Protocols & Policy · Social protocols
A post by Neynar's Rish, recast by the official Farcaster account, says Neynar is transferring the Farcaster app, protocol repositories and related products to Network School. The official Farcaster account has cast an onchain vote for a new 'social smart contract.'
Farcaster, the crypto social network, is changing hands for the second time this year. "Network School is acquiring Farcaster," Rish, who co-wrote Neynar's January announcement that it was buying the network, wrote in a personal Farcaster post at 1:47 p.m. ET on Oct. 15 that the official @farcaster account recast (sources 1, 2, 5). Neynar's website and official accounts do not give Rish's title, so the post is his own account rather than a company statement.
"We're transferring the Farcaster app, the protocol repositories, and related products to Network School," the post says (source 1). No price or other terms were disclosed in the posts.
Rish's post adds: "Balaji will share more on this" (source 1). Network School and Balaji had not commented publicly by 5:14 p.m. ET, and Le Coin found no statement from either on Farcaster.
Rish's post gives the reasoning in a few lines. "We ran a broad process and received several strong proposals. Farcaster needs a different operating model for its next stage. Network School has the resources to fund Farcaster, and its broader suite of products, with a strong vision for how Farcaster can be a digital complement to physical network states" (source 1).
That is a turn from January. On Jan. 21, Neynar announced it was "acquiring Farcaster from Merkle (company working on Farcaster)," and said it would "maintain the Farcaster protocol, run the Farcaster clients" (source 5). In that post Neynar called itself "the software platform for the Farcaster ecosystem" and said "a significant portion of Farcaster products run on our infrastructure" (source 5).
| Date | Event | In the source's words | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. 21, 2026 | Neynar acquires Farcaster from Merkle | "maintain the Farcaster protocol, run the Farcaster clients" | 5 |
| Oct. 15, 2026, 1:47 p.m. ET | Network School to acquire Farcaster | "transferring the Farcaster app, the protocol repositories, and related products" | 1 |
| Oct. 15, 2026, 1:48 p.m. ET | Onchain "vote" minted on Base | Basescan: "Mint 1 of Network School Farcaster client" | 4 |
| Oct. 15, 2026, 1:49 p.m. ET | @farcaster casts its vote | "an experiment in decentralized digital democracy" | 2 |
The two sides give different figures for the team. Rish wrote that "most of the Neynar team will be joining Network School to continue building Farcaster (incl. @farcaster intern)" (source 1). Replying to a user later in the afternoon, the official @farcaster account wrote that "about half of the Neynar team is joining Network School, plus new devs from their existing team" (source 3).
Rish himself is leaving. "After four years - Manan, I and other team members will be moving on to something new," the post says (source 1). Manan is the other author of Neynar's January post (source 5).
Two minutes after Rish's post, the official Farcaster account set out what Network School plans for the app. "I just voted to stay and build a techno-optimist community with the Network School Farcaster core team. We're going to implement a Singapore-like code to ensure positive-sum behavior within this app, as distinct from the hostility of most social media. It's an experiment in decentralized digital democracy, where everyone who's here has freely opted in," the account wrote (source 2).
The same cast links "my onchain vote for the new social smart contract" (source 2). The linked transaction on Base, an Ethereum layer-2 network, succeeded in block 52,648,577 at 1:48:21 p.m. ET (source 4). Basescan describes it as "Mint 1 of Network School Farcaster client," an ERC-721 token, token ID 1, labeled "VOTE," minted from the null address to an address beginning 0xdb83ae47 (source 4). The transaction moved no ETH (source 4). The block explorer does not show what the token's holder agreed to; the cast's description of it as a vote for a "social smart contract" is Farcaster's.
In replies, users asked whether accounts could be removed over past posts and how to check their standing. The @farcaster account wrote that "accounts had to show a pretty significant pattern of violations to be moderated out based on past casts," and that it was "working to make both the set of rules we use for flagging and the violations public" (source 3). It added: "the appeal process goes to humans, not AI, and we will review all appeals that come in" (source 3). Asked by a user how to check whether an account was rated green, yellow or red, it wrote: "generally if you're here now, you were probably green or yellow" (source 3). It did not say what the ratings mean.
The posts do not say when the transfer closes, whether the onchain registries that underpin the Farcaster protocol are part of it, or what Network School's "Singapore-like code" contains. Rish said Balaji "will share more" (source 1). Until Network School publishes its own account, the terms rest on the two posts and the Base transaction.
Sources
Holding the Corner.
Not financial advice.