- The Web3 social network Friend.Tech, which had a sharp increase in activity and rose to prominence in the industry a year ago, has essentially shut down as a result of its developers giving up control over its smart contracts.
- Although the platform first experienced rapid growth, Version 2’s launch and an unimpressive airdrop did not spark the same amount of excitement.
Barely a year after its original and popular launch, Friend.Tech, the Web3 social network where users traded tokens for ‘keys’ to influential people’s feeds, has essentially shut down.
On September 8, Friend.Tech’s engineers invoked an early smart contract mechanism that moved their control to Ethereum’s null address, thereby locking the present system in place and blocking more modifications.
The team confirmed in its announcement post on X that “no fees from either smart contracts currently go to the friend.tech dev team multisig.”
Even while it looks like the platform will keep working, adding new features is unlikely, if not impossible, given the loss of control.
Released in August of last year on the Layer 2 network Base, which is backed by Coinbase.With the cryptocurrency community, tech took off quickly.
The protocol’s daily earnings by September 15, 2023, surpassed both Ethereum’s daily earnings and its top key, which opens the Friend feed.Racer, Tech’s pseudonymous co-founder, went for 8.9 eth at the time, or $14,500. The protocol got an unknown seed investment from cryptocurrency venture capital firm Paradigm.
However, data indicates that the platform struggled to sustain trading activity after the initial spike subsided (and after the network’s developers made at least $20 million in fees).
Racer publicly stated their intention to leave the Base blockchain after the protocol’s Version 2 (v2) launch in May of last year, which precipitously dropped the value of Friend.Tech’s native token.
However, FriendChain plans were later shelved when the protocol’s developers chose to remain on Base.
The protocol has only produced roughly $60,000 in protocol fees since June, despite a few users returning to the platform following V2’s debut and the token airdrop.
Since the contract ownership revocation prohibits a new team interested in adding features to the social network from acquiring it, a platform rebirth now appears doubtful.
Disclaimer : This article was created for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. An asset’s past performance does not predict its future returns. Before making an investment, please conduct your own research, as digital assets like cryptocurrencies are highly risky and volatile financial instruments.
