Network School Acquires Farcaster, Requires Contract for Full Access

Network School announced Thursday that it acquired Farcaster from Neynar, taking control of the decentralized social network less than nine months after its last sale and introducing a user agreement for full participation.

The acquisition covers the Farcaster app, protocol repository and related products. Financial terms were not disclosed. Network School was founded by Balaji Srinivasan.

An in-app notice renames the platform Network State Protocol and asks users to accept a “social smart contract” covering its rules. Users who accept receive an access NFT recorded on-chain. Those who decline can continue browsing through the main app in read-only mode, while their keys, funds, followers and post history are slated to move to another client.

The rules classify hate speech, death threats, scams, repeated provocation, stalking and passing AI-generated posts off as one’s own as “digital felonies.” The platform also plans to require human identity checks to reduce bot activity.

Neynar co-founders Rish and Manan will leave, while other Neynar employees will join Network School to continue development. Neynar acquired Farcaster in January, making this the network’s second ownership change this year.