BitCloud founder Nader Al-Naji has revealed his identity and at the same time announced a new project that will revolutionize the social media landscape.
The mysterious founder of BitClout has unmasked and at the same time announced the launch of a new social medium – DeSo. With this, the creator Nader Al-Naji wants to free the establishment of new social contacts from the oligopolistic stranglehold of existing platforms. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the like made too many profits on the backs of those who provided the actual content. “The Decentralized Social Network”, as the project is called, aims to solve this problem by making it accessible and monetizable for everyone. A solution that “puts the creators, developers and users in the foreground – and not the shareholders,” says Al-Naji Twitter.
The former Google employee has already convinced well-known investors of his idea. A look at the funding register Crunchbase reveals that investment heavyweights like Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures and Pantera Capital pumped a total of US $ 200 million into the project. Winklevoss Capital, whose founders Tyler and Cameron became famous when they founded Facebook, also took part.
To solve the problems of the centralized social media platforms, DeSo relies on blockchain technology. The BitClout founder’s solution supports both classic functions that are known from conventional social networks and expanded them to include blockchain-specific features such as social tokens, tips and NFT, with which content creators are then to be rewarded.
BitClout as a prototype
The functionality of the social tokens is particularly noteworthy here. In the May issue of Cryptocompass we had already dealt with the topic in detail. Roughly speaking, this is the tokenization of one’s own “digital self”. BitClout fulfills a kind of pioneering role here. The project links its own platform with Twitter profiles. On the site, investors can buy so-called “Creator Tokens” from both private individuals and celebrities.
For this, interested parties must first purchase Clout tokens, which were renamed DESO after the DeSo launch. Basically, it is a bet that you make on the reputation of individual social media accounts. The range extends from reality stars like Kim Kardashian to entrepreneurs like Elon Musk. It currently holds the status of “most valuable profile” with a market capitalization of 14.36 million US dollars. BTC-ECHO also created an account as part of an experiment.
However, BitClout is far from undisputed. Above all, the fact that there is no license to use the Twitter profiles of famous personalities is one of the biggest criticisms of the project. Opposite to FastCompany Al-Naji defended himself:
We put them on the blockchain and essentially created their profiles for them. The main reason for this was to prevent people from impersonating them and occupying their usernames.
Nader Al-Naji to FastCompany
It remains to be seen to what extent legal difficulties can be eliminated on the basis of the justification. It is just as interesting to follow the developments of the new DeSo project.