Sam and Shaan break down what BitClout actually is beneath its marketing: 15,000 unauthorized ICOs issued by scraping Twitter’s top accounts. Shaan explains why the platform is clever as a growth hack while being fundamentally misleading, and why both creators and investors should ask themselves whether they’d willingly participate if they understood the mechanics.
Speakers: Sam Parr (host), Shaan Puri (host)
What BitClout Actually Is [00:00:00]
Sam: Can you give the analogy of the ICOs? Because that’s basically what it is. This thing has been positioned so many different ways — and that’s partially because it’s still kind of half-baked, things are being worked out, and it may evolve into other things. But at least as to what it is today, I thought what you said about it was so spot on. So what is it, really?
Shaan: Sure. On paper — and I think one of the reasons BitClout has been so successful is because they are master marketers. I don’t approve of it, but it’s kind of like when your kid gets in trouble and you’re like… I don’t have a kid, but you know when kids get in trouble, you gotta acknowledge it. You’re like, “Oh, you’re in so much trouble — but nice job, buddy.” Yeah, I don’t approve of what they did, but it’s a smart growth hack.
The other thing is they’re positioning this product in a very smart way where the reality of what it is has been abstracted away.
What this actually is on paper: they’ve done 15,000 ICOs without the permission of the people backing those coins. By scraping Twitter and creating an account for the top 15,000 people, they’ve done 15,000 ICOs — and now they’re basically just trying to get people to buy into those ICOs.
Sam: Right.
Shaan: I think anybody who’s thinking of getting into this — either as a creator or an investor — should ask themselves two questions.
One, as a creator: would I create an ICO for myself? If the answer is no, think twice. Just because someone did it for you doesn’t mean it’s suddenly a good idea.
And then similarly, as a backer: would I buy so-and-so’s ICO? When you think about it that way it starts to kind of break down. Because when you’re framing this as “betting on somebody’s reputation,” that’s one thing. You’re like, okay — somebody like Kim Kardashian or Tim Ferriss or Steph Smith, these are all people doing interesting work and probably going to become more popular on this platform, so if I’m early I should buy in.
But you have to ask yourself the real question: if I issued an ICO tomorrow, would you buy it? Probably not.
What the platform’s done is aggregate thousands of ICOs and make it extremely easy to issue a new one — which could be useful, there’s potential there. But let’s not mince words about what it is. These are just ICOs. That’s literally all they are.