Understanding Social Capital in Decentralized Social Platform: An Empirical Study on Friend.tech

This study presents an empirical investigation into social capital formation in decentralized social platforms, focusing on Friend.tech.Following an empirical research framework, we first identify and characterize "3-3 trading behavior," a distinctive reciprocal trading mechanism that has not been observed in other decentralized platforms.This emergent phenomenon arises from the interaction between platform incentives-which structure key-based social and financial interactions-and user-driven strategies that leverage these mechanisms for reciprocal engagement.Building on these observations, we propose a Social Capital Index (SCI) model to quantify user value by integrating social and economic dimensions.Finally, we validate the SCI model using on-chain transaction data and airdrop allocations, demonstrating that it effectively approximates the platform's internal user valuation despite the opaque nature of its reward mechanisms.Our findings provide empirical insights into the interplay between financial incentives and social capital in decentralized ecosystems.This study contributes to the understanding of incentive design, value attribution, and user engagement dynamics in blockchain-based social networks.