NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, allow for the creation of limited run or one-of-a-kind unique digital objects. This is important because for the first time value can be assigned to digital objects. The explosion in the popularity of NFTs hints at the pent up demand for such an innovation. NFTs have been used to tie value to digital objects such as digital trading cards, art, or even music albums. BitClout is a related technology with a more ambitious goal, using its tokens to tie value directly to people.

BitClout is a crypto social network that allows users to monetize their followers and invest or speculate on other users. The basic user interface and actions resemble Twitter with posts, profiles, follows, likes, etc… However, unlike Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, but similar to bitcoin, BitClout is completely decentralized and fully open-source. There is no company behind BitClout.

BitClout is such a new technology that has turned us towards an expert in the space to check our understanding and walk us through the possibilities of the new social network. Mario Nawfal, a serial entrepreneur and business influencer, started his first crypto business 4 years ago, International Blockchain Consulting (IBC). Mario was one of the earliest adopters of Clubhouse. His daily room "The Roundtable," is the #1 room on business.

BTCLT and Creator Coins

There are two classes of tokens on the platform. BitClout is the platform, but also the name of the native cryptocurrency (BTCLT), which is required to use the platform. Mario says that “this helps fight against the high number of bots and spam on other social media networks.” Don’t worry, though, most normal actions on BitClout, such as posting and liking, are essentially free. Signing up on the BitClout platform gives new users a starting amount of BTCLT. BTCLT can also be purchased with bitcoin through the platform.

Creator Coins are the mechanism through which users monetize their reputation or invest in other peoples’. Every user on the platform gets their own coin that anyone can buy and sell. The price of each coin rises when users buy and falls when they sell. If you believe a coin is going to rise, e.g., the user will become more popular, then the earlier you buy the coin the greater you profit later.

Almost all of Mario’s excitement is aimed at the Creator Coins. Creator Coins allow users to invest directly in other users. Creator Coins allow users to frictionlessly turn their social capital into financial capital. Creator Coins are essentially a new asset class that ties value to the reputation of individuals.

How do Creator Coins work?

Let’s say user Alice signs up for BitClout. When Alice initially creates her profile, there are zero Alice Creator Coins, thus the price for purchasing her first coin is zero. If user Bob wishes to buy coins from Alice’s profile, the platform will create, or mint, the coins and sell them to Bob. The price per coin will increase based on a predetermined curve visualized below. Creator Coins are actually denominated in BTCLT, but for simplicity are translated to US dollars.

Note that the coins are very scarce because as more are purchased the price increases higher and higher. Once 500 coins have been created, each one will cost more than $10,000. Buying increases the number of coins in existence and the value of all coins based on this curve, but selling does the opposite. The number of coins decreases and the price falls based on the curve.

Every user on the platform can decide to keep a certain percentage of the coins that are created as a founder reward. Returning to Alice, if she decided to set her founder reward to 10% and Bob bought 100 BTCLT worth of Alice’s Creator Coin, then 10% of the purchased Creator Coins would go to Alice’s wallet instead of Bob’s. BitClout only pays founder rewards on net purchases. If Bob bought 100 BTCLT of Alice’s coin, sold it, and rebought 100 again, Alice would still only have 10%.

Mario, who is already one of the most active users on BitClout, advises users to set their founder’s rewards very low, preferably zero. “The best way for users to profit from their own presence is to buy their coin when they initially create their profile. The coins are very cheap early on when there are few coins.”

Possibilities of Creator Coins

“There are so many great ways to use your Creator Coins as incentives to investors,” says Mario. You can limit the people who can send you messages or comment on your posts to those who hold a certain amount of your Creator Coins. You can increase traffic to your profile by promising to purchase a more popular user’s coin in exchange for a retweet, or you could retweet a less popular user if they purchase your coin. You can create premium content to entice new investors and retain the ones you already have.

Mario has set up premium content for tiers of his top investors. “I’m proud to run the biggest growth hacking agency (WeAreGrowthHackers) and the interest in BitClout is substantial. We are helping a ton of celebrities and influencers launch on the platform.” Mario is leveraging his business for his investors on BitClout. “If you are a top 10 investor, you will get notified when we launch a celebrity. Remember, coins are very cheap early on.”

Other premium content can be things like, artists creating custom pieces for large investors, signed posters from celebrities, or simply communication access. Mario says, “I communicate and make myself available for my top investors.” Mario stresses that the key is to add value for investors, like any business. “With my incentives, I was able to raise $400,000 in four days, but that’s only the beginning,” says Mario.

Future of BitClout

Mario sees BitClout having exponential growth in 2021. “It takes time for people to get comfortable with new technology, but when they do, the growth reaches exponential status.” Mario is putting his money where his mouth is, he’s investing in the platform. “I am currently buying all the BitClout over-the-counter (OTC) I can get my hands on. In fact, if you want to sell your BitClout, DM me on instagram @marionawfal. We use an OTC Escrow service.” He is also in talks to start a BitClout fund.

Still, there are misgivings on Twitter, in news stories, and in conversations I’ve had with industry observers that BitClout is some sort of scam, perhaps a pump and dump scheme. Mario is quick to retort, “Look at the who’s-who of initial investors in BitClout. Sequoia Capital invested in Apple, Google, PayPal, LinkedIn and a dozen other marquee global brands. Andreessen Horowitz, invested in Facebook, Twitter, and AirBnB. You think they didn’t do their due diligence? You think I didn’t?” Mario is right that the caliber of investors supporting BitClout should do much to deflate the notion that BitClout is merely a scam.

“Bitclout is a place to start communities, and create long term value in those communities,” says Mario. If that is true, then the communities that make up BitClout, as well as BitClout itself will have a prosperous future. 

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Breaking Crypto News

Capitalizing on first mover advantage, BitClout pre-launched in March, setting Twitter abuzz when a slew of celebrities and influencers suddenly began tweeting about the hitherto unrevealed project. Early adopter high-profile users include Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian, Billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya, celebrity Pamela Anderson and internet personality and influencer James Charles.

In addition to attracting high-profile individuals, it also is backed by an impressive lineup of premier investors including Silicon Valley royalty Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Crypto focused investors include Coinbase Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, Arrington Capital, Polychain, Pantera, Digital Currency Group (CoinDesk’s parent company), and Huobi. A Bitcoin wallet connected to BitClout has received more than $165 million worth of Bitcoin, suggesting the depth of backing behind the burgeoning crypto social network.

Why is there so much excitement about BitClout? Well, BitClout is essentially focused on letting users invest in people like they would companies. It aims to allow celebrities, content creators, and influencers to directly monetize their online reputation. In the app, unique “creator coins” are assigned to high-profile individuals which can be bought or sold. The value of any given creator coin will rise and fall depending on the popularity of the corresponding individual. Just like if you had invested in Apple 30 years ago, if you believe in a budding celebrity/creator/influencer, you can invest in them early and earn returns as the individual becomes more famous and the coins become more valuable. 

BitClout is attracting rising crypto personalities, online content creators, influencers, and savvy celebrities that wish to leverage their popularity on their own terms. Mario Nawfal, a serial entrepreneur turned crypto leader and business influencer, is the ideal demographic. A self-made millionaire through several global brands, he followed the crypto space personally, finally entering professionally in 2017 by establishing International Blockchain Consulting (IBC). As an influencer, he founded “The Roundtable,” the biggest Clubhouse room for business with over 10,000 listeners daily and the biggest space on Twitter.

Mario sees a bright future for BitClout. “Once again crypto is evolving a legacy system that was clunky. Advertising, number of views, donations, subscriptions, endorsements, these are all ways high-profile individuals and their fans/supporters interacted financially. With BitClout none of that is going away, but it can supplement or replace those mechanisms when necessary. For example, aspiring users can frictionlessly leverage their reputation, giving them more time to create compelling content or focus on whatever makes them valuable.” Mario is even more excited for fans and supporters because, “now they have a direct way to show their support and share in the high-profile individual's success.” 

Mario is so confident in the future of BitClout, with it’s bevy of tier-1 backers, that he’s going “all in.” He’s carving time out of his schedule and utilizing his growth agency to develop his BitClout account. Mario also says that interest from celebrities and influencers has been increasing. “It’s amazing. I’m finding more and more questions about what BitClout is and how one can get in on it. Not only am I launching myself on the platform, I’m assisting an increasing number of celebrities and influencers too.” 

However, as with all things in life, many cynics have offered their criticisms and doubts about BitClout. For example, let’s look at how BitClout launched with 15,000 of the most popular Twitter profiles without owner consent. Critics are also concerned that currently funds can be deposited into the platform, but not withdrawn. Mario sees problems like these as normal growing pains of any explosive startup. “The consent problem sounds bad until you realize that it's to protect high-profile users and user-investors from scammers that might try to impersonate a celebrity or influencer.”

About the second problem, Mario laughs. “This is pure FUD. Look at the backers. How can anyone be worried about the ability to withdraw funds when two of the most prominent crypto exchanges, Coinbase and Gemini’s Winklevoss twins, are investors?”

Despite the misgivings of some, Mario is certain that with people like himself and his growing list of clients onboard, BitClout will continue its early momentum on the path to viral adoption, eventually reaching critical mass. This is clearly an exciting new space that many are finding valuable and it appears inevitable that NFTs will only continue to play an important role in the online world.

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Breaking Crypto News

Celebrities such as, Bella Thorne, Steve Aoki, Jake Paul, and Diplo have joined the platform. Mainstream media publications like Business Insider and New York Magazine are not only covering BitClout, but favorably so. Businesses are starting to spring up on the BitClout platform, indicating the beginnings of a thriving ecosystem.

There are analytics companies and research firms, but by far the most unique and intriguing businesses so far is BitClout Holdings, the first ever dividend yielding business on the BitClout platform. BitClout Holding’s mission is to grow the entire BitClout ecosystem. It does this by partnering with burgeoning BitClout businesses, providing funding, expertise, and marketing. 

Many have already invested in BitClout Holdings. The company launched Wednesday, April 14th, 2021. Within the first hour, BitClout Holdings had raised $1 million. 36 hours later it had raised more than $5 million. It reached the #7 Creator Coin on all of BitClout.

How it works in detail is as follows. BitClout Holdings partners with companies on the BitClout platform as mentioned above. In return for BitClout Holdings' capital and guidance, those companies share half of their profits with BitClout Holdings. BitClout Holdings takes the shared revenue and splits it in two. Half of the revenue is distributed as dividends to all token holders of BitClout Holding’s Creator Coins. The other half is retained by BitClout Holdings and used to fuel new investment opportunities. BitClout Holdings is essentially an investment company, and it’s “shares,” or Creator Coins, are purchasable on BitClout.

Investment firms in financial markets are a crucial component of the ecosystem because they provide a vital service. Professionals in the firms draw upon their years of experience and expertise to sift through reams of data from countless companies to decide which are worthy of investment and which aren’t. Non-professional investors pay a fee to investment firms to shepherd their money. They get to profit and carry on with their lives.

BitClout Holdings plays a similar role in the BitClout ecosystem. BitClout Holdings finds the most investable up-and-coming companies on BitClout so you don’t have to. You can simply invest in BitClout Holdings, and since their Creator Coin is dividend yield generating, you can profit from their expertise. Also, unlike traditional investment companies, BitClout brings to bear expertise in marketing to gain exposure for partnered companies.

In the week that BitClout Holdings has been operational on the platform, it has partnered with several companies and is already seeing growth. BitClout Holdings is looking to rapidly expand its businesses on the BitClout platform. It is not only actively seeking new partnerships on the platform, it is actually partnering with a traditional finance investment fund -- an incredibly strong indicator of BitClout Holding’s viability. A partnership with traditional finance is mutually beneficial. Traditional finance gets access to an explosive new market, and BitClout Holdings gets access to more capital, which will help it team-up with more businesses. More businesses means a more robust BitClout ecosystem.
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