Buddy Tech goes from viral success to digital ghost city

Decentralized social media protocol Buddy.Tech captured consideration final 12 months however has noticeably pale from the radar just lately.

starcrypto, utilizing Dune Analytics knowledge compiled by 21.co, found a regarding pattern – the platform’s failure to draw new customers, coupled with indifference from its current consumer base. On Jan. 28, the platform garnered a mere 19 new customers engaged in not less than one transaction, a stark distinction to its peak of over 70,000 customers in September.

A separate dashboard by Cryptokoryo sheds gentle on the extent of the downturn. On the identical date, Buddy.Tech recorded solely 5,544 transactions, signaling a staggering 99% lower from its peak quantity of just about 540,000.

Including to the downward spiral, DeFillama’s knowledge reveals a constant unfavorable outflow all through this month.

Per the information, Buddy.Tech skilled optimistic USD circulation solely on Jan. 16, with $313,000 getting into the platform. Nevertheless, greater than $5 million flowed out on different days, considerably dropping the whole worth of property locked on the platform to $30 million.

Furthermore, this decline is additional mirrored within the charges generated by the community, plummeting from a each day common of practically $1 million to a mere $50,000 within the final two days.

‘Greatest lowlight’

A number of causes may very well be blamed for Buddy.Tech’s falling numbers. Nevertheless, points started when a number of customers suffered sim-swap assaults as a result of platform’s lax safety. starcrypto reported that not less than $20 million within the platform customers’ property have been susceptible to those assaults.

Whereas efforts to handle safety issues have been made promptly, this incident mirrored the platform’s challenges in retaining tempo with bug fixes and implementing important insurance policies for its quickly increasing consumer base.

The platform’s viral success additionally spawned copycats like Stars Enviornment on different blockchain networks, together with Avalanche. DeFillama knowledge reveals these protocols are additionally struggling for adoption and use.

Teng Yan, Head of NFT Analysis at Delphi Digital, referred to as Buddy.Tech’s setback the “largest lowlight” of the previous 12 months. He highlighted the mission’s potential to make crypto mainstream however criticized its crew’s execution.

“[Friend.tech] might have been a high client app bringing crypto mainstream. An on-chain repute layer constructed on high of current social graphs. Nice thought however poor execution,” Yan added.

Buddy. Tech’s viral progress

Buddy.Tech launched an modern manner for customers to monetize their reputation within the crypto house, permitting customers to purchase and promote “keys.” These keys enabled consumers to ship personal messages to sellers.

In consequence, a number of high-profile figures, each from the cryptocurrency world and the broader leisure trade, used Buddy.Tech to hook up with their neighborhood, and the platform was driving transactions on Base, the layer2 community it was constructed on.

Regardless of this preliminary success, the blockchain-based social community confronted a fast decline, dropping 95% of its exercise inside a month of launch. But, a revival occurred in September, with each day buying and selling volumes nearing $10 million. At its peak, the protocol boasted a TVL exceeding 30,000 ETH ($50 million), outperforming giants like Uniswap and the Bitcoin community in charges generated.