BitClout is a crypto social media platform that uses social tokens known as “creator coins” to help creators monetize content. Powered by the native BitClout coin (CLOUT), often known as the CLOUT token, the decentralized BitClout crypto social network allows creators and influencers to control their content and monetize it without centralized entities taking a massive cut.
In this article, we’re going to dive deep into the BitClout crypto social media platform. We’ll discuss the BitClout coin, also known as the CLOUT token. Plus, we’ll discuss creator coins, social tokens, and their role in decentralized social media platforms.
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What is Bitclout?
Crypto social media platforms have gained immense adoption over recent months. BitClout coin, also known as the CLOUT token, is responsible for powering the BitClout crypto social network. The BitClout platform combines social media and speculation to provide a decentralized social media experience similar to Twitter. Furthermore, BitClout runs on its own blockchain and operates using nodes and code on the internet, much like Bitcoin. However, BitClout has significantly higher throughput than Bitcoin, with the capacity for greater scalability.
Furthermore, BitClout is an open-source project with no CEO, directors, or centralized entity at the reins. The BitClout protocol stores social media data on the BitClout blockchain, including posts, profiles, likes, and followers. Plus, the platform includes additional speculation features. All posts, profiles, and interactions are stored on a public blockchain, making the platform transparent and censorship-resistant.
Using BitClout, content creators receive social tokens, or “creator coins” which users of the platform can buy and sell. This opens up opportunities for new revenue streams for creators, allowing them to monetize content while enriching fan engagement.
The goal of BitClout is to develop innovative ways for creators to monetize their work. Social media cryptocurrency such as creator coins can help achieve this while making fan engagement experiences more valuable. Creator coins enable consumers to invest in their favorite creators. Plus, users can tip creators using “diamonds”.
The BitClout crypto social media platform comprises various elements. Firstly, the BitClout blockchain provides the decentralized backend of the entire platform. Secondly, the Bitclout.com website provides the first-ever client for the BitClout blockchain. Then, we have creator coins. When a new BitClout profile is created, the protocol automatically generates a user’s personal social tokens. Furthermore, the BitClout coin, or CLOUT token as it is often referred to, is the native cryptocurrency of the platform.
Crypto Social Media & Social Tokens
Despite efforts to connect the world, many social media platforms are flawed. The innovation around social media platforms has suffered several years of stagnation, with a small group of multi-billion dollar enterprises focusing on steering public discourse and profiteering from intrusive advertisements and marketing. Plus, most content creators who operate via a centralized social media platform miss out on a great deal of revenue if they manage to make any money at all.
The decisions made by companies such as Facebook and Twitter focus on ways to maximize advertisement revenue rather than ways to serve their user base and the broader public. Also, the data held by these dominant companies is siloed and restricted from third-party developers.
Furthermore, any innovation in the social media space that leads to the development of exciting new products is often resulting in imitation or a buy-out by incumbents. In turn, the innovation in social media technologies has been seriously inhibited as the competition becomes narrower.
BitClout aims to prevent the stifling of innovation by combining monetary speculation with a crypto social network. Also, using social tokens known as “creator coins”, BitClout aims to provide new equitable revenue streams for content creators. This opens up the potential for new business models based on fan engagement rather than advert monetization.
BitClout has taken a previously closed ecosystem and made it possible for anyone to contribute and build on top of it. Just as Bitcoin and Ethereum provide an open alternative to the traditional financial system, the BitClout crypto social network provides a transparent and community-driven alternative to centralized social media platforms. Furthermore, this model promotes innovation and competition in a way that is no longer possible with traditional social media platforms.
CLOUT Token
The native cryptocurrency of the BitClout blockchain is the BitClout coin (CLOUT), known by many as the CLOUT token. The CLOUT token enables users of the platform to purchase creator coins. The platform’s built-in atomic swap mechanism makes buying CLOUT tokens simple. This allows users to purchase the BitClout coin with Bitcoin in a decentralized way directly through the “Buy BitClout” page.
The BitClout coin (CLOUT) has a maximum supply of around 10.8 million, which is approximately half of the maximum supply of Bitcoin. As such, the CLOUT token is inherently scarce. At the time of writing, the CLOUT token is trading at around $100, with a market cap of just over $1 billion, according to CoinGecko.
Creator Coins
Each profile created on the BitClout platform receives its own creator coin. As with most other cryptocurrencies, the supply and demand of creator coins determine the price. When more people buy a particular creator coin, the price increases. Equally, when more people sell a particular creator coin, the price tends to go down.
Buying creator coins is extremely straightforward. Simply navigate to the profile of your chosen content creator and press the “Buy” button. Users can find creator profiles through the creator coin leaderboard or by using the platform’s search function. Also, BitClout has automatically allocated 15,000 profiles to the top influencers on Twitter. This ranges from artists to tech experts, crypto nomads, and more. Fans can purchase creator coins from their favorite influencers, even if they haven’t signed up for a BitClout account. Profiles of creators who are yet to join the platform show a clock icon, indicating that the profile is reserved for that particular creator. However, creator coins for reserved profiles are still available to purchase.
Creator coins are a novel asset class that reflects the reputation of an individual instead of a company or commodity. If a creator releases a successful project, their creator coin could increase in value. Conversely, if a creator loses credibility or suffers damage to their reputation or brand, their creator coin could decrease in value. As such, users can speculate on a creator’s “social clout” by investing in their creator coin.
Creator coins open up a range of audience engagement and incentive models for content creators. Below are some of the key value propositions and use cases for creator coins.
Stakeholder Meetings
Using creator coins, creators can make content engagement exclusive to holders of their coin. For example, a creator could reserve commenting on posts for users that hold a certain amount of their creator coins. Or, creators could provide exclusive access to ask-me-anything (AMA) sessions for holders of their creator coin. This benefits both users and creators by removing much of the spam and trolling that is common with centralized social media platforms.
Premium Messages
A valuable use case for creator coins is premium messaging. BitClout creators can create premium messaging services that require a certain amount of creator coins for users to send them messages. Also, creators could use creator coin metrics to prioritize and rank the importance of messages before responding to them. Not only does this reduce the amount of spam a creator receives, but it also increases the demand for a particular creator coin.
Sponsored Posts
Another premium feature that creator coins can facilitate is sponsored posts. This would use a special inbox for bidding to have posts shared by a particular influencer or creator. Users can submit repost requests using creator coins as a type of bond. If the creator or influencer decides to share the post, they could then keep the creator coins. In turn, this could further increase the demand for that particular creator coin.
Premium Content
Creator coins can also be used as a paywall to enable access to premium content. This could be through a monthly subscription or a minimum creator coin holding requirement. Also, this could be a great way to earn a passive income with crypto for creators who publish regularly!
Distribution and Engagement
Creator coins can also assist in the distribution of exclusive experiences and scarce resources. For example, an influencer or celebrity could offer fan engagement experiences or exclusive merchandise to users with the largest number of their creator coins.
Money Likes
Also, liking posts on the BitClout platform could require the purchase of creator coins. This would incentivize high-quality content while preventing armies of trolls from slating a post for no reason. Equally, liking a creator’s posts can be rewarding if doing so entitles users to creator coins.
Social Speculation
One of the most exciting features of the platform for many users is the ability to speculate on the reputation of an influencer or content creator. Twitter users with millions of followers and lots of engagement are unlikely to thank every person who has ever retweeted their content or shared a post. However, BitClout enables users to speculate on the future reputation of a creator by buying a creator’s coin when they are relatively unknown, in the hope that they may one day blow up. If this were to happen, speculators could make a good return on their investment!
BitClout NFTs
BitClout is using its platform for innovative solutions combining non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and social engagement. Although largely still in development, BitClout has designed various NFT protocols to be used throughout the BitClout ecosystem. The overall aim is to increase engagement, user value, and monetization for content creators on BitClout. Potential use cases include charity fundraising, events tickets, physical memorabilia, exclusive experiences, and digital content, and anti-counterfeiting, to name a few.
Non-fungible tokens are one of the hottest trends in crypto and have become an essential part of crypto gaming, fashion, music, and digital collectibles. If you want to learn how to build your own decentralized game using different NFT standards, check out the Ethereum Game Programming course at Ivan on Tech Academy!
BitClout Nodes
Just like the Bitcoin network, anyone with an internet connection can become a BitClout node. BitClout nodes each store a full copy of the BitClout blockchain. Also, anyone can build decentralized applications (dApps) on the BitClout network without the risk of being censored or de-platformed. Plus, developers can incorporate BitClout nodes within their own applications to create social streams and platforms around any service or product, including designer goods.
Furthermore, BitClout nodes can curate feeds to specific niches or interests and customize the user interface (UI) accordingly. Moreover, BitClout nodes are working together to decentralize the internet and provide social media services without a single-point-of-failure. In turn, this enables users to choose what content they consume rather than having it spoon-fed to them via intrusive algorithms.
Building on BitClout
The BitClout crypto social network is a transparent, open-source, public blockchain infrastructure that works much like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Rather than storing platform data in siloed centralized servers, it is distributed across the BitClout network.
One of the key advantages of this is that it enables third-party developers to contribute to the development of the platform. In turn, this could unlock new revenue streams for creators and bring innovation and collaboration back to social media development.
Also, BitClout offers new developers, engineers, and startups to innovate on an even playing field, allowing them to compete with the giants of the industry. Plus, this significantly lowers the barrier to entry for competing in the social app space.
Furthermore, building and distributing content via the BitClout crypto social network reduces the likelihood of censorship and de-platforming. Decentralized social media is becoming an increasingly popular choice for developers, creators, and consumers alike. This is because data distributed via platforms like BitClout is not privately owned or guarded by a corporation. Rather, BitClout data provides “globally-accessible utility that anyone can build on”.
Exploring Bitclout & the CLOUT Token Summary
The monetization of social influence is a controversial topic. However, regardless of political persuasion, the fact that a handful of CEOs can de-platform and censor a head of state raises some concerns regarding freedom of speech.
Platforms such as BitClout aim to remedy this. The crypto social network is one of many crypto social media platforms aiming to empower users and take control out of the hands of corporations. Furthermore, crypto social media platforms and social tokens put creators and consumers before shareholders.
Also, stripping corporations of their ability to monetize consumer data and content provided by creators facilitates an equitable landscape for community-centric social platforms. When using the BitClout crypto social media platform, the monetization of content stands to benefit creators in a way that has been largely absent until recently.
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