049. BitClout enters enemy waters.
How do ya do?
Whew. It’s been quite a few days out there. Yesterday we got you all riled up with the alarming but important update on compromised BitClout accounts. And today we understand there’s been a bit of a … brouhaha between two BitClout magnates on Clubhouse (and probably elsewhere).
We’ll let them hug it out — you can probably find recaps of that sort of thing from Andy Cohen over on Bravo or something, and we think it’s received enough attention already. Let’s move on to some other good stuff 😋.
Guest cover design by @diorama
Bits on the menu tonight:
BuzzClout: Exclusive look at today’s movers and shakers presented by @bitcloutsignal
Ubiquitous UX Drops: $clout price down across the board 📉
Up & Coming Creators: New crop of future clout legends 💁
Project in Focus: From the party to the @afterparty 🎉
NO-FUD ZONE: BitClout enters enemy waters ❌
#2 Ubiquitous UX Drops: $clout price down across the board 📉
After collective celebrations that $clout hit a new ATH of $200 over the weekend, we’ve since seen a significant flush in $clout prices, as the broader crypto market also gets routed. For a sec there it looked like $clout might be spared from the pounding that ETH, BTC, and other assets have taken. That sec has passed 😬
Another thing that was down a lot today? The $clout price on Bitclout.com. For much of the day, the price was stuck at $160 on the site, while on Blockchain.com, users could see it had crested much lower, even trading down into the $130. Understandably, we saw plenty of “What gives?” type posts out there.
This afternoon, @diamondhands came out with a communication stating that yes, the Bitclout.com $clout price integration had broken down on the BitClout side, not on Blockchain.com’s end.
Without digging too deep into what the previous issue was, the change that brought the $clout price back to Bitclout.com is as follows:
While @diamondhands acknowledges this is “still crude,” we’d probably add a very to that statement. In a flash blast off scenario, say, where $clout gained 10% in an hour, the Bitclout.com price would lag by an hour. Even when volatility is muted, there can be a meaningful difference between the highest bid and ‘average’ prices on an exchange.
Today’s change is a step in the right direction of more transparency and accuracy. Remember, ~10 days ago the price was still completely divorced from any actual economic trading reality. What would we like to see on Bitclout.com eventually? Since we imagine there’ll be multiple exchanges soon, a volume weighted average price (VWAP) would be optimal to privilege prices on exchanges where more $clout is being traded. I.e. if one exchange sees 100 $clout trade hands over the course of an hour, and another exchange only sees 1 $clout exchanged, the prices on the first exchange would be 100x more impactful in setting the ‘composite’ price you’d see on Bitclout.com.
We also of course recognize that this is not a top priority for the core team. We reckon they’re keen on getting NFTs launched and building more great use cases for BitClout than on making sure finance nerds and degens watching every tick in the $clout price are appeased. Plus, if you’re in it for the long-haul, day to day price fluctuations aren’t particularly pertinent. HODL gang, checking in 🤙.
In other non-core news? @BitHunt released an absolutely 🔥🔥🔥 new home page for their website. You can check it out here, complete with a daily gainer section that shows you exactly which projects are gaining the most traction on BitClout on any given day.
#3 Up & Coming Creators: New crop of future clout legends 💁
Been a while since we blessed your weary eyes with some of the stunning creativity and art on BitClout! On this here fine 🐪 day, we want to take a detour from the heavy hitting news we feel like we’ve all been inundated with for the past weeks and give credit where it’s due, namely to up & coming creators who are making waves on BitClout 👇👇👇
@Oleg_Soroko: The shapes and scenes rendered from the mind of @Oleg_Soroko are completely out of this world 🤯. With art that resembles alien lifeforms, it’s hard not to feel as though you are sitting in the theater watching a Sci-Fi blockbuster. @oleg_soroko refers to these as Procedural character explorations and shares that:
“Queen’s Guards is a character portraits series created during my exploration of procedural dynamic form finding and generative virtual cloth experiments. In this process I’m creating new form language using programmed digital substances.”
Thanks for the contribution here, @motiongraphicscollective!
@artsyminal: Looking for amazing paintings? Look no further. @artsyminal is hands down one of the freshed analog artists on the platform right now. Currently on a 100 day painting challenge, #23 dropped just a couple hours ago. Here are some words on the project from @artsyminal:
“Combining my two favourite things — ocean and Pantone. I’m really enjoying painting on these Pantone paint swatches. It’s very challenging because the background is a different color every time and to decide on what to paint takes me a lot of time. It’s quite fulfilling as an artist to explore this side of art!”
This will definitely be a fun project to follow. Let’s see what else ends up on the canvas over the course of the next 77 days. 👀
@ethikdesign: French 3D artist, @ethikdesign, creates realistic yet abstract designs with an amazing amount of detail and scintillating textures. It’s frankly a crime we’re not allowed to physically touch and interact with these imaginary shapes and styles. With styles ranging from ‘avant-garde runway collection’ to ‘native species from a distant planet’, @ethikdesign has been sharing a wealth of content with all of BitClout to explore.
#4 Project in Focus: From the party to the @afterparty 🎉
We know. It’s not Friday yet. But we figured that with the $clout price taking a bit of a beating and with all the drama and controversy on BitClout recently, we all should take a step back, remember why we’re here … and party! Luckily, the good folks at @afterparty launched yesterday to help us do just that:
What exactly is @afterparty? First and foremost, it’s a monetization platform for members of the BitClout community to provide seamless, privileged access to exclusive experiences and events for their top coin holders.
What’s an example use case? Well, look no further than the first-of-its-kind multi-day music bonanza on BitClout, which @afterparty is hosting starting TONIGHT, featuring artists like @ClayPerryMusic, @Madds, and @Tropix:
To get an idea of how @afterparty empowers creators to monetize, let’s look at how you can get access to the event’s they’re hosting over the coming days. The top 20 coin holders for each of the music creators involved in each event get access, as well as the top 10 coin holders for each of the event co-hosts. The top 10 coin holders in @afterparty meanwhile get access to all events. Of course, coin holders at the top of cap tables also get perks, e.g. sitting in ‘front-row’ VIP sections. Music to your ears if you’re already on these cap tables, and a powerful incentive to join one if you aren’t!
While @afterparty is getting started with music, the sky’s the limit in terms of the platform’s long-term ambitions. Look for their platform to expand into all different types of events, be it comedy, investment roundtables, whatever creators are cooking up, frankly. Who knows, maybe we’ll even have a @BitsTODAY afterparty soon 😉.
The team behind @afterparty includes @musicdave, @danr, @robertgraham, and @jmiller, with @craig, @jakeudell, and @reade as early investors (powerhouse cap table over here 💪). Why did they choose BitClout for their launch? As @musicdave shared with us:
“We think it’s the most exciting social token platform… it’s incredible to see what’s been enabled and the community around it. We’re really excited and bullish about BitClout.”
After launching on BitClout, @afterparty envisions expanding their work so artists across the web3 world can use NFTs and social tokens to provide their most engaged fans access to incredible experiences. @musicdave points out that “social tokens and NFTs are two sides of the same coin,” and that expansion beyond BitClout will make perfect sense. We love this vision, though it doesn’t stop us from being glad they started right here with us in the clout-iverse 🌌🚀
So what’s next? Calling all creators 📢. Are you already sold on the @afterparty value prop? The team will be opening up their waiting list for creators to join their platform in the coming weeks. Make sure to give the account a follow on BitClout for more updates if you haven’t already.
And for the fans? Invest in your favorite creators to get access to their exclusive experiences! And keep an eye out for more announcements, we’re sure there’ll be lots of ways to get involved.
Special thanks to @musicdave for being a great community member and for taking the time to chop it up with @nvo.
#5 NO-FUD ZONE: BitClout enters enemy waters ❌
It’s official. BitClout, as led by the core dev team, is officially taking to Twitter to combat FUD (“Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt”) and misinformation being spread about the platform and its goals of being the top decentralized social media platform 👮👮👮
First and foremost, let’s give @davidsun some credit for likely inspiring action here, as well to community leaders like @artz, @craig, @balajis, and @BitClout500 (among many others we’re sure) who are active on Twitter and regularly defend BitClout.
Today, @diamondhands and co announced that the Twitter username @BitClout would begin being active to spread factual information about the platform:
We assume information will largely be factual considering @diamondhands use of the word “educate” in his post. We don’t think this will be a full-frontal PR campaign. I.e. we doubt we’ll see Elon-esque meme pumps of $clout on Twitter, though we do imagine we’ll see the team point to the very real offramps that exist for $clout if people make repeat accusations that ‘you can’t sell your $clout!!!’ that are no longer valid.
As with all things the core team does, we can hear the refrain coming from miles away: “That’s not very DeCeNtRaLiZeD!!!” In this case we disagree. There are tons of decentralized projects that still have founders that champion and educate folks about the project. It takes someone to get something like this started. And It’s OK to have a public presence to combat blatant misinformation, especially as BitClout matures from complete fledgling into flight-ready apex predator.
All that said, we are super curious to see what the initial push on Twitter will look like. Here’s @BitClout’s first tweet. We say let @lazynina have a rip 😂:
Thanks for stopping by @BitsTODAY, folks. We hope you enjoyed today’s issue. We can all use a little more culture and less controversy sometimes. Rest assured we’ve got our boots on the ground for all the important news still.
See you on Friday for edition 050!
The @BitsTODAY boys