Girl Scout Cookies for Crypto: 7 Things Farcaster Frames Can Do That Twitter Can’t

Farcaster, the decentralized social media protocol, has seen incredible growth in recent weeks since the launch of a new feature called Frames.

Frames let users embed interactive apps in their casts (the Farcaster version of “tweets”). The apps can conduct functions on-chain and off, right there within Farcaster, and people have been using them in all kinds of creative ways.

Some of the more basic Frames that have appeared include those that allow you to mint a token, mint an NFT, or read through a blog, all without ever leaving Farcaster.

It’s no surprise that Frames have captured the attention of crypto natives—“Crypto Twitter” is a pillar of the industry, even as the social media giant repels longtime users and gradually becomes more buggy and less stable. With the creation of Frames, Farcaster is taking the pillar that once was Crypto Twitter and merging it with the ability to launch tokens, games, or even interactive haikus.

While Elon Musk loves to refer to X (aka Twitter) as the future “everything app,” Farcaster has come the closest to taking everything crypto traders need and putting it in one place. Here are seven of the most creative Frames we’ve seen to date.

Who’s that Pokémon?

Before going any further into the unexplored terrain that is Frames, it’s important to know what spiritual forces are guiding you. So make sure to stop by this Frame to figure out which Pokémon you would be, based on your FID. FID stands for “Farcaster ID”—it’s a number that denotes when you joined and serves as a unique identifier for your account.

If you were the first person to create an account on Farcaster, your FID would be 1. The Frame picks your spirit Pokemon by taking your FID and seeing which number in the Pokedex it correlates to. (Mine was lame, and I don’t want to talk about it.)

Scavenger hunt

The same user who told us what our Spirit Pokemon would be also used Frames to create an onFrame scavenger hunt. Six, the creator, put a FarCat NFT into a wallet, and hid clues about what that wallet’s seed phrase was in a Frame. Scavenger hunters flipped through pages of the Frame, and each page had a clue for one word in the seed phrase.

Unfortunately, someone already completed the scavenger hunt, so if you’re interested in a FarCat, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

Girl Scout Cookies

Frames aren’t always crypto-related. Three Farcaster users teamed up to create a Frame that let people order Girl Scout Cookies. Venture capitalist and blogger Packy McCormick wrote about how he ordered a few boxes in the Frame and was able to pay with Ethereum via Coinbase Commerce. «Smooth,» he added.

Unfortunately, the cookies were sold out at the time of writing this article so I was unable to order myself some Samoas. It will be interesting to watch how companies and individuals continue to experiment with Frames as a potential distribution channel.

It took ~9 hours from @0xDesigner’s idea to someone building a working Girl Scout cookie shopping cart and checkout with Farcaster Frames. https://t.co/rjSneeCKCR pic.twitter.com/i9wF6YpcbM

— Dan Romero (@dwr) January 30, 2024

InterestedFYI

The InterestedFYI Frame is a way to share job opportunities. InterestedFYI sources jobs from crypto companies, and posts them in a Frame. Would-be applicants can read the job description in the Frame, indicate their interest in the job, or nominate another user for it. If Person A nominates Person B for a job, and Person B gets the position—then Person A would receive a referral fee. Now that’s a win-win.

Bounty hunting

This Frame takes a common occurrence in crypto—issuing and taking bounties for different tasks—and lets people manage them all within Farcaster. With the BountyBot Frame, users issue bounties to the Farcaster community, take on a bounty themselves, or even add funds to bounties that they think are important.

Play chess

Farcaster user fiveoutofnines utilized Frames to create an “onFrame” Chess game. Anyone can play at any time, for free. You can even choose which difficulty you want your opponent to play at. The Frame sets you up against an AI opponent, and you control your chess pieces by pressing buttons at the bottom of the Frame.

Statcaster

The final Frame on our list is something I’ve decided to call “Statcaster”, if the creator would like to use the name, I will be expecting a tithe. The Frame, by Farcaster user George, lets anyone input their username and check the stats on their casts. The chart shows your frequency of casts and how much engagement they get.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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