SocialFi Dapp Farcaster Plans to Launch its Own Chain to Improve Scalability

Decentralized social networking platform Farcaster said it plans to launch its own Ethereum Layer 2.

Snapchain is a new data layer set to enter a testing phase this month with a public launch expected in early 2025. The blockchain promises to handle over 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) and support millions of daily users, Farcaster Co-Founder Varun Srinivasan explained in a post on X.

Farcaster is built on Base Chain, an Ethereum Layer 2 developed by the Coinbase exchange and based on the OP Stack.

A move to launch its own chain, which would also be based on the OP Stack, reflects a growing trend among organizations opting for building their own Ethereum Layer 2 solutions. This strategy offers greater control over their networks while preserving access to the liquidity and user base of the broader Ethereum ecosystem.

Low Cost

Snapchain’s throughput would allow it to scale for a broad audience while maintaining efficient, low-cost transactions, according to Srinivasan. Users will be able to perform actions such as liking or following other users without being charged per transaction.

The OP Stack is the standardized, shared, and open-source development stack for building Layer 2 blockchains, developed by the Optimism Collective. The Superchain is a network of OP Stack chains.

Farcaster plans to offer a model where users pay $2 per year and that will include 500 transactions per hour and a storage limit of 10,000 transactions.

“These limits are high enough that most users will never run into them,” Srinivasan said. “The few that do can pay to increase them.”

If a user exceeds their storage limit, they can still send transactions, but newer posts will replace older ones.

Simplified Sharding

One of the standout features of Snapchain is it uses sharding, which describes when different parts of a blockchain network handle different tasks.

“Sharding is much easier if transactions only affect a single account,” Srinivasan explained.

“Each shard can be assigned specific accounts and inter-shard communication isn't needed.”

Garbage Collection

Snapchain also employs so-called garbage collection to free up disk space by removing old transactions that are no longer needed to maintain the latest state. For example, if a user shares a post and later deletes it, Snapchain will remove the associated transactions to save space.

Users can create Snapchain accounts through a transaction on the OP Mainnet registry contract, and can then use "app keys" to sign Snapchain transactions, Srinivasan explained.

“A snapchain block will include blockchain transactions that update account state and snapchain transactions, which are social actions taken by the accounts,” he said.