079 . The future of sex work is on the blockchain.
Hi homies,
Happy almost new week. Maybe it’s already Monday morning where u r :) ☕☀️. It was a long week in many ways, but we’ve got community leaders like @salilsethi to lean on to remind us we may be nearing the bottom of the ‘trough of disillusionment’ as far as BitClout is concerned 🙏.
Plus, we’ve got more and more details streaming out from the core team on where this ship 🚢 is headed to get excited about. Sound intriguing? Let’s get you caught up and vault you ahead, too ➡️➡️➡️
Bits on the menu tonight:
BuzzClout: Exclusive updates from @bitcloutsignal and @bithunt ⚡️
Ubiquitous UX drops: laying the foundation for nodes + apps 🧱
Roadmap update 🛣️: @FastFreddie illuminates the path 💡
Projects in focus: @Polygram + @supernovas rock beta launches🚀
*Special op-ed*: BitClout x sex work; match made in heaven? 🍑😇
Diamondhands’ drops 💎
#1 BuzzClout
It was a busy weekend — let’s check in with @bitcloutsignal on which creators were making the biggest moves. @bitcloutsignal, waddya have for us? 🔎
#2 Ubiquitous UX drops: laying the foundation for nodes + apps 🧱
The end of this week has been a busy one for behind-the-scenes changes and efforts that should help facilitate building on BitClout. First and foremost, @clout4src has been hard at work raising money for node operators:
@clout4src is a non-profit initiative spearhead by @Kanshi and their node @Love4src to raise money for community nodes (i.e. nodes not named bitclout.com) and the developers working on them. There’s all kinds of expenses that go into operating a node, from the opportunity cost of time spent on development to things as basic as hosting a web page 👨💻. At present, many node operators are bearing the brunt of these costs on their own, and with $clout down to $60 from $200, there’s even less profit to be had from operating a node now than two weeks or two months ago 📉.
The legend @HPaulson himself recently jumped in with a large donation 💪:
Elsewhere, outside of BitClout, this weekend saw regulatory tailwinds for BitClout mobile apps. Pursuant to a recent anti-trust lawsuit, Apple has been forced to change rules governing their app store that previously prevented apps from directing users to payment options outside the app store itself. As @ourielohayon explains below, we’re still a ways away from seamlessly sending diamonds over iOS apps the way we can on bitclout.com, but apps like @cloutfeed, @flickapp and @cloutieapp are one step closer again 🔜.
#3 Roadmap update 🛣️: @FastFreddie illuminates the path 💡
As we noted in edition 077, there’s some new faces on BitClout. And they’re not just new lovely members of the community — they’re actively working for the core team to help them with ‘phase 2’ of BitClout (@diamondhands words, not ours 😉):
One of these new core team members? It’s @FastFreddie 🏃💨. And so far, @FastFreddie has lived up the name; he hasn’t wasted any time starting to elucidate the near-term BitClout roadmap for the community. Which is exactly what we need rn; the recent $clout declines have dampened spirits. We all need some milestones to look out for and get excited about, which is precisely what @FastFreddie gave us, prompted by the legendary @100 ⚡:
With this preface, what were some of the specific details we got out of this mega thread? Let’s take a look, shall we 👇👇👇:
Notably, another piece @FastFreddie mentioned is that there will also be significant attention paid towards making sure community devs have some gas in the tank of their own to supercharge their operations, too ⛽🏎️:
For a full summary of the thread from @FastFreddie? As always, @Krassenstein was on the case to summarize the key info
Of course, with one of the most discerning communities in crypto, there were lots more questions folks had for @FastFreddie that he wasn’t yet able to answer. You can bet your bottom $clout that folks like @tijn were all over this thread like white on rice 🍚:
Other community devs had questions about things like the frontend design as well… like … why is it all happening behind closed doors? 🤔🚪:
It’s fair to say for now, @FastFreddie won’t be able to deal with firehose of questions and feedback we all have. Still one man directly interfacing with the community is much better than 0. Hopefully we see this number and the mechanisms we have for conversation increase and enhance in due time 🤝.
#4 Projects in focus: @Polygram + @Supernovas rock beta launches 🚀
Any NFT lovers out there? Same, we’re pretty damn obsessed at this point 😍. And we’ve got good news. Two new project launches over the weekend are here to bring #morelife to BitClout NFTs, assisting with current challenges ranging from discoverability to integrated shopping 🛍️🛒.
First, a new entrant, @Polygram, launched their beta yesterday, with a site comparable to what Opensea.io is for NFTs on ETH. From the team behind @bithunt, @Polygram makes it a LOT easier for clouters to browse BitClout NFTs by account / collections, as well as to explore NFTs from accounts they’re not yet following:
Thanks to @mubashariqbal, search functionality is also integrated directly into @Polygram, alongside the recently listed and featured project views:
One thing @Polygram does not include yet is curation. There was already one notable new project that launched and was shown on @Polygram yesterday that ended up being a classic rug pull. Here’s where @supernovas, another NFT marketplace and discoverability tool, is looking to differentiate itself. With a reasonably similar front-end experience, @supernovas launched their beta with a focus on project curation 🔮
Further, @supernovas is actually it’s own node; you can log in securely with BitClout identity and buy NFTs on the site, rather than re-directing to bitclout.com 🤯
It sure looks like the community was blown away by both the @supernovas and the @Polygram launch. There was an outpouring of love and appreciation from many corners of the cloutiverse — you love to see it 🌌!
#5 *Special op-ed*: BitClout x sex work; match made in heaven? 🍑😇
The following section was graciously contributed by @NoFaceGirl, a sex worker with significant following both on BitClout, as well as on other sites such as PornHub and Onlyfans. Her perspective on the state of (and opportunity to improve) the adult entertainment industry are highly appreciated ✨.
The recent events that saw Onlyfans move to kick sex workers off their platform only to subsequently double back and reverse their decision have been confusing from a business perspective and more importantly, life-threatening for sex works. Whether this was some sort of elaborate marketing stunt or they just realized it was the worst decision ever doesn’t matter 🙅♀️.
Sex workers need a secure and robust place to call home, forever.
Sex workers have been left to out to dry (or die) throughout history. Big banks don’t like the ‘taboo’ world; they close our bank accounts, stop payments and they just frankly disprove and look down on our multi billion dollar industry. For a while we thought that Onlyfans could be our permanent home 🏠. We thought, “Wow, finally a place that lets us thrive!” But, as we all know now, that was just a house of cards 🌬️🃏. Even if Onlyfans says we can stay (for now), they’ve shown they’re all too happy to throw us to the wolves if they need to to save themselves 🐺.
So where does this leave us? Our search isn’t over. Every major adult entertainment platform still has to process credit cards and is subject to scrutiny from banks and credit card companies. People will keep hunting sex workers down and forcing us out of platforms, which is incredibly dangerous for many of us 😔.
But there is a glimmer of hope ✨. A lighthouse on a distant shore beckoning sex workers to a safer harbor. That beacon? It’s crypto. It’s web3. It’s decentralized social media. Whether we use stable coins or ETH or any other types of cryptocurrencies, a decentralized platform could be amazing for sex workers. We need to get out of the grasp of corporations who control pay, censor posts, and take exorbitant fees. Places like XXXNifty and BitClout that host @Cloutfanz and @Moonbounce can be the future. A safe haven not only for sex workers, but for any oppressed and marginalized populations in our increasingly digital world. Plus, they can be a place where all share in the benefits, as it the spirit of the web3 movement. 💰⚖️
So what do we need to do on BitClout? WE NEED TO MAKE IT CRYSTAL CLEAR THAT SEX WORKERS ARE WELCOME. And we need to have a CLEAR set of rules for nodes about what content is allowed. One thing I would love to see from bitclout.com is a set of criteria for why some folks have been ‘greylisted.’ For example … why have I been greylisted? 🤔 I’m not sure why. Other sex workers have similar questions. If we had a clear set of rules as to what is acceptable to post on that node, it’d make everyone’s life easier. Same goes for other node operators — let us know where we are welcome! 🤗
From there? Let’s teach sex workers how to use this platform and why it can work to their advantage. Let’s spread the word. Let’s onboard sex workers who we know and love. Not that this is the main point, but this is a huge opportunity for BitClout too. We NEED to grow our platform. Onlyfans made $2B dollars last year… even just capturing 10% of that annual cash flow would stimulate great activity on BitClout 💡💭. Let’s get to work 💪.
Thanks for tuning in y’all. Hope you have a great week ahead. We’ll see you soon ✌️, take it easy now.
❤ ,