed in ETH, following a mathematical relationship with the supply of shares within a given group. Thus, the more shares are purchased, the greater the chances of the prices increasing. This relationship is then divided into two mathematical expressions, one for sale and one for purchase.

The purchase price of is calculated using the formula:

ETH = n^2 /16000

Where n is the total outstanding supply and 16000 is the scale factor or constant selected by the Friend.Tech economic model.

While the sale price follows the following relationship:

ETH = (n-1)^2/16000

Where n is the total pending demand and 16000 is again, the scale factor or constant selected by the economic model.

Now, here is a point that has caused a lot of controversy in the community. These pricing models depend a lot on the level of Friend.Tech users. If the overall user level is low, the buying and selling prices are very small and, therefore, so are the possible profits. But as the system increases, not only do profits increase, but also the cost of acquiring those keys becomes impossible to achieve.

This situation led, for example, to a key being sold for more than 2 ETH (about $3200) in an account with just over 120 followers. The model as it stands, on a small scale, is unsustainable.

Rise, fall and resurgence

The previous Friend.Tech tokenomics situation clearly led to three things. First, a rapid rise of the platform. It grew rapidly, achieving significant progress on the Base platform. It was this impulse that led Friend.Tech to manage to bring one million transactions to this sidechain. At the same time, Friend.Tech has managed to reach one million dollars in commissions paid to its users in just one day.

However, before long the network lost momentum and stagnated. In fact, due to this stagnation, there were many voices from the crypto community that considered the project dead. And no wonder, even the most optimistic economic models represented that an account with 250 followers could offer its keys for a value greater than 3 ETH. That's a real fortune to have to follow an influencer.

Despite this, as of September 2, the community around Friend.Tech began to mobilize again and with this the platform has gone from having a TVL of 7 million dollars to having 36 million dollars in TVL . Although this undermines the initial forecasts that by October the platform would have at least 100 million TVL, it is still a huge recovery from the initial fiasco.

How to install and start your account on Friend.Tech?

The installation process of Friend.Tech is quite simple. First of all, you should know that this is a browser app with Web3 capability. This means two things: first, to install the app you will have to go to the main Friend.Tech website and install the web app from there, and second, once installed it will work as if it were a native app on the phone, but in reality everything It is Web, so you will need an Internet connection to use it.

Thus, to install the app you can open the Friend.Tech home page and follow the installation instructions. We recommend that you do it using the Chrome browser, since it is the one that offers the best results.

Once installed, you can begin the registration process, in which you can use your Google account or Apple ID to complete your data. You just have to tap on the “Sign in” button and start this registration process.

Finally, you will have to enter the invitation registration code. This is necessary because at the moment, the application is in beta phase and only users who have possession of a registration code are accepted. Each new registered user receives 3 registration codes that they can give to whoever they want.

Once you have passed this point, you must take into account the following points to be able to enjoy the application.

1. First of all, prepare your Web3 wallet. To use Friend.Tech, you need a Web3 wallet like MetaMask or Coinbase Wallet. Make sure it is set up and ready to operate.
2. The next is, add the BASE network to your wallet. This is in case you use MetaMask, since the Coinbase Wallet is supported. To do this you can go to chain list and use this website to add support to your MetaMask. This way you can interact with the platform.
3. Transfer Ethereum (ETH) to your wallet. From your main wallet, transfer an amount of Ethereum (ETH) to the BASE address. This will allow you to participate in transactions within the platform.
4. Finally set up your account. To do this, visit Friend.Tech using your smartphone and configure your account.

Once you finish setting up your account on Friend.Tech, you will be able to access the two main ways to earn money on the platform:

1. Fees for share purchases. For example, other users may purchase “shares” from your account, for which you will receive a fee for that transaction.
2. Buy and sell shares.  Just like in the stock market, you can buy “shares” of accounts at lower prices and sell them when their values ​​increase.

Security and transparency at Friend.Tech

Finally, we get to look a little at security and transparency on the Friend.Tech platform. In this case, you should know that there are certain things that strongly attract attention and for which you must be alert.

First of all, one of the co-founders of the application, known as @shrimpepe, is known for developing PharmaBroDAO, a DAO project that sought to raise funds to help get Martin Shkrel, a known scammer in the pharmaceutical sector.

Likewise, @shrimpepe and @0xRacerAlt are known for having participated in the failed project, Kossetto is Kawaii. If we add to this that Friend.Tech does not have a whitepaper or litepaper, nor a clear project website, nor roadmap, nor public information on the development, leaves a lot to think about the transparency of this project.

To this we must add that its security does not seem to be really very good. As we mentioned previously, Friend.Tech is a hybrid platform, where its administrators have control of our profiles, the wallets associated with them, and the data we manage on the social network. The only thing that is truly decentralized are the token payments that are made on the platform, and they are only fully decentralized once you take them off the platform to a non-custodial wallet.

On the other hand, the community has gotten to work studying this platform and its security. The user of @0xCygaar is the one who has done a fairly detailed analysis in this regard and has published it in X. His conclusions are that the application uses the Vercel service for its interface deployment, Privy for authentication, they are reusing the API of their NFT project, Kosseeto ​​is Kawaii. As a webserver library they are using Express and Nodejs, and at the moment, there is no DDoS or bot protection on the platform, which makes it vulnerable to these attacks and threats.

Sources:

• Website