The socialFi app Friend.Tech is preparing to launch its own blockchain powered by its own token FRIEND, definitively abandoning the Ethereum ecosystem and the layer-2 Base.
The news of the new cryptographic network, which will be called Friendchain, has raised quite a few controversies within the platform’s community, prompting users to ask the team for explanations.
Let’s see all the details below.
Summary
Friend-Tech and the transition from decentralized app to the Friendchain blockchain
The developers of the decentralized app Friend.Tech are considering leaving the walls of the Ethereum ecosystem and the blockchain of Base to launch a proprietary cryptographic network.
The announcement arrived on Saturday, June 8th, directly from the official X profile of the app, where the project team explained that they will collaborate with the infrastructural provider Conduit to build the first-level blockchain “Friendchain”.
This latter will be powered by the FRIEND token, distributed to its community with an airdrop at the beginning of May, which will serve as a completely transferable gas token.
It has not yet been clarified when the migration from Base to the new blockchain will take place, but it is thought that the transition will likely occur in the first half of 2025.
The users of the platform SocialFi, centered on the tokenization and trading of X profiles, have not hidden their fears and doubts regarding the launch of a proprietary blockchain of questionable necessity.
In this regard, the trader Dr.Kojipup, commenting on the announcement of June 8, asked the Friend.Tech team how Friendchain will bring value to the decentralized app.
Other individuals have focused on the fact that the new blockchain powered by FRIEND will offer higher commission costs compared to those observable today on the Base network, after the parent company Ethereum completed the Dencun update significantly lowering the gas cost on layer-2.
The only reason that could justify such a choice, which will obviously bring disadvantages on the infrastructural side, is that from the new blockchain several appchains could be launched, whose transactions would be processed in FRIEND.
In any case, the team of Friend.Tech, even if they will not develop other SocialFI apps, will earn from this move by collecting the fees paid by users on Frienchain.
We remember that in the past the co-founder of the project, known as “Racer”, had shown his desire to abandon the layer-2 Base with the goal of developing his own self-sustaining ecosystem.
The impact of this news on the price of the FRIEND token
While the Friend.Tech community asks for explanations regarding the choice to open up to a new blockchain, the FRIEND token responded immediately very well to the news, seeing its price increase in the market.
In particular, in the first 4 hours after the announcement, the crypto recorded an increase of 30%, rising from 1,116 dollars to 1,468 dollars, only to drop in the following hours and stabilize around 1,234 dollars.
The appreciation of the cryptocurrency is due to the fact that with the launch of a new network, FRIEND assumes greater utility having been designated as a gas token.
This has prompted speculators to purchase the currency, sensing that in the future, to use the Friend.Tech network, it will be necessary to have it available in the wallet.
According to the data from Coinmarketcap, in the last 7 days the price action of the token remains negative with an overall devaluation of 67%, partly justified by the launch of the airdrop to the community.
The market capitalization of friend stands at around 10.2 million dollars, with a volume in the last 24 hours of 4.5 million dollars.
From here on, if the launch of Friendchain is confirmed, the price evolution of FRIEND will depend greatly on the success of the new blockchain and the fees it will be able to collect.
In support of the holders of this coin, we can report that the Friend.Tech app in its second week after the launch has surpassed the threshold of 1 million dollars in fees, outperforming respectable platforms such as Uniswap and chains like that of Bitcoin.
From October 2023 onwards, the hyper for the SocialFI app gradually decreased, until attention resurfaced in April 2024, just before the inauguration of FRIEND on the markets.
