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March 22, 2021

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Hi Everyone,

It's no secret that social media influencers are having an outsized impact on market prices. There's a story all about it this morning in the Wall Street Journal.

What you many not have known is that there's now a website that aims to capitalize directly on the status of your favorite online personalities.

The site itself looks like a really cheap knockoff of Twitter, and the onboarding process is a nightmare, but for some reason, people can't seem to get enough of BitClout.com.

Honestly, don't ask me for a password, as I was only able to access the site after speaking with their support staff directly.

As requested by the platform, I've also shared my keys publicly, an action that ensures everyone who signs up to the service also provides a strong endorsement.

The alternative, of course, would be to not sign up and allow the creators to continue using my likeness to monetize without cutting me in. Clearly, the platform is fraught with moral and ethical conundrums, but hey, this is crypto.

Apparently, Chamath Palihapitiya and Ashton Kutcher have already claimed their accounts, but I could easily see Elon Musk and/or Kim Kardashian, along with a dozen or so other social influencers, coming out with a class action lawsuit.

Then again, this is a blockchain platform and supposedly fully decentralized. So who would they sue?

Deeper and darker

Another thing that seems to be missing from the site is the legal jargon. It wasn't until my third time signing up that I finally found the link to their terms of service.

There was no tick box, just fine print at the bottom of step 2 of 4. It's clearly visible only to those who are looking for it.

Now that I have opted in, I find it appropriate that they allow me to choose the Founder Reward percentage, meaning that every time new coins are minted in my likeness, I can determine what fraction of those novel digital assets will go to me and what portion will go to the buyer.

This seems to be the one redeeming quality of the platform.

Not only do I get to choose how aggressively to monetize my page, but even before I signed up, they've already reserved 34 matigreenspan coins that are now mine to keep, another strong incentive for influencers to sign up.

Ariana Grande, for example, already has $1.14 million worth of bitclout-based tokens sitting in a wallet, and all she needs to do is write down a seed phrase to access it.

Unfortunately for her, though, I'm not really certain what she would do with these coins, as there doesn't seem to be any way to withdraw them!!!

Sure, it's simple enough to deposit bitcoin and buy bitclout, and it's even simpler to find your favorite celebrity and "invest" in their coin.

The site, however, does not seem to have any option to withdraw anything, whether that be bitcoin, bitclout, or even the coveted creator coins. It's just a one-way street.

On one hand, it would be totally awesome if my tokens mooned. On the other hand, I truly hope that none of my readers waste their precious BTC on this nonsense.

Have a wonderful afternoon.

Mati Greenspan

Analysis, Advisory, Money Management