043. F.N.H.H Tonight we dance, for tomorrow they drop the bomb.
Howdy there, partners 🤠,
Welcome to another edition of the famous @BitsTODAY Happy Hour! To kick things off today, we’d like to propose a toast to our very own @dripcult and @nicolek, who got married yesterday! May you both enjoy many, many happy moons together 🚀🌙. The champagne is on us tonight — go crazy kiddos 🥂.
Alrighty, before we get started, here’s some Happy Hour humor from one of our new fav creators to follow, @framesequence.
We’d still drink you, @corona, don’t worry 😘. While we’re setting the tone, need some tunes to listen to while you enjoy this edition? @Mixtape has you covered; their second collaborative Bitclout playlist is out here. Now that we’re all queued up, shall we get this party started? 🕺🏻
Guest cover design by @jeffhayward
Bits on the menu tonight:
- BuzzClout: Exclusive look at today’s movers and shakers presented by @bitcloutsignal
- Ubiquitous UX Drops: Start @Bitswap-ping! 🔀
- Clout Controversy: Buyer beware of OTC scammers ❌❌❌
- Clout Collab: @Cloutroom x @Prosperclout
- Vibe Check: Chopping it up with @BitVibes
Diamondhands’ drops 💎
#1 BuzzClout
First things first. In partnership with @bitcloutsignal, here’s an exclusive look at today’s movers and shakers:
#2 Ubiquitous UX Drops: Start @Bitswap-ping! 🔀
While we still recommend exercising some caution before sharing your drinks with strangers, you can get to swapping your $clout! That’s right folks, @BitSwap is up and running, with @Sigil and team making good on their word to get this live pre-deflation bomb :).
@BitSwap includes a 1-for-1 order book to match buy and sell offers if you want to transact at a specific ‘limit’ price. As far as this component of the exchange is concerned, a key benefit of @BitSwap’s offering vs. say, your typical discord OTC exchange, is that it is much more seamless and secure. It leverages Bitclout Identity to connect with your Bitclout wallet, leaving no opportunity for scammers to pose as trusted intermediaries. (We’ll chat more about OTC security issues later in this happy hour).
Importantly, @BitSwap also launched an option to get orders filled more quickly, without needing to match to another buyer or seller, provided you’re willing to transact at the going market rate. In this way, @BitSwap acts more like a decentralized exchange like UniSwap, as opposed to, say, an automated OTC.
@nvo got in there and tested their service out for your benefit. Note, this was more of a time and ease-of-transaction test, not a detailed run-down of exactly how to use @BitSwap. We imagine you’ll find it pretty intuitive (we sure did):
- Step 1: Add ETH to your @BitSwap wallet from an ETH wallet (e.g. metamask) [time: approx. 60 seconds]
- Step 2: Start a new order to buy $clout for ETH at the market rate. This was about $155 per $clout at the time (or close to 0.065 ETH) [time: approx. 30 seconds]
- Step 3: Withdraw your $clout from @BitSwap back into your Bitclout wallet (if you so desire). [time: approx. 60 seconds]
- Step 4: Buy @alinaferry coin (or any other creator coin, for that matter)
- In total? You can swap ETH for $clout in a couple minutes. No need to match to a specific buyer or seller. No human escrow or other intermediary needed. Pay lower fees (~2%) than you would pay in the pre-deflation bomb USD and Bitcoin exchange windows on Bitclout.com
We haven’t dug into how exactly @BitSwap facilitates these instantaneous transactions at market prices yet. We imagine they have pre-loaded liquidity and will try to grow a liquidity pool over time. Perhaps they’ll also let the @BitsTODAY team under the hood soon or release a more detailed roadmap.
Meanwhile, as @BitSwap was busy launching, Bitclout nodes were busy crashing. Yesterday, nodes like tijn.club experienced hour-long outages. Not their fault though, this was all driven by problems at the protocol level. While @Maebeam fixed the underlying issue, we haven’t learned more about what the root cause that cut into uptime was, or whether there’ll be downstream implications here for the protocol / developers.
Further, still no CIP repo from @Maebeam! Maybe she got backlogged dealing with that outage. But just in case, anyone checking up on her?
#3 Clout Controversy: Buyer beware of OTC scammers ❌❌❌
OK, this next portion of today’s edition isn’t particularly happy. But, like a good happy hour, it could save you a whole lot of money. As the market price of $clout has risen (we quoted ~$155 per $clout earlier from our experience using @BitSwap), so too has interest in and demand for off-market transactions. While @BitSwap comes online and we wait for other exchanges, there’s still significant transaction volume flowing through “over-the-counter” channels, where a trusted human escrow acts as an intermediary for a buyer and a seller.
Unfortunately, yesterday, we caught wind of a MASSIVE OTC scam (to the tune of nearly 7 figures in USD terms). The specific exploit in question is also apparently becoming more common, so we wanted to shed some light on the dynamics and how to avoid accidentally becoming a party to (or as @drk_illidan would say, a patsy in) one of these hoodwinkings.
For context, @drk_illidan (the OG and only known legally licensed OTC provider on Bitclout) had experience running OTC exchanges before Bitclout, and was tapped early on in Bitclout’s history to lead @bitcloutOTC, a trusted channel in the BitcloutPulse discord that’s done north of $20M in transaction volume.
Even though secure, proper channels like @bitcloutOTC exist, a lot of transactions happen elsewhere still. And as a result, there’s no shortage of scammers looking to con people for a quick buck. Or for $800,000. That’s the value that was lost (in USDC coin, an ERC20 stable coin) in a specific transaction gone awry yesterday.
The scheme used to execute this heist is elaborate. Apparently, enterprising scammers have figured out how to create two duplicative telegram group chats that look like one chat to the other parties in the room. Here’s a breakdown of how it works:
- The $clout buyer and the escrow in this case are well-intentioned; it’s the $clout seller who is scamming
- The $clout seller sets up a telegram group chat that is actually two chats simultaneously, but looks like one room to all other parties involved.
- While the buyer and the escrow think they’re communicating with one another and the seller, the seller is actually flicking between the two chats and communicating different information (and wallet addresses) to the two parties
- When the buyer sends USDC to the scammer’s wallet, the chat gets nuked, the escrow looks like the guilty party, and the seller makes out with the bounty
- Allegedly, this scheme has now been replicated on Discord too
The first time @drk_illidan heard about this exploit it was because people who had regularly transacted successfully with him over @bitcloutOTC could tell that there was something fishy going on with the communication style, and that people claiming to be @drk_illidan were using wallets that didn’t pass the sniff test when evaluated via etherscan.
So what does @drk_illidan recommend to avoid getting f*cked? For one, while decentralized options like @BitSwap will help, use the proper OTC channels if you’re gonna trade off-market, like on the BitcloutPulse Discord! Don’t transact over Telegram. Even more simply, random people shouldn’t be escrowing transactions. I.e. don’t hit up @ASG to be your escrow, and if someone randomly asks you to act as their escrow, don’t do it either. Further, check out transaction histories on etherscan and if prices seem too good to be true, they probably are. In closing, @drk_illidan sums it up simply:
“DO NOT TRADE WITH ANYONE IN GROUP CHATS. FULL STOP.”
#4 Clout Collab: @Cloutroom x @Prosperclout
Bitclout is a crucible for many great collaborations. We like to think that some have even been spun up in the confines of this happy hour 🍻. While we can’t claim any credit for inspiring this next collaboration, we’re still super stoked about it, and not just because @ASG was the first creator featured as part of this new video series 👇👇👇
Each week, @maz and @Salilsethi will use @Prosperclout (@Salilsethi’s project) live on @Cloutroom to analyze creator coins, develop investment strategies, uncover lessons from successful creators, and analyze how emerging creators can build value on the platform. Titled The Blueprint, @maz and @Salilsethi envision the show tackling a larger mission over time, namely making Bitclout a thriving and safer ecosystem for creators and coin holders.
Factors and insights in question will include verification, account age, username changes, engagement, coin holders, money flow, wallet insights, and much more. As an example, if an account is brand new, or has changed its username multiple times, it can be riskier to invest.
In the words of @Salilsethi, the show could become a Bitclout native version of “Mad Money with Jim Cramer.” Here’s the first video in the series, in which @maz and @salilsethi do a deep dive on our fearless @BitsTODAY founder, @ASG:
What accounts would you all like to see this dynamic duo cover next? Might there be a crossover with @drtymlk roasts that could be spun up here analyzing unsuccessful accounts and practices? 🤔
#5 Vibe Check: Chopping it up with @BitVibes
Looking for some immaculate vibes to carry the energy from our @BitsTODAY Happy Hour for the rest of the weekend? If yes, we’re tagging in @BitVibes to cover our backs here.
The power couple duo behind this live talk show is @dvoroneca and @alisher; together, they bring engaging conversation complete with a tech-savvy livestream set-up, including a running ticker on the bottom of the screen showing transactions in the @BitVibes creator coin. To boot, they represent the international Bitclout community, operating out of Riga, Latvia. @BitVibes main goal? In the words of @dvoroneca, it’s to “bridge the gap between people from different communities, projects and build trust.”
@dvoroneca and @alisher also founded @bitcloutdonations, which makes it easy to add the same notification / overlay that @bitvibes includes on their stream showing transactions on bitclout (see below) into your own media.
What’s next for @BitVibes? For one, they’ll continue to roll-out new content with a roster of Bitclout A-listers. Our very own @nvo (ok… more like a D-lister) recently had the pleasure of joining @dvoroneca for a conversation about his background and the @BitsTODAY origin story. We also hear whispers that some big fish are lined up to grace the @BitVibes stage soon 🐳. Rather than tip us for the drinks tonight, save your spare change for spamming the shit out of that notification overlay on the @BitVibes stream when that convo happens.
Well, it’s closing time at the ol’ BitClout Moon lounge. Go home, kiss your momma goodnight. Tuck yourself in nice and cozy, and get some rest. Because tonight we lived lavish on blockchain, and tomorrow the bomb goes boom.
G’night,
@BitsTODAY
(Get the “BOMB GOES BOOM” shirt, only available until Monday, June 14 — then gone forever).
