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KOL or Con Artist? The Dark Side of Web3 Influence
Recorded: June 25, 2024 Duration: 1:04:10Space Recording
Full Transcription
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you're at in this world.
Just trying to get everybody up on stage that needs to be here.
So as soon as we do that, we'll be starting here in just a second.
All right.
All right.
It looks like we have just about everybody joining us today and a few little stragglers, but we'll get them up as soon as possible.
Hey, everybody.
Hey, my name is Cody.
I'm the Chief Experience Officer here at Layer 1X.
And today, on today's episode, we've got a pretty interesting one.
And we're going to be talking about the KOL and influencers.
Are they current artists or are they influential?
And we're going to be talking about possibly the darker side of Web3 influence in today's episode.
So joining me is a whole host of panelists that have taken time out of their schedule to join us today.
We'll be getting to them for just a second.
And like I said, I'm just still trying to wait, get a few people back up on here as well.
But in the interim, let me just kind of set the stage for today's episode.
You know, we love them.
We hate them.
We've all kind of had experiences with them.
And so, you know, when it comes to KOLs and influencers, do they contribute to the success of projects or are they just a money grab?
I guess we'll find out today in today's episode as we discuss this topic and we dive into a few other things as well.
So with that being said, let's go ahead and start introducing our panel.
If you want to take 30 seconds and introduce yourself, that would be fantastic.
Tell us who's behind the project and a little bit more about your project as well.
So let's start with Devamon.
Do you want to go?
Hello.
Sure, sure.
So hello, guys.
My name is Enola.
I'm the head of partnership and collaboration in Devamon.
So Devamon is an anime brand.
We have a lot of products inside of it.
We have comics.
We have game.
So our main game is Devamon Kalisto.
And we are in alpha stage.
And we just launched our new Telegram, also Telegram game.
It's called Tap Masters.
So yeah, feel free to check out.
It's free.
Thank you so much, everyone.
Yeah, thanks for joining.
Jen Marie, you're up next.
GM, GM.
I'm Jen Marie.
I am a hug artist and curator.
I'm also a content strategist in this space, as well as a recording artist that has music on chain.
And I look forward to having this discussion because it is a timely discussion, like considering where the markets are right now.
And, you know, I don't know if y'all been on the space or in the Twitter streets here, but there's been a lot of conversation about where the markets are.
So I think Web3 Influence has something to do with it.
But I'm glad to be here.
Well, welcome back, as always.
Beast League, you're up next, my friend.
Amazing.
Super happy to be here with other great speakers as well.
So quick introduction.
My name is Marcello, head of community here at Beast League.
We are a mobile sports game.
Think of basketball, but with superpowers on the court.
It's a lot of fun.
We have over 100,000 downloads and are currently available in select regions.
We're going to be rolling out more regions very soon.
That's our first product.
We're launching our second game, Boinkers, in the next couple of weeks.
So really excited about that.
It's going to be a parody basketball game.
So a lot of cool stuff.
Going to be playing with some funny, popular characters that we all love.
But yeah, that's kind of what we're cooking here.
And then we also announced Acid Games, our game studio.
That's working behind our two games as well as all the other stuff that we're going to
be building out in our ecosystem.
But that's enough about us.
Super happy to be here, guys, and excited to get into this topic.
Exactly.
Welcome back.
Karima?
Yeah, that's correct.
Karima.
Hi, how are you doing?
Thanks for having me on.
My name is Karima.
I'm head of growth at Emoja Protocol.
And we basically focus on having a suite of products out that are yield-bearing.
And you can also use them to manage risk.
Right now, we have synthetic options available, which is basically like a really cool tool for
pro traders, people who understand options.
It gives you more leverage.
You can go along without getting liquidated.
And then soon we're coming out with a yield-bearing token, our first year of a yield-bearing token.
So that should be fun.
But I'm also excited for this conversation from a project perspective of working with KOLs.
It's definitely been interesting, to say the least.
Nice.
Well, welcome.
Salsa Valley.
GM, GM, everyone.
Nice to meet you guys again here.
And thank you for invitation today.
So I'm Yulia.
I'm the co-founder of Salsa Valley.
We merge their Web 2 and Web 3 worlds in our immersive GameFi and entertainment ecosystem
of complementary products.
So we create the unique crypto world, our own crypto world, which is based on the Salsa
Valley stories, the cartoon series about crypto, where everyone can create their own crypto
history.
So in cartoon series, in crypto board game, in our casual mobile games, and the moon universe.
So we offer them brand new marketing solution to attract the users cost-effectively, providing
them easygoing entrance points into the Web 3, and multiply their entertainment through
their diverse ecosystem and crypto brands integration, and make them their brand lovers.
Now focused on finalizing the steps according to the release of our crypto board game with
Web 3 extension.
So DM us, please, and let's collaborate.
Sounds interesting.
Thanks for joining us.
Ben, go for it.
Nice to speak to some of you again.
Ben, so I'm the founder of Overlabs.
We're a consultancy firm for ecosystem funds and grant programs in Web 3.
I'll keep it short.
Yeah, we work with ecosystem funds and grant programs in Web 3 to reform and audit.
Yeah.
Excited to talk about this topic.
Well, welcome, welcome.
And your choice, you're the last one.
Thank you, Cody.
Happy to be here again with you, Legends.
Our choice, I represent our head of partnerships and this day at Frost.
We're building the Web 3 Discord alternative with the belief of the future being on chain.
And, you know, we're definitely unlocking new revenue streams, monetization opportunities to projects over there and community builders where every persona on the Web 3 world can benefit from their actions.
And we still keep up with the culture, but with the right values and the long-term vision.
I will keep it that short.
No, I love it.
I love it.
And just to kind of round it out, for those that don't know about Layer 1X, Layer 1X is a Layer 1 blockchain that specializes in true native bridge-less interoperability.
Our whole ethos is basically the premise of why we do these Xtalks episodes is because we want to unite all of crypto.
That means blockchains, projects, and users to create that seamless user experience that we've all come to envision for Web 3.
And so we thank you, each and every one of our panelists, for joining for today's discussion.
We know many of you have very busy schedules.
It's late at night or early, early morning for many of you.
So definitely thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to join us so that we can help everybody come together on these various topics as well as allow others to get to know you and your projects.
So without further ado, if you haven't already, go ahead and please share this link to this episode.
We would greatly appreciate it.
I know our panelists would love it.
Like I said, it helps them keep their reach a little bit bigger of a reach for them so that they can reach a broader audience, as I mentioned before.
So also be sure to give each of them a like as well and a follow.
That always goes the extra mile as well.
So now as we kind of jump into this, one of the first questions that I have is it's important to note that there are two distinctions between KOLs and influencers.
And sometimes they're not always clear cut and there can be overlap between the two.
So my question is, what are the differences between a KOL and an influencer?
And why is it important to know the difference between the two if you're leading a project or if you're an investor looking to join a project?
I think a KOL, basically, in my opinion, you self-identify as a KOL.
Like if you call yourself one, then you are one versus you can be an influencer and influence people in the same way a KOL might, but you don't call yourself that.
So you're just what people call you, which is an influencer.
That's a good one.
Anybody else want to add to that?
It sounds like it's a pretty cut dry definition.
So then moving on with that, the next question I have is, you know, if Web3 is about decentralization,
aren't KOLs fundamentally kind of being contradictory to that ideal,
do we risk the Cree creating the power dynamics of traditional media in supposedly a decentralized space using KOLs?
Can you restate your question?
Yeah.
Let me just kind of sum it up here.
Do we risk with KOLs, do we risk creating a power of the power dynamics that we see in traditional media today in Web2 where influence and direction and narrative is basically forced upon people based upon what KOLs or influencers are stating?
I think so much of what companies in Web3 do tend to negate from any kind of decentralized ethos anyway.
So I don't know how much KOLs add or remove from that.
I think even just generic fundraising, obviously, people tend to utilize KOLs in a KOL funding round.
That's maybe in my vertical I work in.
That is the most commonly exercised form of using KOLs.
So, yeah, I mean, I say all that to say I don't think that most companies are terribly concerned about being overly decentralized anyway,
unless there's a compliance risk to it.
And then in that case, they would be leaning towards being more decentralized.
But it's all about advantages for the company.
I don't think that decentralization tends to lean towards that.
So, yeah, I don't think companies are concerned.
That was an answer to your question, but it's a thought.
I don't think companies are concerned whether it is, yeah, affecting any decentralization.
Yeah, that's a good take.
How about from an investor standpoint?
Specify that one for me, mate.
Explain what you mean by that.
Do you feel like a lot of influencers or KOLs basically influence a lot of investors one way or another for the good or the bad?
Retail, 100%.
But I do think there's definitely a separation between KOL and influencer.
And I think it's like, well, I think maybe someone, I don't know if I'm the right person to do it, but I definitely think it would be useful on this space if someone gave a really comprehensive breakdown of what the difference is.
But KOLs tend to be – KOLs have always interacted with BIN, has always been through funding rounds.
I'm not a retail investor too much.
And I know most people that work in Web3 are.
So maybe that's a little bit of separation now.
So when I interact with KOLs or hear about KOLs, it's always about a KOL round, you know.
It tends to be between your seed round and your Serie A or your seed and your TGE.
So, yeah, maybe say the question again, mate.
Sorry.
It's 90% humidity out here in the UK right now and I'm dying.
I'm trying to keep on track with this space.
I'm literally boiling as I'm talking.
Say the question again for me, mate.
Sorry.
Yeah, no, you're all good.
So it's just more about the power dynamics in the traditional media that we see currently, right?
There's a lot of sway going back and forth.
So, you know.
Oh, yes.
I remember.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, I think with retail, definitely.
With retail investors, I definitely think this sway.
And I think there is a certain pedigree of KOL that will influence the VCs and the private investors.
But generally speaking, yeah, all influencers, all KOLs, I think it is like that's the final bastion for information for a lot of retail investors.
So 100%.
I don't think many things will influence retail investors more.
So, yeah.
Perfect.
Mindless, you got your hand up.
Go for it.
Hey, what is up?
Thanks for letting me on.
Can you hear me?
Am I clear?
Loud and clear.
Beautiful.
Okay.
I'll chime in, if I may.
I know I wasn't officially on the board to speak.
But I'll start with the first question.
I think what's happened here is we've merged two terms because the prior has been dirty and muddied so wildly.
So we used to have this thing called influencer.
Nobody likes to use that word for obvious reasons.
Plenty of violations and pump and dump schemes and Ponzi's.
That name has become muddy.
So instead of trying to fix the model or change the way we do things, we've just decided to repackage it and call it a KOL now.
Today's KOLs are just influencers.
They're individuals with large audiences.
Often, most of these folks, technically speaking, don't even know what they're talking about.
By and large, I've worked with tons in the space.
Everything from the largest exchanges down to the newest up-and-coming protocol will just use the word KOL because it's a replacement for influencer.
Previously, KOLs used to mean something.
Andreas Antonopoulos was a KOL.
Robert Breedlove is a KOL.
Vitalik is a KOL.
A CZ is a KOL, Key Opinion Leaders in an Industry.
I define that by individuals that can push the needle forward in the industry they're working in.
None of these influencers can do that remotely.
Their job is to be top-funnel marketing, top-funnel salespeople.
They'll funnel attention into whatever you want to give them.
And if you look at most of these influencers, they will never talk about something unless they're paid, unless there's a deal, unless there's an affiliate sales.
And this goes on to your second question.
This existed in Web 2.
It very much did in the YouTube and the social media era of 2005, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
Until then, they started bringing in advertisement standards and affiliate sales standards in which disclosures needed to be made.
You know, you had content creators and artists and makeup artists and gamers and all the rest tirelessly just shilling products and promotions to their audiences without telling them that they were being paid to do so, without notifying their users that these were affiliate sales.
That all changed when advertising standards were brought into the social media space.
We don't have that on Twitter.
And we don't have that in crypto.
YouTube did it.
They did it in the previous cycle.
Which is why you don't see new and up-and-coming Bitboys and Ian Belliners that, you know, robbed millions of dollars from their audiences because advertiser standards have changed on YouTube.
You'll lose your entire account if you did that without disclosure.
On Twitter, you can get away with it.
You can take undisclosed sums in tokens and NFTs and shady backroom deals or maybe even launch something yourself as an influencer and then go and share it to your audience and just walk away with your hands free.
And teams and protocols and NFTs and VCs themselves will be more than happy to pay influencers in security tokens because they know that they will give the attention and bring the eyes to the target audience, which is your third question, unsophisticated retail investors.
Sophisticated retail knows what they're doing and they'll probably stay away from this type of stuff with the 10-foot pole.
A hundred percent.
Great answer.
Yeah.
And that kind of leads me to my next question is it's like what since anybody can basically become a KOL or an influencer, whatever you want to call it,
what generally gives them the expertise to be defined as an influencer or a KOL?
Go for it, mindless.
Sorry, I was rugging a little bit down.
Did you call on me first?
Yeah, go for it.
No, thank you.
I appreciate it.
I think so.
The only thing that from my experience, often what's looked at is number of followers, number of impressions and the amount of interactions that an individual can garner for the industry they're in.
That's it.
Like these are the only things that matter.
Outside of this, expertise, nobody cares.
Technical understanding of the space doesn't matter.
It's about eyeballs, attention, and how much of that you can garner in order to become that top funnel for whatever it is somebody's paying for.
In terms of expertise, that's where I think the key opinion leader comes in.
These are individuals that rarely will be across the Twitter timeline and engaging and meme posting and shitposting and on spaces.
They'll actually be involved in policies and interstate legislation and discussions and moving entire protocols forward and having pretty complex discussions with the rest of their kind out there, away from the discussion of us peasant down here.
That's the distinction between those two, in my opinion.
Yeah, I totally agree with you.
Beastly, go for it.
Yeah, I love all the points Mindless is bringing.
He's always bringing the fire.
Absolutely agree.
You know, and I think, you know, expertise, I don't think really is a question when it comes to these influencers.
I think it just comes down to how much attention that they're able to bring, right?
You know, we mentioned, Mindless mentioned a few metrics, followers, interaction, all that stuff.
I really think, you know, it comes down to their community, right?
If they're able to bring any attention to your products, to your project, to your Web3 game, I think is all the value that they bring.
And, you know, sometimes they don't really need to be experts in that case.
But if they're really able to bring enough attention, then, you know, they're doing what they're, you know, they're doing their job.
So, I think that's really important.
And, you know, at the same time, you know, I think, you know, to even add to that, Mindless had mentioned, you know, followers.
I think that's definitely a metric a lot of people look at, and I think, you know, it definitely determines a lot.
But in many cases, I would, you know, even looking at micro-influencers or especially in the space that we're in,
I feel, I personally feel like some of the most influential people don't have, you know, 100,000 followers or plus.
You know, I think it's some of the, you know, just some of the heavy builders that just are doing it because they're doing it for the game.
They love what they're doing.
They have, you know, they've built a really strong community.
And I think that those, you know, KOLs, influencers, whatever semantic we want to use, content creators,
I think that those, in many cases, are the most underrated ones because they actually, in many cases, over-deliver.
And, you know, even if they don't have hundreds of thousands of followers, they have a close-knit, powerful community of people that stand behind them.
And if they say something, it goes, and people really take their word seriously.
So these are the type of people you want to have behind your project and backing you up because their opinion really does matter.
And, quote-unquote, key opinion leader.
But, yeah, really interesting stuff.
I think, you know, it really comes down to getting the right people behind your project.
It can make a huge difference.
And sometimes the follower count doesn't always dictate that.
In fact, I would argue sometimes people with the bigger follower counts don't always deliver.
Sometimes, you know, we all know how it works.
You could easily just inflate your numbers, buy followers, all that stuff.
So just something to be mindful of.
I would argue, you know, even getting a batch of a handful or a few dozen micro-influencers will easily outperform one or two or three, you know, 100,000 follower plus, quote-unquote, influencers.
So, yeah, I think that's all very important.
It makes such a difference.
And, again, you don't need to really be an expert in that case.
All you're doing is just bringing attention and eyeballs.
So, yeah.
Well said.
I totally agree with you on that one.
Jen Marie, go for it.
Yeah, I totally agree with Beastly about the micro-influencers in KOLs, which, to me, they're all the same.
But I do play devil's advocate, put some of the ernst on the actual protocols and communities.
Sometimes I feel like we're not vetting the influencers that we want to attract.
Therefore, we lose money with our projects.
So, if you have somebody that has 100,000 followers or whatever, you're like, oh, well, this is going to work.
But then I don't think most companies and communities have, you know, key performance metrics to be like, hey, you know, this is what we're wanting.
This is like our 60-day, 90-day whatever plan.
And then we go into this, like, Westworld-type loop where it's like, all right, we have this project.
Everything is great in the beginning, but then what are we looking for after a while, like, sustainability for projects?
Which I feel like is where we as a Web3 community have done ourselves a disservice.
And which is one of the reasons why a lot of people are, like, exiting.
Because it's just like Web3 was supposed to be different, but yet we still have, like, Web2-type of mentalities.
So, I think a lot of the influence and stuff that, like, we're building in Web3, I do believe that it starts off small.
One, with the passion of the project or protocol, but then also what is that protocol or community?
What are their indicators?
What are their long-term goals and short-term goals?
And I think that we can alleviate a lot of the headache that we're experiencing right now with influence in this space.
A hundred percent, a hundred percent.
It was amazing because in one of my previous Web2 places that I worked at, we spent $75,000 to get one blog post and three tweets.
And we got one cell out of it and tried to explain it to the bosses that it wasn't going to work with them because it was totally off.
It wasn't the right influencer for our brand.
It just felt like it was just a stab in the dark of, like, trying to reach their network.
And so, that is a prime example of what you're talking about, Jen Marie.
Thank you for sharing.
Salsa Valley, go for it.
I totally agree about the, like, micro-influencers.
And for now, they can bring even more value for the projects because when they have less amount of followers, users,
it's really, like, more chances that this audience is true audience.
And when we are talking about the big influencers and calls, of course, when the influencer or call agree to participate in the calls,
that this person really, like, confident in his audience and he understands that really this audience will come and put the token in the future and so on.
And for this call, we can, like, we can consider this call as a true call.
And, of course, when we are talking about, like, referral programs, I believe that for now on the market there are so many, like, scam people,
so many scam calls and influencers, that when the person at least not just tweets something or write anywhere else, but join different, like, AMAs, different interviews,
and we can hear what do this person think about anything about crypto, and we can hear what this person says, we can understand at least something,
how big this call, how think this person.
And the next point that when this person is really confident in his audience, that he would be, he would be able, like, moreover,
he would be able to participate in the calls round or to use the referral link to be more engaged in this point.
And when this person understand that, of course, the audience is false, he will not participate in that point.
Because he just won the money from their projects, and it's scary that 75K to spend and to sell just to one person, it's really, it's common to the projects.
That's why, yeah, I believe that we need to find the real calls by talking to them, by, like, offering to them,
different deals, and to see their reaction.
And if they are in, we can consider that he can bring the audience.
That's my point.
Yeah, those are some great points.
Thanks for sharing Salsa Valley.
Choice, go for it, my friend.
Thank you, Cody.
So, I love the take so far.
I love the fire that Mindless brought to the table, complete agony with Cello.
And one of the points that resonates a lot with me is the one that generally brought down is how projects are actually vetting the content creators, influencers,
or KOLs that they work with.
I believe that, sadly, inside the Web3 world, there's been people that position themselves from the start, and that some projects believe that if they don't get to work with them, they're not going to be seen.
And there is all this pressure on the industry that, you know, you need to bring the hype, you need to be known, you need to get the eyeballs of the people looking at you,
so that you can get those people or those eyeballs investing, and it's because of the lack of consumers on the Web3 world.
We have a lot of gamified projects, but we don't have a lot of gamers.
It's not saying that there are no gamers on Web3, but the majority of the gamers are truly out there.
So, I think that, yes, there are some content creators, some KOLs and influencers that have the right values and create the right content.
And I would say that the good ones are the ones that are creating it out of patience, you know,
out of because they truly like what the project is building, rather than the project is reaching out.
Okay, the projects have to reach out to present what they are building, but a good KOL or a KOL that I will work with or an influencer that I would work with
is someone who goes through the paper, who reads what I'm building, and gives me feedback before even accepting a deal.
So, I know that the person actually cares, not just someone that tells me,
Hey, yeah, give me this amount of money and I'll get content out there for you.
Because that person is just, you know, doing it because the money is driving him hurt, but not because he actually cares for your project.
So, yes, there needs to be value added.
There needs to be a payment for sure, but the vetting and understanding who that person is and what community that person built, it's a must.
So, if you're just targeting someone because he has numbers on the account, you're dumping money into nothing that is going to bring value, just like the case that you mentioned, Cody.
So, I do believe that we need to start looking for people that have taken the time to build these communities that not necessarily live within Web3 world, but that have been doing it for years and that have people following them and supporting them because of who they are and what they do.
And these are the ones that will truly bring value and help bridge the normal people that is over there that they've been working and dealing with for years and then slowly transitioning them on the projects that they love because they've checked the background, because they've checked the team, because they believe in their long-term vision and they are passionate about those.
So, I'll again give some shout-outs to Cinti that is in the audience because he's currently working on something like that and he is one of the few guys that I know that took the time to go and talk with the actual streamers of Web2 Gaming and took the time to slowly talk them into them and educate them and is bridging them to the Web3 world.
And I think that that's a task that a lot of marketing teams need to start doing.
And, you know, yes, I have nothing against the Web3 influencers or the content creators.
There are plenty that add so much value and are truly passionate and that are helping us drive the industry.
But there's also a lot that are just, you know, here for the money and that's all they care about.
And as long as they can lead you out, they'll be up for it.
Great insight. Definitely great insight. Mindless, go for it.
Hey, my apologies. I can't seem to hear you, Cody.
If you handed the mic over to me, I'll just continue to talk for a second, a quick point.
I think just one topic here, like it's gotten to a point now personally where if I see a layer one, a layer two, a startup in the space of protocol, a game,
associate or work with a specific number of influencers, named individuals that I have on lists, I will never want to ever interact with that team or protocol ever again.
I will quite literally block that term from my timelines.
I don't want to know it.
It's just because there are a large number of individuals and to the point of choice that have a pretty dirty, shady, sleazy past in this space.
You know, multiple financial frauds, racketeering attempts, you know, illegal security violations, all kinds of things endlessly.
And that's why they've gotten the neutrality that they have.
And if you associate your brand or your business with them, it's a huge question mark.
It's either two things.
You knowingly did it or you don't understand this space, which is also worrying.
And for those two reasons, I generally just block anything that these influencers often talk about.
And it doesn't matter if it's the biggest up-and-coming, you know, layer one ecosystem funded by whoever the A16 is or whatnot.
It doesn't matter.
If I see that they pay to work with these individuals, I don't want to touch that ecosystem.
It's brand risk.
And I think more and more people are beginning to realize that now.
And I think it's something that our friends and teams should consider when they do step into the space.
In the normal world, you have a record check.
You do a criminal record check.
You vet the individuals.
You look at their history.
You get some references.
You take a look at what they've been associated to.
You go do some digging.
You don't just go and associate your business with someone without vetting them and checking them.
And I think we need to do that in the Web3 space.
It's important.
Yes, 100%.
I agree with you there.
A lot of interesting experiences over my three cycles that I've been in crypto, but for sure.
So for those that are just tuning in, my name is Cody, I'm the Chief Experience Officer here at Layer 1X.
We definitely got a good discussion going around KOLs, influencers, whatever you want to call them, and their kind of darker side of their influence and impact that they have on Web3.
So if you haven't already, please share this link out, and that way we can get more ears listening to this great episode because I think there's some good takes on it, not only for projects, but also for investors as well.
And if you happen to have any questions for our panelists, be sure to drop those in the threads below, and I'll get those up a little bit later in today's episode.
So moving on to the next question, we've kind of talked about it.
We all know that there are good KOLs, there's bad KOLs, there's kind of great KOLs, no matter however you view them.
Do you feel like with this next, end at this next bull run, since meme coins games seem to be the trending topics in this next bull cycle,
Do you feel like after this cycle, that more regulation may come in as an effect of KOL activity?
Devamon, go for it.
Yeah, I think in this following bull run, we will see a lot of influencers and also a lot of KOLs spreading awards for a random project or everything to pump the price.
But yeah, I believe there's going to be a regulation, but it's kind of a blur also for me.
But let's see in the future, as long as we are still early in the crypto spaces and Web3 space.
So yeah, for the retails, I suggest to be careful and do your own research of the project.
If you see the advertisement or the video from the influencer, you should check it by yourself.
Don't fully trust the influencers.
And yeah, thank you so much.
Yeah, thanks for sharing.
Anybody else have a take on that?
Choice, go for it.
Thanks, Cody.
Yeah, I mean, I think that the Web3 world, the projects launching, many of them are amazing and have a beautiful vision.
Many are just in the industry because they want to, you know, use a TGE as an exit to just cash out and unleash community and people that is unaware or not doing the proper research.
So it's challenging.
And I think that he's a doctor because he paid for a title somewhere and he just got it print and said that the university was closed.
But he's saying that he did get it versus, you know, even education can transition on chain.
And in the future, you will be able to check if that actual person did finish the studies, what were his scores?
And if he truly has the knowledge to have that title.
Same happens with gaming.
Same happens with the achievements that we'll get and how we'll be able to flex things online.
And I think that that's the value that blockchain and Web3 is actually bringing to the table, plus the monetization, yes.
But the whole Web3 world was built around Bitcoin and, you know, get rich fast, detonate, and then you're going to fill your pockets.
I think that we need to start changing the mindset of people.
And this has to be done by every person involved in the industry, not just KOLs or influencers, but they do play a bigger role since they have bigger audiences and they've been building big communities.
So there's always this challenge.
But we have to also understand that every person that is into Web3, it still has a culture and it still has, you know, a way of doing things and trading and flipping.
And they also deserve a place and one way or another, they are extremely necessary for any of our projects because there's the people that, this is the people that is already aware of how things work and they know that they can make money big.
They know that they can lose money big, but they know that if there's a project that is worth looking at, they will also place their money into it.
And I think that this initial funding and this initial financial support that the current audience and Web3 can bring is of huge value.
Now, there are a lot of behaviors that makes you question the digital culture and how they dump so much money into some sheet coins that you see zero value on, but that's still part of the culture.
And that's why we are trying to gather to every audience, but we're making sure that when people's flipping or when people is, you know, playing around with your collectibles, with your tokens, at least the creators will get something back, which is what they need to continue moving forward and getting to the point where the technology will be impactful.
So I think that the Web3 industry overall is a necessary pain and not just because they have this crazy mindset, it necessarily means that it's something bad.
I think that there's a lot to learn from meme coins too, you know, and I think that their launch, it's a concept that people need to check a little bit on because you can actually launch a token or a meme token or a community first token where people will be able to add liquidity just by placing money on it.
Because they like what they see could be something fun, but they can also, you know, whenever they withdraw, they also take liquidity from that pool and this can be automatic and there doesn't need to be any KOL rounds or investor rounds.
Don't sell your tokens and kill your project before it's even out there.
Let the community build the value and let the speculators speculate, but make sure that you always take your cut from all of those and just continue delivering value to your community and delivering to the promises and to the milestones that you said that you would unlock over time.
I think that there's a lot to learn from the Web3 culture.
I don't necessarily think that it's a bad thing, the culture and the meme coins, but we just need to learn how to adapt and approach the personas that we do have in the industry and obviously keep pushing forward to expanding the audience and bringing eyeballs from everywhere else aside of Web3.
No, those are some great takes.
Mindless, go for it.
Hey, love this.
And I can finally hear you.
Brilliant.
One final point.
We used to have a thing called platform responsibility or the responsibility or oneness of a social media platform to protect their users to some degree and govern what goes on.
And somewhat from the YouTube and Google side, the Wild Wild West cowboy land and den of thieves that used to be the crypto space on YouTube was cleaned up in 2020, which is why it's no longer what it used to be.
They did a good job of that.
Facebook brought the ban hammer to the incredibly dirty tactics that were being used in the crypto space pretty early on, 2017.
TikTok did it to some degree in 2021.
Twitter, it has not, in my opinion, they've actually left the door wide open to a lot of this activity that goes on here and in some ways even encouraged it.
You can quite literally do a Ponzi scheme one week, raise tens of millions of dollars, walk away and come back next month and do it all over again.
And it's perfectly fine.
In fact, you'll probably find that you've had an extra 20,000 followers that are interested in what you're doing.
You could inrope the president's son in some grifty shit coin flip and bring their name into it and come back three weeks later and do it all over again.
It's perfectly fine.
That kind of cleanup that hasn't happened here on Twitter.
And when it comes to solving some of these problems, I think we should start there.
Like some of this responsibility needs to be put on Twitter or X or Elon Musk.
There are billions of dollars being piled and stolen and millions of lives being affected because this type of activity is just allowed to run rampant here.
Like it's actually pretty disgusting when you think about it.
Even Telegram has done a good job.
You can report channels for straight up financial fraud or scam or Ponzi schemes or dirty money or drug dealing and they'll quite swiftly investigate and shut those channels down.
You try that here on Twitter.
Like you can go back the last three years and listen to all of the spaces from some of these large influencers today that have large followings that shamelessly just enticed and created Ponzi schemes and shilled them and took part in racketeering and pump and dumps and all the rest.
They're there.
They're all recorded.
Not a single action has been taken against any of this stuff.
Yeah, I think you bring up a good point.
You know, I think that there's a lot of people that get into the KOL influencer space based upon just trying to make a quick buck.
And then when they actually do go somewhere, it's like they try to become legit after that.
And I've seen it time and time again with some of the people that I've followed over the years that have actually turned me off as a result of that because of some of their tactics.
But, yeah, great points.
Definitely great points.
So this raises another question that I had is with the rise of AI generated videos specifically around like AI generated like personas of people.
Do we see a problem with that, especially around KOLs in the near future, especially around authenticity and trust within the Web3 space?
Yeah, I think that honestly right now it kind of feels like that's what it is already, that there are a lot of profiles that are like AI generated and like AI content.
And there's like a person just running like three or four accounts driven by that kind of aspect.
And I think like a part of it is like either one, they're just going to have to try harder, like actually appear or try to appear as humans or to people who pay KOLs or work with KOLs have to have different standards of what they're looking at on someone's profile.
Like I personally, if I want to work with KOL, I would hope that their profile isn't just 100% like DeFi, like that they eat or they have family or that they have sports interests or that it's like they're more than just that thing or that one topic all the time.
I think that'll be a big differentiator between like an AI generated profile versus an actual human.
And then that'll be something that people can measure up against.
It's like, is this person actually real if every single thing that they have is a giveaway or a retweet of something?
Is this profile actually viable, even though that's the case and they have 100,000 followers, right?
Like just being able to evaluate from there.
And then I feel like eventually what will happen is that people will put like, well, people like we'll have this, hopefully we'll have a standard, right?
And we'll work to that standard and make people have to have like actual profiles.
And then the AI will get good at replicating that.
And then there'll be another issue.
But at least it's raising the bar, in my opinion, for what kind of interaction is there and what kind of interaction we want to have on the timeline.
Great points.
Thanks for sharing.
Salsa Valley, over to you.
I really don't think that it's so like bad for the Web3 community or even in general for all people to see such like influencer accounts with AI generated content or even with AI generated person.
So when it's interesting for the people, for the community, when they are like really follow this account, this person, these thoughts, it means that the person, the guy who created and who stands behind the AI generated content and personality, it means that that person did good things.
And sometimes this content is like the manifestation of the person behind and the type and the option to this person to make another like appearance, to have another appearance and so on.
So it depends on the content itself.
What about it?
And how is it interesting to the people?
So that's why I don't see like any problem with that.
And moreover, it's really, it's difficult to create the really good content, even AI generated, because you need to write the very clear and good prompt.
That's why the people who really can do that and who really can engage audience with that content and with their personalities, it means that that people, that persons, like that people and that guys are really good in that, in the, in the creation.
And I, I, I think that we can at least communicate with them.
Mind, let's go for it.
Yeah.
Thanks, man.
Okay.
So this last one is, it's something that's pretty close to my heart.
I think with these toolings that you see in AI in general, it's just flooded the entire ecosystem.
And it's, we're going to see this more and more.
It's just flooded the space with absolute low quality trash in all respects.
And I'll give a couple of examples.
Meme coins specifically.
Before years ago, a lot of these things used to have some, at the very minimum, at least mimetic value.
At least some of these things were funny.
At least the memes and the content that they were creating took time.
And it had to be somebody that understood a little bit of art and creativity and understood the space and took out 10, 20 minutes to go and create a meme of whatever relevance was going on at the time.
And you, you would have recognized that and you would have felt that.
Today, you go to any run-of-the-mill meme that was created on Pump.fun, a no-code solution that required maybe a $5 in gas fee from an account that was started yesterday.
And they'll go and spin up 20 memes on mid-journey.
Absolutely tasteless.
No mimetic value.
No understanding of the cultural relevance of this space.
And the influencer that launched it will leverage his 100K audience to get 10,000 followers initially.
And he gets a nice bit of change at the end of the week.
And then he Fs off to the next one.
It's just flooded the whole ecosystem with the lowest denominator in the space.
It's like giving anybody the ability to go and purchase a $2 gun that's loaded and you just hand it to them.
They don't need to go to a shop.
They don't need to understand responsibilities and duties.
They don't need to show their face.
They don't even need to speak English.
You just go pick up a $2 loaded gun and off you go.
What kind of an ecosystem do you think you'll have?
In a town square that's full of thieves and grifters and criminals anyway, well, you've just given them all a gun that's loaded for $2.
That's a nice time.
Have fun with that.
And we kind of see that in the space just with some of these no-code, easy-access solutions.
Pump.fund, great example, 10,000 shikons a day.
I think there's already AI involved in that.
I was having a look two days ago.
There's about 400 cat memes that are created every three hours.
And it seems to be some bot that's just scraping the net of cat-like pictures, snipping them, going to pump.fund, launching them, putting a $5 liquidity pool, setting up a Twitter automatically and a Telegram.
And the only thing that Dev needs to do is go and link our website.
And I think they could just spin these off in 10 minutes.
And it's just doing that repeatedly.
It's become a race to the bottom of the lowest common denominator.
And I don't know how to solve this.
I think for now the entire space is just flooded with just the worst of the worst right now.
And I think it's going to get worse the more these AI tools proliferate.
I don't think it's going to get easier.
It's actually becoming really hard for something that's quality or building with integrity to kind of be seen amongst this sea of just trash that's floating around here at the moment.
So you bring up a very interesting point, Mindless.
There's a lot of noise out there right now, especially in the meme space.
If there were to be a KOL influencer standard platform rating system, who is currently doing it well in the space that we could potentially model off of it?
Is it the gaming?
Is it the meme coins?
Is it the, you know, more of the technical side of it?
Who's doing it right?
And, yeah, who's doing it right that we could model a potential platform or system off of?
Any takers on that?
Go for it, Mindless.
Yeah, again, that's a good question.
I don't think anybody is, to be honest.
I think if somebody is doing it, it's more related to just their business practices as opposed to some industry standard that's being put out there.
It's probably, I would garner and say it's the gaming side of things.
But that's only for the fact that they're not targeting DeFi influencers or shitcoin influencers or meme influencers or, you know, feedpick influencers.
They're targeting gaming influencers who, by default, have a bit of selection there as to the bias that you're choosing.
Most gaming content creators, or at least the ones I've known, don't have that much of a dubious past because they just enjoy gaming.
So you've kind of filtered out a lot of the trash just by the default of the industry or the niche you're working in.
I don't think anybody's done a good sort of job on bringing this standard into the space.
I'd like to see it, but I sure as hell don't know how we get there.
It's a pretty big problem.
100%.
Kamara, go for it.
It's Karima.
I think Cookie 3 is working on something.
I don't think it's specifically ranking KOLs, but it's like a tool where you can rank the legitimacy of projects and their token and their token holder base.
It's kind of like doing analytics, but a built-in front end.
And I think that people who are, like they're building up a KOL network of people and like those KOLs have to like apply to be KOLs for the project, kind of like reversing the process a bit.
So, I mean, if anyone's interested in that kind of use case or what they're doing, I think it'll be interesting to explore.
I don't know if they're exactly building like a ranking system, though, but they are building more structure around like the KOL investing and then also like how projects are able to portray themselves and how they portray themselves with actual on-chain data.
No, that's good.
Those are the kind of things that I feel like we need, definitely, especially moving forward as some sort of way to kind of sift through the noise and actually get to the heart of some of these projects that are here for the long term, not just for the short term.
So, I just want to give thanks to all of our panelists today for joining.
A huge shout out to them.
If you haven't already, please go ahead and follow them.
They definitely deserve to follow based upon their contributions today.
This was a great discussion and topic.
So, thanks again, everybody.
If you want to take 30 seconds and just kind of tell people how they can get in touch with you or anything amazing, any alpha you want to drop, we'd love to hear it.
So, Devmon, if you want to go, go for it.
We'll start with you.
Yeah, guys.
Thank you so much, by the way, for inviting me.
It's great to be here.
And also, thank you so much, all of the panelists.
And yeah, so feel free to check our Twitter.
We have a lot of events upcoming in the future.
In a couple weeks, we have our alpha launch is going to be live on July.
And also, our Telegram game, Tap Masters, is live now.
So, yeah, let's go, guys.
So bullish.
Awesome.
Thanks.
Mine, let's go for it.
Hey, man, appreciate it.
I didn't have the intention to come up today.
I just love the discussion.
I don't have anything to pitch.
I've slowly stepped away from the gaming space working on something of my own.
But there's no sale.
There's no token sale.
There's nothing for you to get or take part in.
But yeah, I'd love to connect if anybody is interested in the MemeFight ecosystem.
And maybe we might do something later this year.
No, you better DM me and tell me what you're working on, my friend.
Jen Marie, go for it.
Yes, this was such a great conversation.
I loved hearing all the speakers' perspectives.
As always, I always have art available on my Hug profile.
But right now, I'm spending this summer chilling out and building.
So, yeah, I look forward to the next conversation.
Always a pleasure to have you.
Beastly, go for it.
Yeah, I just want to say thank you guys for having us.
I would definitely say give us a follow.
But I also want to say give everyone else on this panel a follow if you aren't following them already.
Just because we've got some amazing people.
Yeah, we're cooking some stuff here at Beastly.
I mentioned earlier we're launching our second game very soon.
I'll just leave it at that.
We'll have some more alpha around that very soon.
So, really excited.
But thanks again for having us.
Always happy to be here.
Yeah, can't wait for that second one.
So, Choice, go for it.
Thanks, Cody.
So, I'll say that, guys, yes, support everybody up here and down there, too.
The audience matters, too.
You guys are the reason why we keep jumping in spaces.
You know, we keep raising awareness and educating people around.
I think that there needs to be a lot of education for people to start opening their eyes and start, you know, learning to make the right decisions.
I know that the space is crazy.
I know that there's a lot of, you know, negative sentiments.
But I also believe on the people that is building and the brains that are making the big efforts and putting heart and soul daily to make the things happen on the proper way and to change the way that the industry is being looked at worldwide.
So, bringing positive vibes and sending them towards all of you guys.
Let's keep building.
Let's keep crushing it.
And have a wonderful rest of the week.
Looking up to the next conversation.
Awesome.
Thanks, as always, for attending.
Salsa Valley, go for it.
Thank you, guys, for today's call for such great points from everyone.
I guess that we do.
And as I told at the beginning that for now we are finalizing our steps in releasing one of the products, which is CryptoBoard.
Now we are engaging their crypto projects to be featured in it.
So, we are open to communication.
You can write me first.
Telegram.
You can find me in the group of layer1x.juliesvp.
Or you can write us in DM here on Twitter.
And let's collaborate and let's find how to grow together and build together.
And let's do drive the network effect.
Love it.
Love it.
Thanks again to all of our panelists for joining today.
And thanks to all of you for tuning in and listening to us discuss the dark side of the KOL and influencer sides of Web3.
So, thanks again.
Until next time, everybody, keep uniting all of Web3.
And let's keep innovating in this space.
And have a great rest of your week.
And we'll check you on the next one.
Bye-bye.
Thank you so much.
Bye-bye.
