DeSo News

First published on September 19, 2021

Fake accounts, fake artists, copy and paste of works downloaded from the web, the same NFTs sold on several different platforms, supposedly unique editions "minted" several times: we really need ethical rules. This activity is brand new, not only on Bitclout but also on other platforms so the legal framework for regulating creations and sales is currently lacking. Hopefully, Bitclout administrators will be keen to put rules in place to limit cheating.

Fortunately, there are also many talented artists who act with fair play. We will present a selection to you in each issue of CloutZine.

An NFT creator who masquerades as a famous artist

A Bitclout member named @vangoth_ncl has impersonated a famous artist to create NFTs. 

The original designs are created by an artist named vangoth_ncl The original designs are created by an artist named vangoth_ncl based in New Castle, UK, who has 13,200 followers on Instagram.

The artist has confirmed that he does not have a Bitclout account and that the only platform he uses for his NFTs is Opensea. 

Vangoth: « Hey philippe, yeah no thats not me at all ha thanks for letting me know its up there, the only platform I use is opensea so the bitclout account is unfortunately not me at all just someone that's posing as myself. »

AndoraArt sells NFTs created by other artists 

@AndoraArt describes him/herself as an artist living in Barcelona, Spain. However, he/she does sell NFTs created by other artists and for sale on other platforms.

On the left the NFT sold by @AndoraArt. On the right, the NFT created by Gala Marissa, for sale on Markersplace.

On the left the NFT sold by @AndoraArt. On the right, the NFT created by Dunja Jung, for sale on Makersplace.

On the left the NFT sold by @AndoraArt. On the right the NFT created by Ruslan Bolgov, for sale on Makersplace. 

A « Unique" NFT Sold Several Times

The value of an NFT depends greatly on its rarity. A single edition is much more valuable than a multiple edition of the same image.

Yet, we have seen some artists mint a single NFT from an image and then mint other NFTs from the same image. It’s a bad surprise when a buyer realizes that their NFT which they thought as "unique" was made in multiple copies.

It's a mishap that has happened twice to @PhilippeMeunier: “When I contacted the creators, one of them agreed to reimburse me for part of the price paid and the other refused, saying, "where is it written that it is forbidden to do that."

In fact, when a creator mints an NFT, he has the choice, in the configuration, between "Single edition" and "Multiple edition". If he wants to create multiple NFTs of the same image, he has to choose "Multiple edition". This way potential customers know that there are several copies of the same NFT, numbered # 1, # 2, # 3, etc. and therefore it will not be as rare as a single edition.

So it is not fair to create multiple "unique" editions from the same image that will all be numbered # 1.

The Same NFT Sold On Multiple Platforms

It also happens that a creator mints the same image on several different NFT platforms. Making this NFT lose its rarity and a large part of its resale value. Of course, when buyers find out, they seek redress from the seller, and the reputation of the creator is tarnished.

The same NFT sold on two different platforms: on the left on Solana, on the right on Bitclout. 

This cheating was denounced by @FUCKEDUPCATS after realizing that the same NFT was for sale on Bitclout and on Solana. 

Le créateur a commencé par se défendre en disant que ses acheteurs étaient au courant, puis il a fini par reconnaître sa faute et a promis de dédommager ses 16 acheteurs.

SOME ARTISTS IN THE SPOTLIGHT 

@Knights_of_Clout

«  Hi, my name is Duncan Wilson and I’m based in the United Kingdom (just outside Southampton).

- Are you a professional artist?

Yes, my day job is as a Head of Design for a development company specialising in Identity and Access Management. I have a small team of visual and UX designers that I work with to build products. I trained as a fine artist so I consider my personal projects to be ‘professional’ practice as well. I try and hold those up to the same standards as the work I produce in my daytime role.

- When did you start drawing?

I think I really got into it around seven or eight years of age. I can remember filling cheap supermarket sketchbooks with comic strips. Most of them were centred around giant robots fighting in space. I discovered the British comic 2000AD around the same time which really inspired me to keep drawing.

- What's your background in terms of art?

I trained in Fine Art specialising in Visual Research, this was focused on time-based media such as film, photography and at that time the new area of digital art. After leaving college I moved into ‘New Media’ designing online content for some well established entertainment properties. From there I worked for a while as a game designer before moving into the IAM space.

- How would you define your NFT style?

I think the Knights of Clout project is quite a graphic, clean cartoon style. It’s something I’ve perfected over the years. I think the style is very narrative driven. It lends itself to animation and other forms of IP development.

- Do you have projects of new NFTs you plan to create?

I’m very committed to expanding the Knights of Clout further. It’s very early days with them with lots of scope not just for new characters but also for new types of mechanisms in which to deploy them - and to expand their universe. I’m in the early days of working out a trading card mechanic for them. It would be amazing for Knight owners to use and modify their character through a TCG platform. I think the BitClout platform is the perfect place for those kinds of opportunities. 

@Foxen

« My name is Meredith Marsone and I’m the creator and artist behind Foxen. 

- Are you a professional artist? I’m a professional artist working in oil paint but more recently pixels! Since becoming involved with NFTs Foxen has been a project of love and enthusiasm with @JDArmstrong along for ride as Foxen’s writer. Together we create a character able to visit different people of Bitclout and make tongue in cheek commentary about the current goings-on around the platform. 

Other projects. I am currently drawing a derivative for Frogland.io Notorious Artistes on Opensea and have a few other things on the boil in the background. The life of an NFT artist is wide and varied once you get involved in a few communities. I’m so grateful for all the opportunities coming my way.  »

Meredith also has a personal account - @MeredithMarsone - where she presents her paintings of which she does NFTs. See article on CloutZine #007.

@Arkham

« My name is Arkham. I am from Florida, USA.

I am not a professional artist, it's what I like to do as a passion or hobby.
I started scribbling since the first year of my university via some graphic tools.
No background as an artist, just randomly had an interest so I tried it out.
I don't practise a specific style, I like to make NFTs that are of people's interest and adds fun to the community. 
One of which is @ballsies.

@CompulsiveDoodler

« I go by K.M. and I am based in Maine, USA.

I am not a professional artist, but am a professional doodler. I have been doing this since I was able to hold a crayon. My art background has been in cards and concert posters for bands I was acquainted with.

My inspiration is whatever is in the moment. Doodles are free flowing. 
There may be some collaborations with other BitClout users in the future. 
Nothing doodled in stone at the moment.  »

@NataliArt

« Everything starts with coffee, it's my passion.

My name is Natali. I have my own online shop selling coffee and organic products in Ukraine.

I love photography, I'm not a professional artist myself and I've never been. I just tried to do a 3D portrait, and when @Craig bought my prints, I thought if someone like that bought my work, maybe others will like my art. I am very grateful to him for that.

Today is my 168th day on BitClout and I have two projects here:

- @kavilshop is my coffee account;
- @NATALIART is an NFT and charity project.

Now 3 of my nfts are in top BitClouters: @Craig, @TiffanyATrump, @Dharmesh @MechellLord and you can check them in their gallery. I am so grateful for their appreciation of my art. It means a lot to me.

@NATALIART is not only an NFT project, but I am also embracing a charity. I send 10% of the sale of each NFT to charity. My dream is to scale the charity on BitClout.

I'm constantly thinking of new nft ideas every day, and I plan to open another project in the near future.  »

@Puppetie

« Hi! My name is Miguel, a college student and I'm from the Philippines. » 

- Are you the artist who draws your NFTS?

«  I draw all my NFTs. Sometimes, I also incorporate some  suggestions from my friends and family in my artwork. »

- What's your background in terms of art?

«  My older brother and my cousin are into portrait sketching and simply adore them when I was a child. I used to draw cartoon characters on the back of my notebook when I was in gradeshool. Then my friend pursuaded me to join bitclout as I can post my artworks and gain supporters. Joining bitclout motivates to improve my skills in art. »

- How came the idea/inspiration of your NFT series?

«  One of my favorite past time is to watch puppetry videos online and I came to this idea of turning my favorite cartoon/anime characters into puppet-looking digital art. »

- Do you have projects of new NFTS ?

«  I plan to focus on this project for now as I'm also a little busy with my studies, but, I do have other ideas in mind that I can hopefully share in the future. »

THE AVENTURES OF AL CLOUTONE

Al Cloutone NFT N ° 003 is available on @AlCloutone Bitclout account.

THE HECTIC LIFE OF MR. CLOUTER

The NFT of Mr. Clouter #008 is available on @MrClouter Bitclout account.

TO BE CONTINUED IN OUR NEXT ISSUE

We hope you liked this issue. Please consider investing in @CloutZine !

Editor and drawings: @PhilippeMeunier

CloutZine is now also published on Medium platform for a more interactive experience.

First published in August 2021

In recent days, the value of the Clout, which has so far been stable at $ 100, has dropped suddenly to $ 70. Why this fall? The administrators have not yet given an explanation but it can be assumed that this is linked to the listing of Clout by the exchange platform Coinbase which was supposed to take place in early September but which will be postponed until early October. We recall that the Clout fell from $ 185 to $ 105 when it was first listed by an exchange in June, in this case Blockchain.com. However, the situation was different today: the whales that had amassed gigantic volumes of Clouts since Bitclout's inception finally had the chance to take out some of their profits, and they did. Millions of dollars came out of Bitclout causing the value of the Clout to plummet.

As soon as trading on Blockchain.com opened in June, the whales took some of their profits out of Bitclout. @JamesHarbal shared this screenshot of a deal: a $ 12 million Clouts sale. 

We suspect that these whales have speculated on the drop in the value of the Clout that the listing by Coinbase may cause.

Between August 10 and 23, Creator Coins sales volume was more than 3 times the purchase volume: $ 4.5 million in sales versus $ 1.4 million in purchases.

Indeed, it is more than likely that one of the listing conditions required by Coinbase is that the price of the Clout is defined by the market of supply and demand and is not supported by Bitclout. However, many people believe that the Bitclout Core Team was supporting the value of the Clout to prevent it from falling below $ 100 which could have scared the members away.

With the end or in any case the decrease in this support (the classic mechanism of which would be to maintain a demand at $ 100 by Bitclout's treasury, although @diamondhands denies having intervened), the Clout will now gradually find its real market value. 

CLOUT AT $ 50 BEFORE ITS LISTING BY COINBASE ?

How far can the Clout drop?

After Clout drop on August 23, @MarioNawfal said : "I've been saying for weeks the real price of Bitclout based on the metrics is $50-$80"

After a month of stability at $ 100, the Clout fell sharply. Source: CoinMarketCap.

@Krassenstein also mentioned the $ 50 figure: "The Bitclout site has set the floor at $50 now instead of $100"

He asked @diamondhands for clarification.

@Krassenstein: "Hearing from the community I think one big question people want answered is: Was an artificial floor placed at $100 and if so was anyone aware that this floor would be removed at a specific time? There were a few large sales right before the floor broke. Did the sales cause the break or did the news that the floor would be removed cause the sales?"

@diamondhands replied that there was no artificial floor:

"Great question. We can't know for sure, but I think a lot of people were just buying CLOUT at $100. I bought a lot at that price myself, in addition to what was coming in from Gringotts, because I thought and still think it's a very low price. DEFINITELY nothing coordinated from my end though; I don't tell anyone when I'm buying (and I haven't sold a single CLOUT)." 

The price of Clout have remained stable at $ 100 for a month in a completely natural way? Unheard of for a cryptocurrency! This "clarification" did not convince everyone.

We know the Core Team has artificially inflated the price of "Reserved" Creator Coins (see below), so why not inflate the price of the Clout? These are only speculations, but the opacity surrounding the management of the platform can only entertain these doubts. 

DESPITE DIAMONDHANDS' "CLARIFICATIONS", OPACITY STILL REIGNS

Last month, I intended to dedicate Cloutzine issue 002 to the causes of the Clout price variation and the distribution of the total Clout volume among the Clouter population. I had to forgo this article because none of the people I contacted could give me the information I needed. The impression I got was that the topic was politically incorrect.

Today, questions are surfacing even in BitsTODAY which until now has always been careful not to rock the boat. Read their excellent special issue titled: BearClout: Playing Devil’s Advocate.

So I will still address the subject despite the lack of information, at the risk of saying inaccurate things. And if I say any, I'll be happy to correct them if the real info ends up coming out. The lack of transparency is in fact the very subject of this article.

This lack of transparency seems structural. It started from the genesis of the project with the choice of the founder and the Core Team to remain anonymous. No names, only nicknames.

This might be anecdotal if the pre-launch currency distribution had been transparently published, but it was not.

Where is the majority of the Clouts? No info.

Of course, since it's all on a public blockchain, the explorer allows us to see every transaction / event that has happened on BitClout from the start. All.

But this data is only visible to the developers and it seems that there is no desire to make public some of this information such as the distribution of the Clouts.

THE MAJORITY OF CLOUTS IN THE HANDS OF A  FEW HOLDERS

A developper named @Shiro took the time to explore the data from the genesis of Bitclout and made this information public. Unfortunately, since his attitude was very antagonistic towards the boss of Bitclout, and Shiro's goal was to prove that Bitclout was a scam (which is not the case at all in this article), this information were not relayed on Bitclout and remained more or less “confidential” on Twitter.

Shiro had promised new revelations but stopped posting after this long twit.

  In a very long article published on Twitter on March 26, @Shiro explains in 30 points the mining of Clouts, their distribution, the creation of "reserved" accounts and their artificial pumping:

• MINING OF 8 MILLION CLOUTS
  On January 18, 8 million Clouts were mined [$ 560 million in current value, at $ 70 / Clout. This value reached $ 1.5 billion in June when the value of the Clout climbed to $ 190]
  
  
• DISTRIBUTION OF THE CLOUTS BETWEEN 482 ACCOUNTS
  This sum was split among 482 public keys / accounts. The allocation was not made evenly. Some keys got 100,000 Clouts while others got only 0.00001.
  The distribution of the Clouts was carried out by two accounts named @master and @merlin.
  Transactions show that @master was primarily used to distribute Clouts to influencer profiles, which were then all automatically used to buy their own coins.
  @Merlin's job was to give 0.00002 Starter Clout to every new user who signed up - to pay gas fees for simple actions like updating profile or posting.
  
  
• CREATION AND PUMPING OF 15,000 ACCOUNTS FROM TWITTER 
  On March 1 (18 days before the public launch), 57,784 transactions were recorded.
  These transactions mainly consist of: BASIC_TRANSFER, UPDATE_PROFILE and CREATOR_COIN.
  On this early stage, all those empty keys went through 4 transactions:
  - got sent a bit of $BitClout for gas
  - spent it to update profile as copied from Twitter
  - got sent a larger amount
  - spent it to buy their own coin
  These operations were repeated 15,000 times for the 15,000 influencer profiles “reserved” on BitClout.
  On March 11, each profile was given a larger amount, varying in an arbitrary fashion, so that they could purchase their own coin.
  
  

The top coin holders of the highest value Creators are mostly genesis public keys or accounts that have received pre-mined $BitClout from them

Genesis public keys that have updated their profiles are mostly investors and team members (including miners). 

At the end of his article, Shiro had promised to update this thread later with:

- "how they process profile transfers (SWAP_IDENTITY)
- how BITCOIN_EXCHANGE works and how many Bitcoin have been converted to $BitClout
- how they price $BitClout
- and some other interesting stuffs"

Unfortunately, Shiro mysteriously stopped all posts on his Twitter account. 

THE NEED FOR CHANGE

We know that today there are 10.6 million Clouts in circulation. We do not know their distribution but we can imagine, given the distribution of 8 million Clouts to 482 accounts that the majority of Clouts are held by a small handful of large carriers who acquired these Clouts when their value was minimal - from around a few dollars.

This concentration of Clouts in few hands is not healthy and does not encourage the confidence of future investors.

It would be desirable that the administrators of Bitclout transition towards more transparency about the distribution of Clouts but also towards a process of redistribution. This process began last month with @MarioNawfal’s “Million Dollar Week” campaign that promised to invest $ 1 million per week in active designer accounts. The campaign sparked renewed enthusiasm and turned the activity curve up on the platform. Unfortunately, these investments ceased abruptly after a few days and the curve flattened again to the bottom. 

@MarioNawfal’s “Million Dollar Week” campaign in July ceased abruptly after a few days and the curve flattened again to the bottom.

WHAT WILL BE THE EFFECTS OF THE LISTING ON COINBASE?

Influencers on Bitclout are enthusiastic about the likely effects of the listing on Coinbase.

@MarioNawfal: "Usually it's a very big boost for a coin, at least when it's announced publicly."

@Krassenstein : “The drop in the price of the Clout might hurt right now, but this action is likely healthy for the future of the platform and the price.

Coinbase would have been insane to list Clout if the market was not 100% based on supply and demand.

A Coinbase listing will be huge for Bitclout. We aren't trying to minimize the Blockchain listing, but Coinbase does approximately 70X the daily crypto trading volume as Blockchain does.

The fact that Coinbase is currently running a BitClout node makes me think that BitClout could be integrated into Coinbase in multiple ways other than simply being exchanged on Coinbase.

🚀 Could you imagine what would happen to the $Clout price if they did this?

🚀🚀 Could you imagine how fast Bitclout's NFTs would reach critical mass if Coinbase listed them on their site in a new marketplace?

🚀🚀🚀 Could you imagine what would happen to this platform if Coinbase integrated social media into their exchange, using our blockchain?

The future is exciting!"

🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

THE ADVENTURES OF AL CLOUTONE 

Al Cloutone decided to exchange a few diamonds before the listing on Coinbase.

@AlCloutone is a new character created by @PhilippeMeunier. 
The NFT is available here.

THE HECTIC LIFE OF MR. CLOUTER

Mr Clouter comic strips are available in NFTs on @MrClouter.

TO BE CONTINUED IN OUR NEXT ISSUE

We hope you liked this issue. Please consider investing in @CloutZine !
Editor and drawings: @PhilippeMeunier

CloutZine is now also published on Medium platform for a more interactive experience.

First published on August 9, 2021

Two things deter clouters from investing: the lack of active users and the fear of rug-pullers. The arrival of NFTs has not yet caused an increase in the number of active users which still stagnates at less than 4,000 per day.

The majority of clouters have suffered at least once the unpleasant experience of rug-pulling, and it certainly cooled them off to invest again in a promising creator.

What is a rug-pull? It is when you buy a creator's coin and the creator sells all of his shares overnight, wiping out your investment.

We have reviewed the operating modes of scammers, the ways to recognize them and the solutions to avoid falling into their traps. 

Raj Lahoti is known for his "raj-pulls": he sells all his shares and then buys them back, unlike the scammers.

HOW DO SCAMMERS WORK?

SMALL SCAMMERS

Most small scammers create an account pretending to be a celebrity, or at least someone who has a significant number of followers on other social networks like Instagram. Many people get fooled into thinking they are getting a good deal by buying the coin at a low price. It is easy to verify if the clouter is really who he claims to be. Usually, he will link to “his” website, Linktree or other social network. If when you visit their pages, we do not find any Bitclout link, it is very likely that it is a fake. If you want to make sure, you can tell them that you would happily invest in their coin if they put their Bitclout link on their Instagram account, for example. Until they do, don't invest.

Now we are more suspicious but a few months ago we easily trusted. 

@UndervaluedCoins: “Last April I ran into a creator claiming to be a developer of a popular online game with around 200,000 players. He had just created his account and his coin price was very low. I invested $ 100. Three days later he sold his shares and changed his username, and my $ 100 turned into $ 0.1! " 

Some scammers promise a guarantee against scams! 

This account which promises a guarantee against the scams made a rug-pull last month.

This is the case of this scammer account whose slogan is "your guarantee of security".

To attract investors, they promise, "We only invest in people you trust. If they turn out to be a scam, then we will reimburse you for any losses you incurred."

Unfortunately for gullible investors, this account sold all of its shares on July 21, dropping the value of its coin from $ 59 to $ 4.

SOPHISTICATED SCAMS

But there are also more sophisticated scammers who manage to hack a verified Twitter account, for example, and therefore can put their Bitclout link in their Twiter profile. Fortunately, these cases are much rarer. On the other hand, they can be very dangerous! 

@MarioNawfal explained he lost $ 70,000 in a single day with this kind of "verified" scammer. 

He warns people about that scam in this video.

To make the scam more credible, some scammers send shares of their coin to well known people so that those people who appear in the list of holders of the scam-coin. People think if these famous people own shares of that coin, it's probably a good deal; and they invest. 24 hours later, the scammers are gone. 

@charcoin scammers robbed their investors of over $ 400,000

@SAMF has exposed another very elaborate scam in which scammers robbed their investors of over $ 400,000! Their account named @charcoin has since been deleted. They had built a sophisticated ploy last May with website and whitepaper. To give investors confidence, they had distributed over $ 30,000 to the "winners" for a week, and then made a record rug-pull when their capitalization reached $ 650,000. 

RUG-PULLS WITHOUT MALICE

There are also rug-pulls that are made by people who are not scammers and who may have different reasons for wanting to sell their shares.

In a very successful memo last June,  @Sandirose (who has a background in financial fraud investigation) listed some good reasons why a creator might sell his shares:

• They have made a profit on their investment and believe now is a good time to sell.
• They need cash to participate in other projects or invest in other creators.
• They need the money. Remember that behind most accounts there is someone with real world issues and you never know what these people are going through in their life.
• They no longer believe in the creator or the project in which they had invested.
• They were disappointed with Bitclout and decided to leave.

Raj Lahoti is an atypical example of a creator known for his "raj-pulls" from the month of May and who is not considered a scammer. On the contrary. Many people consider him to be one of the most creative geniuses on the platform. 

Raj Lahoti, one of the nonconformist characters of the platform.

Raj created a strategy of selling all of his shares, thus dropping the price of his coin to a few dollars, which attracted new buyers for whom buying even with a very high FR was still a good deal.

And this is how Raj could make a profit. This strategy was named the FR game. [*FR: Founder Reward]

@RajLahoti: "The point of the game was that the FR didn't benefit the traders, but rather the hodlers because they couldn't make any money until I rebought my coins. So it was a game of trust."

To the question: Have you benefited financially from this game? He replied, "Unfortunately, no. On the other hand, I gave away 20 million diamonds in seven days and so I won the game of who gives the most!"

Raj had a promotion: "Give me 5 diamonds and I'll give you 6!" And I know he kept his promise because friends of mine did receive the 6 diamonds.

One thing is certain, it is that Raj won the game of notoriety!

The people who lost money are the ones who panicked and sold at a loss. But few hold a grudge against this charismatic clouter who loves to break the rules and do things unconventionally. 

WHAT SOLUTIONS TO AVOID GETTING SCAMMED?

The fact that the core team changed the default FR to 100% was certainly a good move in preventing scammers from investing in coins as soon as an account was opened even before the coin creator.

What can we do on our side?

1. As we saw above, the first thing to do is to check if the suspicious creators put their Bitclout link on their Instagram, Twitter or Youtube profiles. 

If a creator claims a popular Instagram account but doesn’t post his Bitclout link on his IG profile, that’s suspicious.

2. Browse their posts and see how long they've been on Bitclout. Usually, a scam account will be recent and will have many posts within two or three hours.

Advice from @100: “If I like their content, I follow them and watch a bit, then a day or two after that I invest. Sometimes I send them a DM just to have a general conversation. Not foolproof; some scammers are really, really good, and if you get ripped off like that, it's not your fault."

3. Wait for a week before investing and start with a small amount 

@maz: “I've had DMs with scammers who seemed honest about their artwork, but who rug-pulled a day or two later. Now I'm waiting a week or two before I invest, and I only start with small amounts."

4. Check where the funding for a new account is coming from. 

@brootle: "I use @signalclout to see where the initial funding for new accounts is coming from. There are now many Russian scammers who create a new account for 1 day, withdraw all funds and start a new one."

5. If the new accounts couldn't sell during the first few days. 

@maz: “Perhaps new accounts should not be able to receive investments for a certain length of time. This would force them to post content and participate rather than making a quick buck. Most scammers don't. not the patience to invest their time."

6. Invest in creators under $ 150 

@futurepolitician: "The reason I like to support Creators who are under $150 is because if I lose money off a scam 3/10 times, I will still make money in the long term as long as I hold and let the other Creators start to develop more content/make more genuine connections. So buy and hold people!"

@tshirttimemachine: "Good strategy. I feel every consistent creators is worth $300 coin at some point. That would prove your theory correct."

7. Invest small amounts 

@futurepolitician: "I have made more on $5 investments then I have made on $50 just because the creators was brand new compared to someone who is more established. Money is made where risks are taken!"

8. A rug-pull insurance project 

@darian_parrish: "The project is still in the works but not active. It is very similar to other insurance models. Get an anchor investor (@ARTZ  previously volunteered) then collect premiums and use them to fun claims(scam losses) of policy holders(or in this case coin holders).
The project is on pause until DAU growth returns and more demand for the insurance." 

VIGILANTES AND SLANDERS

Faced with this upsurge in scams, we have seen the proliferation of dedicated accounts to denounce scammers. If we can be delighted with these initiatives, the other side of the coin is that unfortunately, some vigilantes do not make a serious investigation and slander creators based only on presumptions, without even taking the time to contact the creators.

Some vigilantes publish lists of supposed scammers without even having contacted the people first.

@PhilippeMeunier was the victim of this kind of slander.

“Last month I saw that one of my accounts was tagged in a post. The post was a list of 23 alleged scammers. The person who posted that list was asking people to reclout the post and block the accounts mentioned on the list. I contacted this person to ask for an explanation. He replied that my account was suspected of being linked to a scam because I had received clouts from scammers. I explained that 2-3 months ago I bought clouts P2P from people I paid by Paypal transfer because I don't have a Bitcoin account. Finally, my name was removed from the list of supposed scammers."

These Bitclout vigilantes are certainly well-meaning and some of their actions may be helpful, but they should at least contact the creators for an explanation before posting their name on this kind of slanderous list. It is very easy and quick to destroy the reputation of a hard working creator based on suppositions, and the damage is irreparable. 

THE HECTIC LIFE OF MR. CLOUTER

TO BE CONTINUED IN OUR NEXT ISSUE

We hope you liked this 4th issue. Please consider investing in @CloutZine !
Editor and drawings: @PhilippeMeunier

CloutZine is now also published on Medium platform for a more interactive experience.

First published on July 23, 2021

After a very promising boom, the Bitclout platform has grown from a creator account purchasing volume of over $ 50 million (at current $ clout price) to $ 7.5 million in April, $ 820,000 in May. , $ 1.7 million in June, to reach today its all time lowest at $ 140,800 dollars, 5.8 times less than last month.

A good recovery in the second week of July followed by a dizzying relapse. Graph by @BitCloutPulse

MILLION DOLLAR WEEK

We saw a good recovery around July 7 with a purchase volume of $ 16 million, which almost corresponds to the score of the second day of opening of the platform, March 19. This recovery is due to the massive purchase campaign of the major figures of the platform. Notably @MarioNawfal’s “Million Dollar Week” campaign which planned to buy a million dollars worth of designer accounts per week. After six days, he declared that it was Mission Impossible, not for lack of money but for lack of logistics, and that his team had only managed to buy for $ 150,000 for this first installment. He reassured the clouters by saying: “The good news is that it is not over! We will continue to invest as fast as @Goattrade can move his mouse! We still have around $ 850,000 to invest and well more later. “

The leitmotiv on Bitclout is “Engage more!”, That is to say, like more, comment more, reclout more, buy more… but we have seen that it is the tap of $ clout which is the most decisive element in boosting sales.

We have therefore seen that mass buying campaign is a strategy that works. The recovery was real and very promising during the second week of July, then dizzying relapse at its lowest. What happened? Has the buying campaign been interrupted? We would like to have answers.

THE NUMBER OF ACTIVE CLOUTERS IN FREE FALL

The fall in buying / selling of creator coins has caused discouragement among clouters and a steady drop in the number of active accounts. On April 7 there were 37,000 active, on May 22 29,000, on June 24, 16,000, on July 1, 13,000 and today, on July 22, there are only 4,000 active accounts left.

Do we have reasons to stay positive? Most whales say yes: “On the surface, it is definitely calm before the storm. Below the surface, the BitClout dev team, community projects, creators, and influencers are on a constant non-stop grind. Each day, more fuel is being prepared for the fire. Who is hyped so see this fire ignite?“, posted @flickapp.

The number of daily active users decreased from 37,000 in April to 4,000 on July 22. Graph: @SignalClout

BITCLOUT ADMIN STAKES EVERYTHING ON NFTs

For his part, the admin of the platform @diamondhands swears that it is the NFTs that will really boost the volume of transactions. As soon as this functionality will be operational, within a few days, that is to say that the clouters will be able to transform their works into NFTs and put them for sale on the platform.

What are NFTs? To put it simply, an NFT (Non Fungible Token) is like a single snapshot of any digital object: a drawing, music, text, or whatever. It’s like a certificate of authenticity. This certificate of authenticity which can be purchased from the creator of the NFT does not give the right to royalties on the work. The object of the game is to buy the NFT and sell it at a profit.

Digital artist Beeple created an NFT from a collage of 5,000 of his works that sold for over $ 69 million.

WHY OUR FRIENDS DON’T JOIN BITCLOUT?

We are passionate about Bitclout and we wonder why our friends don’t join. The reason is simple - mathematical. Only 6% of Americans and Europeans owned crypto-currencies in 2020. And they mainly bought the most well-known cryptos like BTC and ETH. Bitclout is still far too new. 
Source: Statista

Only 6% of Americans own cryptocurrencies. Source: Statista.

THE HECTIC LIFE OF MR. CLOUTER

TO BE CONTINUED IN OUR NEXT ISSUE

We hope you liked this second issue of @CloutZine.
Editor and comic strips: @PhilippeMeunier

CloutZine is now also published on Medium platform for a more interactive experience.