Data Interpretation friend.tech: What is the impact on Base and MEV activity and profitability?

Author: @tomwanhh

Translation: Huohuo/Blockchain in Vernacular

Social media has become an integral part of our lives, allowing us to keep in touch with friends, celebrities, and influencers.

However, with the introduction of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, the field is undergoing rapid evolution. In this transformation, a new player called Friendtech has recently emerged. Friendtech redefines the concept of social media in a unique way, especially how Twitter profiles are traded.

The Friendtech platform enables users to connect their Twitter profile with an Ethereum wallet, thereby tokenizing it into a unique token or share. On the Friendtech platform, each Twitter profile is considered a share, and these shares can be freely bought and sold.

Unlike traditional social media applications, Friendtech runs on Coinbase’s Base chain (layer 2 blockchain), the transaction process has almost low Gas fees, and can achieve instant transactions. This innovation actually turns a person’s social brand into a tradable asset, opening up entirely new possibilities for social media.

Here are some key findings from @tomwanhh’s analysis using @DuneAnalytics on @friendtech:

This discussion will include the following:

1. FriendTech’s impact on @BuildOnBase

2. FriendTech’s MEV activity and profitability

3. FriendTech’s pricing model

4. Arguments about FriendTech

5. Potential enhancements

6. Predictions for the SocialFi field

1. Development Status of FriendTech

In less than two weeks, @friendtech has achieved $6M in Total Value Locked (TVL), achieved $3M in revenue, and attracted ~100,000 users.

** It’s not just users in the crypto space who are using FT, but some celebrities in the non-crypto space, such as @GraysonJAllen and @garrytan, have also opened their FT accounts. This highlights the potential of the SocialFI field. **

In less than 10 days, MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) seekers have entered this new profitable territory.

Searchers try to be the first to sign up for new profiles at a low entry price and then sell them at a higher price. We noticed that on August 21, more than 300,000 transactions were unsuccessfully sent to FT’s address.

Over 113 bot contracts have snapped up over 20,000 keys and made over $2 million in profits. The way to identify a bot is by whether a trader is able to buy in the same block with the target key.

0xcc218bbd21e14944fcc121d161c9b9ae71b9cc85 became the most profitable robot, earning $569,000.

The following results also echo the analysis conducted by @asxn_r 🫡:

**@friendtech has become an integral part of @BuildOnBase. **On August 21, over 21% of active addresses interacted with FT, and 45% of gas fees came from FT-related transactions.

I think FT is similar to a creator platform like Patreon. But the key to the rapid spread of FT lies in:

1) direct interaction with creators,

**2) Dopamine from trading with people you know. **

2. How should FriendTech improve

1) Provide better creator support

Provide creators with a better user experience, such as pictures, videos, product sales, etc. In my opinion, product sales are the key, which can also expand @friendtech’s income stream.

Here’s how Patreon charges:

2) Improve user experience:

Allows flagging and visibility of other people’s conversations in group chats. The following is a good example. If I didn’t buy all the holders of the key for @agaperste, I’d see the group chat as if Jackie was talking to himself.

3) The pricing model is more flexible:

The exponential pricing curve, while simple, won’t work for all creators, since each creator offers a different “service” in its own group chat.

4) Provide robot/MEV protection

There are two possible ways:

**1) Allow key principals to decide when to open transactions to everyone. **

**2) @blknoiz06 brought up an idea for a lock-up period for early buyers in @theempirepod. **

5) Further increase dopamine attraction

People love to show off their first purchase or support before something became a trend. Adding a first purchase date for keyholders will help boost dopamine levels.

6) Better exploration function

Here’s how to help users explore configuration files:

• Allows peeking in chat rooms to see if the chat is active

• Shows if the Twitter user you’re following is on FT and their price

• Show follower count to assess if a key is improperly priced.

3. My Outlook

Spin-off projects will bring better user experience, different blockchains, accompanied by airdrops, new features, and more. But we should always do our due diligence when using new protocols.