On April 8th, 2021, I kept seeing BitClout (now DeSo) trending on Twitter and this is when I decided to make an account. Part of me was enchanted with the idea and thought it could potentially, maybe quite possibly become something. However, since the beginning, I was also one of BitClout's most vocal critics.
For starters, the way BitClout started was quite suspicious. BitClout scraped lots of data and created profiles for people with supposed monetary value without necessarily their consent. Now granted it was their growth hacking technique, but as somebody who advocates for privacy, this didn't settle well with me. This is a point that many will keep reiterating.
Another thing that didn't settle well with me, is that much of the community seemed a little bit disingenuous. While it was true that BitClout has had quite the supportive community, when you went on the BitClout homepage, all what people talked about was just how amazing the platform is and how much they liked Nader.
By the way, most people knew who Nader was since the beginning. His identity was revealed in various news articles already and BitClout's pitch deck used to be online. He wasn't really that pseudonymous to begin with.
This leads me to the next point, which is that the platform didn't feel too decentralized to begin with. I didn't like how mining all of the sudden stopped, how some projects were favored over others, or just the way many things were handled. Even the original seed or first dibs on automatically generated creator coins seemed a little bit out of hand. Also, BitClout seemed to have rebranded itself or its direction multiple times. The focus on creator coins has now shifted towards more of a focus on generating DAOs.
BitClout/DeSo promised to be the future. However, I think they had many chances to be more decentralized, transparent, and mission-driven. Instead, this seems like Basis all over again.
That being said, I want them to succeed, but with the way that their platform has been developed, the actions taken afterwards, and so forth, I don't know if they will. Nobody has tried developing more apps on DeSo than me. In a way, I am rooting for Nader, but also the accountability advocate.
That said, none of this article is meant to be taken as financial advice. Do your own due diligence. Businesses and companies like BitClout/DeSo are highly speculative.