Friend.tech is a blockchain-based social platform. Its main feature is token-gated chats through tokens called ‘keys’ that can be traded. This allows users to potentially profit from a content creator’s growing popularity.
Friend.tech has shown surges in activity across some key metrics, particularly in the initial period after launch. The main factors that have likely contributed to friend.tech’s popularity include a monetisation concept, Progressive Web App, embedded wallet, key price bonding curve, and Layer-2 rollup. However, activity appears to have slowed down more recently.
Friend.tech uses a bonding curve to determine key prices. A bonding curve is like a mathematical formula that governs how the price of a token (in this case, key) changes as more tokens (in this case, keys) are bought or sold.
There are debates around the long-term sustainability of friend.tech’s business model and potential for a downward key price spiral if engagement declines. Also, rather than incentivising stable, enduring relationships, friend.tech’s monetisation model based on key trading and price appreciation could encourage user turnover.
Similar platforms like Stars Arena, fan.tech, post.tech, and New Bitcoin City have launched on other blockchains, with additional features like tipping, fractional shares, trading of posts, and dynamic fees.
