Reflections from Farcon & the Onchain Creator House
Farcon brought the crypto ecosystem together in New York for a week of energy, introspection, and evolution. This wasnât just another conference. From spontaneous street interviews to meme panels and breakfast burrito inside jokes, the vibe was unmistakably different: lighter, more playful, and surprisingly self-aware.
But beneath the surface, a deeper conversation unfolded. What does it really mean to be an onchain creator? Have we actually made progress from the promises of five years ago? And if onchain media is âthe future,â where are the breakout stars?
Hereâs what stood out:
The Creator House wasnât just an event â it was a statement.
Diana (treegirl) called it âthe highlight of my Farcon,â not just because of the programming, but because it aligned with the kind of media sheâs trying to build.
After months of planning, Humpty said the event exceeded every expectation. But it was the outpouring of support that caught him off guard. Almost everyone who attended â from creators and builders to first-timers â had something positive to say. When the last guests left and the lights dimmed, Humpty sat with his team and nearly cried â not from stress, but gratitude.
âYou canât do things alone. It takes a village â and weâre building one,â Humpty said.
As the crew unpacked their experiences, Diana posed the tough question:
âIâm not sure how much weâve really developed in the right direction over the last five years.â
She pointed out that while there are more tools today â like Pods or Zora â few feel transformative. Many of the early promises about creator empowerment and direct monetization have faded, and Li Jin's â100 true fansâ narrative? According to Diana, âThat ideaâs dead. Nobodyâs talking about it anymore.â
Gramajo echoed this skepticism, saying many creators burn out before they ever find traction:
âIâve seen it over and over. People come in hot, posting daily, but six months later, theyâre done.â
For creators to survive long enough to reach product-market fit, they need better incentives â and simpler, more cohesive infrastructure.
Diana didnât hold back when comparing Farcaster and Lens. Her take:
Lens chased growth too fast, attracting bots and spam early on.
Farcaster, by contrast, prioritized quality and built slowly â resulting in stronger communities and a more usable experience today.
Despite more apps in the Farcaster ecosystem, Diana pointed out that many still struggle to function smoothly. Even so, she believes the quality of discussion and experimentation feels more authentic.
âFacebook Groups might still be the best model weâve seen for community â and no one has topped it yet,â she quipped.
One comment that stirred debate came from Jesse Pollak:
âThe most successful onchain creators will be born onchain â the same way the best TikTokers were born on TikTok.â
At first glance, it sounds visionary. But Diana pushed back hard:
âWeâve been saying that for five years. TikTokers blew up in months. Weâve been waiting years.â
Humpty acknowledged her frustration but argued that the tooling and capital just werenât there until recently. âYou canât birth a breakout class of creators without giving them a real chance to succeed,â he said.
Gramajo added a useful historical lens, pointing out that even platforms like YouTube and Instagram took years before full-time creators emerged.
âMaybe weâre just early â again. But maybe thatâs okay,â he said.
One of the strongest takeaways from Farcon was the emerging consensus that mass onboarding doesnât work. Instead, crypto needs to go small â and go deep.
âIf Farcon is going to be an onboarding event next year... active casters can throw events onboarding folks from their niche and learning about barriers to entry.â said Rubinovitz, a Farcon attendee and web3 advocate.
Projects like Skate Jam and Onchain Creator House were celebrated for showing how subcultures â not generic onboarding funnels â might be the key to growing onchain communities. If we want real creators in this space, we need to meet them where they already are.
Despite the frustrations, there was a quiet optimism pulsing through Farcon. With Coinbase Wallet rolling out embedded social features and Farcaster doubling down on open, composable media, something feels different this time.
âWeâre finally building the tools we wished we had five years ago,â said Gramajo. âNow itâs up to us to actually use them.â
The creators havenât left â theyâre just getting sharper. More focused. More aligned. And this time, theyâre bringing their corners of the internet with them.
đŹ Want to weigh in?
What do you think â are we early or are we late? Are native onchain creators coming⊠or already here?
Drop your thoughts on Warpcast.
Letâs build the future, one burrito pic at a time.
Over 1.6k subscribers