065. F.N.H.H. BitClout NFTs are shining bright on the blockchain.
Howdy partners 🤠,
Welcome to another edition of the @BitsTODAY Friday night Happy Hour 🍻. Did everyone have a blast at @cloutcon? Sure looked like @diamondhands did... 😉
We had a blast, too. That is … except for the fact that we’re still smarting from our close loss to @CloutedOnes in the late-night Family Feud competition. GG, @CloutedOnes… gg. Anywho, amazing job to @tropix, @maddypryor, and all others who made the entire day of festivities possible 🙌. To keep the party going, shall we have a look at what’s on our Happy Hour menu tonight 😋? Lez do it 👇👇👇
BuzzClout: Exclusive updates from @bitcloutsignal and @bithunt ⚡️
Ubiquitous UX drops: BitClout preps for blitzscale? ⚡📈
NFT Showcase: 🎨 Highlighting some of BitClout’s finest NFTs 🎨
Clout Controversy: Theft on the high seas ❌😡🏴☠️
General Absurdity: @CloutedOnes takes over @BitsTODAY
Diamondhands’ drops 💎
#1 BuzzClout
First things first, let’s look at today’s Movers & Shakers brought to you by @bitcloutsignal.
Next up, the today’s projects that are buying everyone a round, brought to you by @bithunt:
#2 Ubiquitous UX drops: BitClout preps for blitzscale ⚡📈
Now that NFTs are live on the BitClout blockchain, we’re eager to see where the core devs and community devs alike shift their attention. Sure, there’s lots more NFT functionality that needs to be sorted. The dust is just starting to settle, and additional options for creators — such as transferring NFTs, burning NFTs, and setting up more detailed auction mechanics — are still on the v2 road map 🗺️.
Still, it’s taken little time for devs to get to work on other proposals and pull requests for BitClout. One of them? It looks like more robust verification services/requirements for new users are coming, as per integrations that would bring Jumio to BitClout that mama @maebeam is working on (thanks to @dgsus for the scoop! 🔎):
What’s the net-net here? Jumio provides KYC (i.e. Know Your Customer) verification/checks, which help businesses or entities like BitClout establish customer identity, weed out bots and better handle financial transactions. As users helpfully chimed in the comments section on @dgsus’ post, this type of integration could point to a number of potential developments. At the most basic level, perhaps Maeyoncé is beefing up BitClout’s mechanisms to beat out bots in general. As we saw last week, bot armies can get very annoying very quickly.
Perhaps more interestingly, stronger KYC / identity verification protocols may also become important when @diamondhands and co. start pouring gas on the fire ⛽🔥 and offer financial incentives for new users to join BitClout, as noted @jeremyredinger. At that point, you DEFINITELY don’t want an army of 1,000 bots to each be able to claim a $5–10 promo for making a profile 🤖💰.
Speaking of gas on the fire, wondering where @diamondhands head is at on that front? He actually provided a lot of detail during his (still faceless) appearance on @cloutcon yesterday. As always, @krassenstein has you covered with a solid summary. Their full post lives here for more detail 🧾.
#3 NFT Showcase: 🎨 window shopping some of BitClout’s finest NFTs 🎨
Welcome to our newest reoccurring 🔄 section in @BitsTODAY! In it, we will highlight some of our favorite artists and creators on BitClout, in particular their NFT auctions. & what better place to do so than in the friendly confines of our Friday Night Happy Hour? Come on over to our gallery with drinks in hand 🍹… just don’t spill on any of the art (or your keyboard) 😉 & get your $clout ready to do some bidding!
@Jonathanpuc’s “Best Intentions”
This amazing piece from @jonathanpuc makes us feel like we can taste the color purple. Maybe it’s the presentation on the bitclout.com ‘cake theme’ background 🍰 that’s really bringing those hues out, too.
In any case, the market clearly sees the value we see here, predicated on mind-bending detail coupled with raw talent and an evocative character concept. The highest bid on @jonathanpuc’s piece at current is 5.1 $clout … anyone ready to best that? Congrats on the bid and the art, @jonathanpuc, we can’t wait to see what you’ll drop next 👏👏👏.
@FreeMrktCptlst’s “Punk or Junk” 🃏
In one of the more novel uses of NFTs on BitClout we’ve seen in the short ~48 hours since their launch, @FreeMrktCptlst devised a sort of lottery game whereby gambling clouters’ have the opportunity to uncover the seed phrase to a Metamask account with art in it. The name of the game? Buy lotto tickets by purchasing NFTs in a series minted by @FreeMrktCptlst on BitClout. In one of them, he promises to include the seed phrase, which in turn will provide entry to the MetaMask wallet with the Punk in it, as unlockable text 🍀:
@AnnaNatter’s “Invisible”
This stellar work from @AnnaNatter, whom we’ve previously featured as an up & coming creator on BitClout in these pages, was far from invisible to the burgeoning community of NFT collectors on BitClout, fetching a sale price of more than 8 $clout. Not bad for a first sale, eh @AnnaNatter?
We love all of the ethereal character art that @AnnaNatter produces, and can’t wait to try to score one of her future works for ourselves 🤗.
#4 Clout Controversy: Theft on the high seas ❌😡🏴☠️
Unfortunately, @diamondhands oft-quoted first post ever, namely “In retrospect, it was inevitable,” cuts both ways. The good? BitClout is disrupting social media as we know it 📈. The bad? As new ways for creators to make money come online, inevitably, bad actors take advantage of them to scam and steal ⚠️. It’s still the wild west out here… or the high seas if you will 🏴☠️️.
The first wave of scams was epitomized largely by rug-pulling, i.e. when a creator sells all of their investment in their own coin, leaving other investors holding the bag. Notable rugs included the @charcoin debacle in the earlier days of BitClout, which cost investors hundreds of thousands of dollars 📉.
The second 🌊 we have to watch out for? Content theft and misappropriation, especially now that NFTs are live on BitClout.
Earlier today, a (previously) popular BitClout user, @Neslie, was caught red-handed trying to pass off someone else’s artwork as her own to sell it with an NFT associated with her post. Thanks to sleuth extraordinaire (and @searchclout wizard 🧙), @Brootle, the community was quickly alerted of the fraud that was going down, right in front of us all on the global feed 🌐:
Caught red-handed, @Neslie first tried to pass this transgression of as a joke, before subsequently selling all their coins and presumably heading for the hills. Good riddance 😠. If we want things like creator coins and NFTs to be taken seriously, then we should treat theft of digital IP and content the same way we treat theft and misappropriation of things in the physical world. Stealing art, even if digitally, and selling your own NFTs based on it is like stealing someone’s car, taking it to a chop shop, and selling it for parts 👮❌.
All that said, we’re not above offering opportunities for redemption. If @Neslie does remain active after the rug-pull, then starting with a sincere apology and remunerations for investors would likely be prudent … @Neslie, whadda you say?
#5 General Absurdity: @CloutedOnes takes over @BitsTODAY 🥇
OK… we joked about it on air, but after defeating us in Family Feud last night, @CloutedOnes now runs @BitsTODAY. At least this one specific section. Of this one specific issue. Nor is it really all of @CloutedOnes. It’s just @FreeMrktCptlst, who basically carried his whole team to victory 💪. You have the floor, FMC 🎤:
Ah yes. The sweet taste of victory 🏆. I was going to ask @ASG to make an opening statement, but he’s out picking up my laundry. Then he has to do a coffee run for the office. He’ll just reclout something in his stream later I guess 🔁.
When @CloutedOnes showed up at the @BitsTODAY offices this morning to collect our prize, the staff seemed surprised, and began making strange gestures and guttural ape-like noises 🦍 (likely in an effort to confuse us). When they realized it wasn’t working, they sent their leader over to negotiate, which ended in us replaying the tape from last nights poleaxing ⏪. @CloutCon Virtual. Let’s recap.
Family Feud, Bitclout Edition, started out with a bang, as our host and favorite soiled dairy product 🥛, @DRTYMLK, threatened to “roast” us, called his brother bald, and proceeded to compliment the other members of each team on some of their finest and most attractive attributes. A little perplexed, we laughed and encouraged our host. To be frank, he seemed dazed, confused, and maybe a little stoned. We thought it best not to throw too much at him.
Then came the questions ❓❓❓. While it was our job to answer, which, for the record, @CloutedOnes did unequivocally better than @BitsTODAY, what the answers revealed about all of you was really the tea of the night ☕. Whoever said that @RajLahoti should play @diamondhands in the Hollywood rendition of Bitclout should be forced to play @charcoin. And as is customary at all Bitclout events, @AlinaFerry answered “hand job” to a perfectly innocent question about @diamondhands’ first born😬😬😬. And how about that answer for the third most necessary thing a clouter needs? “Internet”??? Why not air? Or mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell? Or a small spinning rock capable of sustaining life just intelligent enough to create a blockchain but not to use it for anything other than memes and rampant financial speculation 🌎? I mean really…
Even through the technical issues, intoxicated host, deaf judges and hapless opponents, big laughs were had, amazing facts about BitClout users were revealed, and @CloutCon was an absolute smash hit. Much love fam ❤️.
(Editor’s note: absolute B.S. game was clearly rigged. I demand a rematch! -@ASG)
Wow, what a fun issue that was :). Absent from recapping the thievery, we had a blast with you all in this edition of Friday night Happy Hour! Thanks for tuning in, and as always, make sure you pilot your rockets home safely ✌️
Hasta la vista,
@BitsTODAY