@df: Merkle showed contempt for devs building on Farcaster's "protocol"

The author argues that Merkle showed contempt for third-party developers who believed they were building on a neutral protocol, and that this followed the standard Silicon Valley platform playbook of calling a system "sufficiently decentralized" while keeping meaningful leverage centralized. The piece cites a pattern of reversals, including a claim that the protocol was decentralized while developers could not run a node, and a promise to open-source the app that had not been fulfilled a year later. On Neynar, which acquired Farcaster after the Merkle team, the author says the company appears to be focusing on mini-app and agent developers rather than stronger protocol guarantees, though decentralizing channels and reinstating third-party developer calls are noted as steps in the right direction. The author also supports Cassie's fork as a form of dissent.