Decentralized Social Media Protocol Friend.Tech Relinquishes Control of Smart Contract
After a successful launch one year ago, the team behind the decentralized social media protocol Friend.Tech made a surprising move on Sept. 8 by transferring control of its smart contract to Ethereum’s null address. This effectively relinquished control of the project, as the team set admin and ownership parameters to 0x000…000 to prevent any future changes to fees or functionality.
Despite this change, the web client at Friend.Tech will continue to operate normally. The team also confirmed that no fees from the smart contracts or Friend.Tech currently go to the dev team multisig.
Token Price Plummets
Following the announcement, the platform’s native token FRIEND experienced a significant drop of over 47% in just 24 hours, hitting an all-time low of $0.06026. This decline was evident in the data provided by CryptoSlate at the time of the press.
Friend.Tech’s Rise and Fall
Friend.Tech initially gained rapid traction in the crypto community after its launch in August last year on Coinbase’s Layer 2 network Base. The protocol’s daily earnings surpassed Ethereum’s, and its top keys were highly valued. Additionally, the platform secured an undisclosed seed round from crypto VC firm Paradigm around the same time.
However, the platform faced challenges as it struggled to maintain momentum. Issues such as sim swap attacks and mismanaged plans to exit the Base blockchain led to a decline in user engagement. Data from Dune Analytics revealed a 99% drop in transaction volume, with the platform failing to attract new users by September.
Community Reaction
The crypto community expressed disappointment and criticism over Friend.Tech’s downfall, particularly in the way the team handled the project. Calvin Chu, core builder at Impossible Finance, voiced his frustration, stating that Friend.Tech had become more of a lab experiment than a genuine social finance project. He was dismayed by the decision to shut down future upgradeability, as it signaled the end of any hope for further development.
Mikko Ohtamaa, CEO of Trading Strategy, added that Friend.Tech was a clear example of capitalizing on hype and quickly cashing out.