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Helllo mates,
Long time no talk. @nvo was out runnin’ around Europe for a bit — don’t worry, we reigned him in and he’s back in the saddle now to write stuff 🤠. It’s been a slower few days on bitclout.com and the new Diamond app anyways, and another price decrease and referral program controversy has folks a bit discouraged 📉. What better time for a @BitsTODAY edition to get this place livening up a bit again, eh? Let’s dive into the world of DeSo 🤿
Bits on the menu tonight:
- BuzzClout: Today’s numbers from @bithunt and @designal⚡️
- UX/UI drops: ruing the referrals😩
- Octane fund update ⛽🔥: diligence continues on applicants 👀
- Quick hits 🎯: international DeSo, anniversaries, & positive vibes ✌️
Diamondhands’ drops 💎
#1 BuzzClout️: Today’s numbers from @bithunt ⚡️
First things first, let’s check out the movers and shakers of the day brought to you by @bithunt and @designal:
#2 UX/UI drops: ruing the referrals😩
Since we last reported on how the referral system was being received by the DeSo community, concern and castigation of how referrals were rolled out has only increased. In edition 094 we discussed the percolating controversy; since then it went into overdrive (and for good reason, tbh). Before the weekend, many folks had already pointed out that the referral system seemed like it was being farmed / abused. This point was confirmed a number of times over, including notably by @Krassenstein analysis, this week:
While folks had been beating this drum since the program launched, it seemed like the @Krassenstein response finally elicited a response from the core team. @nader responded to their post with the following:
While these fixes seemed to help curtail abuse of the program, it’s safe to say the response was too slow. To date, the week or so we’ve had since referrals launched hasn’t attracted a substantial influx of new daily active users as we hoped it might. Here’s some analysis the wiz @tijn did on new users 🧙:
Given its perceived inefficacy, the program has bred a ton of concern and dissatisfaction among the very people it was supposed to excite most (for getting referral bonuses), namely the OGs of the DeSo community 😠. So much so that for the first time (perhaps ever), @nader publicly recognized the high volume of ‘feedback’ directed at the core team.
Of course, challenge also breeds ingenuity. There have been lots of great ideas and suggestions generated by the DeSo community in response to question @nader posed above re: what could make referrals simpler and better? 🧠💡
What else is on the horizon for DeSo UI/UX? For one, we should be getting a ‘Buy Now’ function for NFTs, which should help the NFT market on DeSo a lot.
Relying purely on auctions for price discovery is inefficient; buy now options especially help establish pricing on bigger collections of items. With NFTs on Ethereum still getting lots of attention, perhaps NFTs on DeSo can increasingly draft off those tailwinds 🌬️📈.
Further, for DeSo users active on bitclout.com and the diamond app who are concerned about privacy, there’s also a new option coming soon that will allow folks to nix their private personal information from node databases 🔐.
#3 Octane fund update ⛽🔥: diligence continues on applicants 👀
As if the core DeSo team already didn’t have their hands full? They’re also busy reviewing applications for the $50M Octane Fund, which will provide much-needed funding to dev teams building on the DeSo blockchain.
The above note from @nader is important in that he opened dialogue with the community about how to make the application review process less centralized. And, as we saw after referrals, the community has lots of strong ideas 💪. Here’s an example of a few. Let’s see where this nets out 👀.
To kick us off, OG BitClout whale and BitsTODAY daddy @artz wants to see a formal body of community representatives included in the decision-making process. This isn’t entirely dissimilar to the campaign @JasonDevlin spearheaded with @DeSoCommunityReps, which would have established a body of community reps to act as a conduit for feedback to the core team. For the Octane Fund, @artz reckons you could also have appointed (or anointed?) members who have a say in which teams get funding or who could at least provide informal feedback. One interesting modification @artz included? Keeping the body of community members rotating with fresh blood frequently 🔁.
@JasonDevlin did raise one potential challenge with this approach — if members are directly voting / influencing the decision making, the potential for conflicts of interest is high 🤔. I.e. if someone is on the DeSo Supreme Court adjudicating over one of their homies project… can they be impartial?
@v also had a comparable idea, but figured the representation could extend beyond an elected and select body to the entire group of active creators on DeSo who meet certain criteria. Secondly, he also factored in mechanisms to privilege projects that can help with broader market adoption / scaling 🧑🤝🧑.
How would community voting work? @kerstinemeyers is in favor of pitch videos. Plus, she has a great suggestion for opening up the whole pipeline of apps. Seems like it’d fit with the ethos of blockchain / decentralization, yeah?
We’re sure there’s many other great ideas we haven’t covered here. What’d be great would be an update from @nader on what ideas he thought were cool and where we’re gonna net out on this. @FastFreddie, maybe you can liaise?
#4 Quick hits 🎯: international DeSo, anniversaries, & positive vibes ✌️
What else has been shakin’ on the DeSo blockchain? Let’s take a quick around.
Sick of reading @BitsTODAY? Well we’d be surprised if there weren’t a Dutch language version of DeSo news you could check out instead soon. After all, there is an entire node devoted to Dutch DeSo users. Check it out!
Elsewhere? We wanted to give a huge shoutout to the @CloutCast squad on their 6 month DeSo anniversary 👏. Y’all are p dope (and smart and all).
And before we close this night’s issue? Let’s finish off on some ~good~ DeSo vibes, courtesy of @Katramdeen 🤗.
P.S. … it’s almost pirate time. @PixelPirates time 🏴☠️💀
Phew. Had to fight through some jet lag to get that all out. Y’all are welcome ;). Tty again on Friday 🔜
@BitsTODAY
