friend.tech

friend.tech has rapidly become one of the most widely adopted consumer apps in the space. The app has streamlined many aspects of the sign-up process. They've bypassed the limitations of Apple's App Store (such as fees and wait times) through the use of progressive web apps. Additionally, they've abstracted away wallet creation by allowing users to onboard using a phone number, Google or Apple account and immediately get a wallet provisioned. 

friend.tech is likely to maintain its momentum, at least for the next 3-6 months, as the team is distributing 100M points to users over the 6 month beta period to incentivize usage. friend.tech announced in August that these distributed points will have a special purpose following the beta period, implying that they might be used to airdrop the app's token.

One potential issue that the app might face is due to the pricing of individual keys, which could limit future adoption. Keys are priced using a quadratic bonding curve and are largely dependent on the number of keys outstanding. 

As the number of keys outstanding increases, so does the price of each key. For example, while the 100th key holder pays 0.625 ETH per key, the 200th key holder pays 2.5 ETH, and the 300th key holder pays 5.625 ETH. The exponential increase in key prices leads to many users being priced out of shares relatively quickly.

Additionally, with limited attention within the space, it's unclear whether friend.tech users will be sticky. Capturing sustained mindshare has continued to be a challenge for protocols and apps over the past year. friend.tech has been able to garner attention thus far, but the weeks following the end of the beta period will be key.