Creators of Friend.tech Abandon Ethereum Social Platform 4 Months After Token Release
September 9, 2024
The developers behind the cryptocurrency-powered social network Friend.tech have given up control of the platform’s smart contracts, indicating the end of development work just four months after the token’s launch.
Introduced in August last year, Friend.tech was an exclusive application operating on Ethereum’s layer-2 network Base. It allowed users to trade “keys” linked to Twitter accounts, providing access to private group chats within the app, positioning itself as a “marketplace for your friends.”
In a recent Twitter post, Friend.tech announced that the platform’s “admin and ownership parameters” had been set to an address commonly used to burn tokens, ensuring no future changes to fees or functionality. The platform had generated $22 million in fees since its launch, with a 10% transaction fee split between Friend.tech and the account owner associated with the purchased key.
Despite the revenue generated, Friend.tech stated that no fees were going to the development team’s wallet. The platform’s earnings remain unclear, with estimates suggesting around $63 million. The development team’s wallet currently holds approximately $193,000 in various tokens, with significant deposits made to Coinbase.
While the project’s future remains uncertain, Friend.tech experienced a surge in activity following the recent announcement. The platform saw 18 users purchasing keys and 192 users looking to sell them. However, the platform’s daily transactions have declined from a peak of 500,000 to under 200.
The value of the FRIEND token has plummeted by 97% since its peak above $3, now trading at $0.07. Despite its initial success, Friend.tech failed to expand beyond the Base layer-2 network, scrapping plans to launch its Ethereum scaling network in July.
Friend.tech initially secured seed funding led by Paradigm, contributing to the emergence of SocialFi as a category for similar crypto projects. Before Friend.tech, the project founders created Stealcam, a decentralized media distribution platform that incentivized users to purchase JPEGs for hidden content viewing.
Although the future of Friend.tech remains uncertain, the project has seen increased user activity post-announcement. The platform continues to operate as-is, despite the drop in user engagement and token value.
