Friend.Tech, a Web 3.0 social network that exchanged tokens for ‘keys’ to influential individuals’ feeds, has effectively shut down after barely a year of successful operation following its initial launch.
Friend.Tech developers called a function in the platform’s smart contract in the early morning hours of September 8 to transfer control to a null address on Ethereum, effectively freezing the current system and preventing further changes.There are no fees on smart contracts or (website) Currently moving to ~ Dude. Tech The development team multisig,” the team made clear in an announcement post about X. The platform will ostensibly continue to function, but the loss of control makes implementing new features unlikely, if not impossible.
Launched last August on the Layer 2 network Base, backed by Coinbase, Friend.Tech quickly gained traction in the crypto community. By September 15, 2023, the protocol’s daily revenue exceeded that of Ethereum itself and the highest key unlocking the feed of Friend.Tech’s pseudonymous co-founder Racer, which sold for 8.9 eth or $14,500 at the time. The protocol raised a seed round from cryptocurrency VC firm Paradigm, but the amount was not disclosed.
But after the initial surge subsided (and after platform developers had earned at least $20 million in fees), the platform struggled to maintain trading activity, according to data from The Block.
Friend.Tech’s native token has seen a steep drop in price since its launch with version 2 (v2) of the protocol in May, after Racer publicly announced its intention to leave the Base blockchain. However, plans for FriendChain were later shelved as the protocol developers decided to remain on Base.
While the V2 launch and token airdrop brought some users back to the platform, protocol fees soon began to stagnate. According to data from The Block, the protocol has only earned about $60,000 in protocol fees since June. With the cancellation of contract ownership preventing a new team interested in adding features to the social platform from taking over, the platform’s revival now seems impossible.
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