063. Coinbase runs a BitClout node 🌐
Hello hello,
We’re back after taking the weekend to catch a much-needed breather. Even @nvo needs a day off once in a while to re-load the pun bazooka 🔫.
Hope you didn’t miss us too much. We’ve got a jam-packed issue today, replete with lots of new updates on the NFT and the BitClout roadmap. Not to mention crypto is crushing rn… BTC is up ~33% since Friday. ETH is mooning. $clout is up a whole $3!!! (😬).
We kid, we kid. Day-to-day volatility is just noise. And while we may not be joining Bezos & Branson in space just yet, we’re here to keep your eyes focused on the prize as we slog through the dog days of summer… ☀️🌙.
Guest cover photo by @samhorine
Bits on the menu today:
BuzzClout: Exclusive updates from @bitcloutsignal and @bithunt ⚡️
Ubiquitous UX drops: Arwe-there yet? 🚗🛣️🔜
Moon markets: Wen Coinbase??? 📈🌙
The Cloutifieds: @CloutCon. Be there or you’re an undercover cop.
The Cloutifieds x2: Hot out the oven, break 🥖 with @Breadzine
Diamondhands’ drops 💎
#1 BuzzClout
Today we have our daily stats coming to you live from @prosperclout’s Bitclout World Intelligence: BitClout economy and social stats.
#2 Ubiquitous UX drops: Arweve-there yet? 🚗🛣️🔜
For those of you who have been breathlessly awaiting the launch of NFTs on BitClout for what feels like months, we wouldn’t blame you if it's started to feel like a slog. Each week creators (including @BitsTODAY) have prognosticated about when the eventual drop will come… all to no avail so far.
It’s like we’re on a long summer road trip. Ridin’ through the desert. Tumbleweeds blow past occasionally (reminiscent of the bitclout.com global feed on a random weekday night). Poppa @diamondhands has his hands at 10 n’ 2 on the wheel, resting his diamonds in the cupholder. Where does that leave us? We’re the little kids in the back impatiently asking “ARE WE THERE YETTT???”
Meanwhile, @diamondhands keeps patiently steering us towards the promised land. Late last night, he posted a comprehensive update on NFT progress on GitHub.
What’s the latest on the NFT front:
Arweave: Integration of a decentralized media storage blockchain, Arweave, which is a decentralized protocol that connects users looking to store data (e.g. a JPG) with network participants with disc space to spare.
NFT creators will have the option to use Arweave; if they don’t, storage will default to a centralized cloud provider like google.
Why does this matter? For a platform like BitClout to be truly decentralized, having the option to store data in a decentralized manner is critical. Community members rightly raised the concern in recent weeks that relying purely on centralized third parties for file storage poses a number of risks and is inconsistent with the BitClout ethos.
At first, only images will be supported when NFTs launch. Videos will be part of a future update.
NFT ‘transfer’ functionality, as well as the ability to split sales/royalties, are high priorities but also will be subsumed into the ‘v2’ phase of the roll-out — i.e. things we can expect, but not at the time of NFT launch.
Another reason this update from 👨👧👦💎🙌 was encouraging? The lengths to which the team is going to field, consider, and address community input on the NFT release is staggering. It far outstrips the level of back & forth there has been between core team and community on any other release so far.
Ideally, this will become the norm for future releases. That said, this would require much more decentralization; the core team doesn’t have the bandwidth to build and ship NFTs and liaise with all the other community developers who are working on other parts of the BitClout ecosystem in parallel. @mubashariqbal noted that communication across the rest of the CIP repo has slowed to a trickle while attention is focused on NFTs:
This crystallizes a question that’s perhaps even more important than NFTs (*gasps*)… once big milestones like NFTs are shipped, how do we actually decentralize the dev process? I.e. how do we sunset the “core team?” That seems like a massive logistical challenge and will likely take many months, if not years. We do wonder whether there are solid case studies from other projects that have pulled it off? 🤔
Elsewhere in dev and UX world? Over the weekend, @maebeam did manage to find some time to singlehandedly quell the surge of bot traffic and notifications many of us had been inundated with:
From our vantage point, so far so good as far as less spam is concerned. As go arms races though, we reckon there’ll come a time when new bots surge and new solutions to the problem have to be cooked up. The cycle repeats 🔁. For now, we’re enjoying cohabitating with a normal amount of bots 🤖 today.
#3 Moon Markets: Wen Coinbase??? 📈🌙
In the same way we’ve all been eagerly awaiting NFTs for weeks, since $clout first went live on @blockchain, @Brian_Armstrong, Coinbase CEO, has stoked speculation about a $clout listing on the exchange he runs. As with NFTs, this one has taken a bit longer, though this shouldn’t come as a surprise — Coinbase is reviewing a massive amount of cryptocurrencies for its exchange and employs a standard diligence process for all of them. No special treatment for $clout → a protracted review process.
The NFT x Coinbase analogy doesn’t end there tho. In parallel to signs of progress on the NFT front, the past 24 hours have uncovered welcome hints of movement towards the Coinbase listing too. Ever eagle-eyed 🦅🦅🦅 @tijn spotted an Easter egg in a comment from @diamondhands in GitHub:
What should we glean from the fact that Coinbase is running a node? For one, this is likely part of their ramp-up to listing — all exchanges that are currently live run a node, likely to make sure their operations function smoothly:
Of course, there’s lots more Coinbase could be planning with their node. Given we’ve been in a bit of a BitClout dry spell, the revelation that Coinbase is running a node led to some rampant #hopium & moon-speculation:
We’re 100% here for these ideas baby. We wouldn’t be surprised at all if Coinbase has more for $clout in store than a simple on & off-ramp. Might they be one of the first exchanges to build a social layer on top of trading? What would that look like? Public.com has done it with stocks. 📈💬
For now, we’d caution against expecting any such additional layers to launch soon. Even if there is more to this partnership than meets the eye, and evoking the NFT roadmap analogy again, we should expect the baseline functionality (buy, sell, swap in Coinbase’s case) to launch first. Once that’s live, a whole lot more can be built on top of it 🚀.
#4 The Cloutifieds: @CloutCon. Be there or you’re an undercover cop.
Has the global feed got you down? Are 🤖s the only thing sliding in your notifications? Missing all the hype we were feeling this spring when we were partying in Miami, when $clout first went live on exchanges and hit $200? It’s cool to admit it — we’ve had plenty of humdrum days in the past week ourselves *twiddles thumbs*.
That’s also why we’re stoked to come kick it with you at @CloutCon in a few days. That’s right, the biggest BitClout virtual event yet is coming to the cloutiverse on Thursday, with events pretty much all day long. It even looks like none other than @diamondhands will be in attendance:
For a full rundown of the festivities, hop on over to cloutconvirtual.com
Considering that attendance comes with a fee, please reach out to your @BitsTODAY family if finances are tight and you need a little boost to get you into the event. Above all, it’s important to us that everyone who wants to attend and contribute has access 💪. If we can help you with tickets, make sure to comment on one of our posts — don’t be shy :)
#5 The Cloutifieds x2: Hot out the oven, break 🥖 with @Breadzine
In these pages, we’ve occasionally taken time to highlight stellar artists and creatives on BitClout. Our efforts here have at best been sporadic. That’s why we were thrilled with the first fully-baked edition of @Breadzine that popped out the oven today. A collection of more than 15 different artists’ pieces and works, the zine spans the entire range of creativity and culture on BitClout, from visual arts, to the written word, photography, and plenty of humor, too.
For those who may be newer on the scene, what is @Breadzine? A delicious treat, that’s what. It’s also BitClout’s first ‘zine’ with a simple mission:
… to provide a safe space for people on BitClout to express themselves while connecting with others.
A testament to culture, collaboration, and creativity on BitClout, the first edition is a certified must-read. Here’s a link to view.
Kudos to @dripcult and @sourdough for putting together such a splendid endeavor. While we know it’s a labor of love, we equally that the “labor” part of that equation can be taxing. Thank you! 💛✨
That’s all we’ve got for you this evening. Got an extra 5–10 minutes? Go for a walk or read a book, ya nerds 🤓.
Just kidding. But seriously,
@BitsTODAY