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Howdy gang,
How we doin out there? Everyone surviving the attack of the bots 🤖? More on that later — you can expect lots of coverage on all things ‘dev’ in today’s issue aka nerd talk 👨💻. Don’t worry tho, we’ll make sure to still mix it up with some puns and bad jokes as always 😉. Let’s diggity dive in!🐋
Bits on the menu today:
- BuzzClout: Exclusive updates from @bitcloutsignal and @bithunt ⚡️
- Ubiquitous UX drops: Somethin’ to CIP on 🍹
- The cloutifieds: @BitsTODAY NF50 white paper 💎
- Clout controversy: The bot army swarms 🤖😤
- Projects in focus: @BitSwap re-enters the mix 🔁
Diamondhands’ drops 💎
#1 BuzzClout
As we start movin’ over the hump 🐪, here’s a look at which creators were making headlines today, brought to you by @bitcloutsignal:
Next, who was leading the community projects caravan across the BitClout desert today? @bithunt’s got the latest:
#2 Ubiquitous UX drops: Somethin’ to CIP on 🍹
In today’s UX drizzles 💦 we’re launching a new type of coverage focused on proposals from the community for BitClout improvements. Ideally, we’ll be able to provide more insight around proposals in the CIP repo in the coming weeks and months so that more folks can make their voices heard if the changes interest them 🚀. @bitcloutpulse also put out a helpful and more comprehensive primer on the CIP repo today, which is well worth a read.
The first inaugural CIP we’re covering? It’s from none other than the ubiquitous @mubashariqbal:
For those of you who haven’t checked out the CIP repo live yet on GitHub, proposals that gain traction often include commentary, both from community members and from core devs (when they really pick up steam).
While there’s no sighting of @lazynina or @maebeam in the comments here yet, we think it’s an interesting proposition from @mubasharibal. For one, it’d make the full scope of people’s engagement on BitClout a lot more visible. Of course, nothing is ever truly hidden on the blockchain, but right now comments are only really discoverable via search tools or by rooting through original posts themselves. Much in the same way you can get a feel for a creator on Twitter by seeing their comments right on their profile, @mubashariqbal’s proposals could enrich creators’ ability to showcase their full range of engagement on BitClout.
On the flip side … some might say that profiles at current are ‘cleaner’ without showing all replies and comments. Even if they were broken out in their own tab as @mubasharibal suggests, the tab bar itself will start to fill up once there’s “NFTs” as a tab, too.
Anywho … what say you? The CIP repo will become much more valuable if we all start weighing in on proposals we’re opinionated on. Get out there and make your voice heard ☝️🗳️.
#3 The cloutifieds: @BitsTODAY NF50 white paper 💎
What’s that? @BitsTODAY has had something up their sleeve this whole time? Well, to be fair, we did tease it a while back already. Just had to keep it under wraps a lil’ while longer cuz NFTs on BitClout haven’t dropped yet.
’Now’s the moment tho 🥁 … drumroll please … 🥁 … announcing…
The NF50 White Paper! In order to properly kick off @BitsTODAY’s first NFT launch, which will be available both on OpenSea as well as on BitClout once the functionality goes live, we’ve written up a comprehensive doc that covers everything to expect from the drop. This document also serves as an update on the @BitsTODAY vision as we move towards monetization. Read our white paper here in all it’s glory… and scope one of the NFT versions below!!!
As @diamondhands and co do so well, we’re 100% open to input, feedback, and questions from you, our lovely @BitsTODAY community. Whatever comes to mind as you read and/or think about our product today, we’d love to get in touch and chat. Let us know, and otherwise, we’ll see you at the auction block! @BitsTODAY fo lyfe 📈♾️
#4 Clout controversy: The bot army swarms 🤖😤
Just when we thought we had enough tests of faith on our hands. What with the $clout price stuck at $100, NFTs on BitClout still in purgatory, and engagement on BitClout itself slowing to a trickle. Our latest foe? The new dragon in town that we must slay 🐉? Well… it’s engagement… just the wrong type of engagement:
If your notifications have been spared over the past few days, count yourself lucky. For many of us, there’s been an endless deluge of fake comments, re-clouts, and even copy & pasted versions of our own content posted by bot accounts on their feeds (as shown above by @tijn).
Part of the problem, as @brootle and @paulburke astutely note, is the recent change to the cost of creating a new BitClout account. This change has indubitably had a second-order effect here. The proliferation of bots comes after the cost of making a new account fell from > $1 to ~$0.10.
Still, creating thousands of bots costs $100s of dollars. Which begs the question … what’s the motivation behind these bots? It could be someone trying to agitate for change on BitClout itself — i.e. someone wants functionality to root bots out altogether, and their way of pushing for that change is to take the problem to its logical extreme. It could of course also just be someone f*cking around. Or worst-case scenario, outside actors who are invested in BitClout’s downfall are behind this bot surge 🌊.
Regardless the motivation … what can we do to help stop the bot army? Increasing the cost of making an account again would help. Similarly, if @diamondhands and co want to avoid layer-1 changes (i.e. to the blockchain or protocol) itself, there’s still layer-2 changes, those built on top of the blockchain, that could help. For instance, @membercash has built filtration mechanisms into their node so users can parse real engagement:
There’s no shortage of comparable changes that could be built into new nodes or as plug-ins / add-ons for bitclout.com. There’ll always be an arms race between new challenges and solutions to said challenges. We’re eager to see what innovation this latest challenge spurs 💡.
#5 Projects in focus: @BitSwap re-enters the mix 🔁
Our final update for the day? After month’s spent rebuilding, @BitSwap’s $clout to ETH exchange is back, albeit just for coinholders at current:
For those of you who may new to the BitClout scene, @BitSwap was actually one of the first exchanges to launch on BitClout, beating out @blockchain. After going live on June 11th (man, that seems like eons ago), unfortunately, the nascent exchange faced a number of issues, including a short-period of time in which ETH <-> $clout exchange rates were significantly off and some users were able to purchase $clout at a steep discount. The issues from the first launch were outlined in a post-mortem (available here).
In a world where liquidity for $clout on exchanges is still very light in the grand scheme of things, @BitSwap is worth keeping an eye on now that the exchange is going live again 👀. Considering the fraught initial launch, whether the v2 re-launch goes off with minimal hitches will be 🔑. Of note is the fact that there are still users who are waiting on funds lost during the first launch to be returned. We’d like to see all issues from the v1 launch resolved in parallel or before the exchange goes broad market again. We’ll keep our ears to the ground for you all 🙏.
Alrighty, that’s all for us tonight. Get your ETH ready to bid on @BitsTODAY’s NF50 on OpenSea :). And sock away some $clout too for the eventual BitClout NFTs! We’re stoked to keep this crazy voyage goin’ 🚢🚢🚢.
Much love,
@BitsTODAY
