Friend.tech Faces Criticism and Declining Metrics, Labeled ‘Dead’ by Experts
(Originally posted on : Crypto News – iGaming.org )
A decentralized social network called Friend.tech is receiving criticism and concerns from both users and professionals just a few weeks after its eagerly awaited launch. The platform is currently coping with a large decline in key indicators, like as activity, inflows, and transaction volume, after launching a beta version on Coinbase’s layer-2 Base in August and garnering early interest.
Rapid Rise and Sudden Fall
In its early stages, Friend.tech generated a lot of excitement, topping $1 million in daily fees in less than 24 hours on August 19, outpacing well-known platforms like Uniswap and the Bitcoin network. The platform’s success, however, has recently plummeted. According to DefiLlama, daily fees peaked on August 21 at $1.7 million before falling by more than 87% to about $215,000 on August 26.
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Since August 21, when it peaked with approximately 525,000 transactions, transaction activity on Friend.tech has dropped sharply by more than 90%. According to Dune Analytics statistics gathered by Crypto Koryo, the amount of transactions has decreased to slightly over 51,000 by August 27. Many in the crypto community have been concerned about this sharp fall in usage.
The Uncertain Future of Friend.tech
The fundamental idea behind Friend.tech is the trading of “keys,” which enable buyers to communicate privately with sellers. According to reports, the site keeps 5% of the proceeds from these sales. It was able to draw in a wide range of users, including influential people in the crypto and non-crypto worlds. Examples include the host of the UpOnly podcast, Cobie, the YouTuber Faze Banks, and the Russian protest organization Pussy Riot.
The payments risk manager at Coinbase, Lisandro Rodriguez, recently expressed a negative opinion about Friend.tech on Twitter, saying that the network is “dead” as a result of “greed and poor execution.”
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The volume of buyers and sellers on the site has decreased in addition to the drop in fees and activity. According to statistics from Dune, on August 27 there were around 10,000 buyers and 7,800 vendors, a substantial decrease from the high on August 21 when there were more than 58,000 buyers and 27,000 sellers.
Not only have transaction volume and user counts decreased, but inflows have as well. From a peak of $16.8 million on August 21 to a low of $1.6 million on August 27, Friend.tech experienced a startling 90.5% decline in only a few days.
Some community members have expressed worries about the platform’s viability even before this most recent decrease. Particularly the crypto-commentator Yazan questioned why anyone would spend large sums of money, such 1 Ether (ETH), only to enter private conversations and raised doubt about the escalating costs of user keys.
Friend.tech and the 2021 DeSo app BitCloud have been compared as a result of the circumstance, with some drawing analogies to BitCloud’s final demise. According to anonymous Web3 marketer Legendary, Friend.tech “will collapse as BitClout did.”