Cast Handles

The Wield superhub uses Farcaster IDs and .cast Handle NFTs from far.quest and FarHero on Optimism, Base and Ethereum. We wanted a way to filter out bad actors and network spam, asking our users to pay at least 39 cents a year on Optimism/Base, or gas fees on Ethereum, while also allowing them to set it as their username. As a growth experiment we also allow new wallets to directly post from our Farcaster wallet through iOS & Android, bypassing the Cast Handle requirement.

Farcaster IDs also function directly on the Wield, a perfect usecase for users that have expired storage, want to reach different audiences, or during widescale Farcaster network outages.

Do note that Cast Handles are meant to prevent spam - we could also prevent spam by requiring short ENS domains, NFTs like CryptoPunks, or other mechanisms. The goal is to prevent bad actors - however those alternative options cost more which we figured cheap handles are better.