One of the energetic and fastest-growing communities within the Farcaster ecosystem is getting its personal layer-3 blockchain. The Degen chain was introduced in the present day by pseudonymous founder Jacek and infrastructure supplier Syndicate, debuting with its native gasoline token DEGEN, touted as “one of many first neighborhood tokens with its personal L3.”
The Degen motion launched in January with a channel on Farcaster, a decentralized and blockchain-based social community on Base, the Ethereum layer-2 incubated by Coinbase. Often positioned as a crypto-friendly different to Twitter, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is a Farcaster fan, and the discharge of Farcaster Frames in February made it particularly engaging to software program builders.
Since token claims opened in January, 53,000 DEGEN holders have already remodeled 553,000 transactions, Syndicate stated, principally tipped as a reward for posting high quality content material. A devoted Degen blockchain was the following logical step.
$DEGEN token claims are formally stay on https://t.co/x3IpFkxakT! After connecting your pockets, you must see a declare button the place the countdown timer to launch as soon as was. Due to everybody who has made this potential; actually recognize all you degens! 🎉🚀
— Degen 🎩 (@degentokenbase) January 8, 2024
“It’s designed to be a vibrant playground for builders and a gateway for customers to securely experiment with their funds,” Jacek informed Decrypt. “Image it because the blockchain equal of Las Vegas—much less about playing, extra concerning the thrill of exploration and enjoyable.”
With Degen chain, crypto builders can tinker with numerous neighborhood administration and engagement fashions, together with tipping, neighborhood rewards, funds, and gaming.
Designed as an “extremely low value” layer-3, the Degen chain makes use of Arbitrum’s Orbit structure, its affiliated AnyTrust protocol to make sure knowledge availability, and the Ethereum layer-2 Base—launched by alternate big Coinbase final fall—to settle transactions.
Syndicate cofounder Will Papper stated he was excited to work on a community-centric blockchain and supply “the entire instruments and infrastructure to not solely make the chain easy-to-use but in addition unlock new capabilities.”
“Layer 3s are the following frontier for totally on-chain experiences, video games, and functions,” Papper stated. “We will not wait to see the entire new issues that may solely be developed on an L3 with Degen chain.”
Syndicate can also be tapping its expertise with layer-3 infrastructure applied sciences starting from Conduit for transaction rollups, Respectable for the bridge, and Airstack APIs. The corporate additionally unveiled its Body L3 for Farcaster builders final month. With the launch of Degen chain, the corporate is providing a free plan to permit builders to check drive the tech stack.
Jacek stated the purpose is to have enjoyable, to not take tokens to the moon.
“Whether or not returning with good points or not, the bottom line is the enriching expertise and connections made alongside the best way,” he stated.
