The polarizing effect of social media today has highlighted the need for decentralization of currency and social networking.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that HighKey’s Lintz brothers, Jordan, Luke, and Jackson made the right call by betting big on HighKey Coin and BitClout.
“We fully believe decentralized social media is the future,” says Luke, the HighKey co-founder. “We are currently living in massive centralization. When you spend eight figures on a platform like Instagram, you don’t own any part of that following base you have grown. At any point in time, Instagram has the right to censor, shadowban, or fully disable your account.”
This is where the decentralization component of BitClout comes into play, he says. The novel social networking platform is similar to Bitcoin in many ways. The platform is not owned by one business or corporation, nor does it claim ownership of any user data.
Instead, every user on the platform receives their own coin that can be bought and sold by other users. Creator Coins are tokens that represent the popular identity of their users. The value of Creator Coins rise and fall depending on the current reputation of the celebrity or influencer who owns them. Additionally, since every creator on the platform has ownership of their Creator Coin, any money directly invested in their clout is not only retained, but helps build their brand and attract other investors.
By trading Creator Coins, BitClout users are staking their claim in HighKey’s very own HighKey Coin. To date, every single project managed by the Lintz brothers has been backed by HighKey Enterprises LLC, their personal contribution to the “no-fiat” future, they say.
“We want HighKey Coin to be the most popular cryptocurrency brand in the world,” says Jordan. “That’s a tall order, but we are already Top 20 in BitClout, and it will only get better from here.”
So how does one get into the BitClout game?
To buy someone’s coin on the platform, one simply has to find their profile and hit ‘Buy.’ Profiles for the top 15,000 Twitter influencers have been pre-loaded onto the platform already, so there shouldn’t be any problems looking for top celebrities to bet on. Buying someone’s Creator Coin means betting on a celebrity, influencer, or professional athlete to maintain their current positive clout.
Interestingly, one can start betting on their favourite profiles even if they’re not yet on the platform. Profiles with a small clock icon next to their name indicate that the owner of the profile has yet to join the platform. This can incentivise celebrities not yet on the platform to sign up and start with an established Creator Coin. This also allows people who want to follow them an opportunity to do so even if that celebrity has not signed up yet.
The owner of any reserved profile can claim their Creator Coins and BitClout accounts on their profile. This will trigger the creation of their BitClout public key, which they can then share on their Twitter accounts to attract even more investors. Once a profile owner does this, they gain full access to the account and a percentage of the Creator Coins associated with their profile.
This concept is very much aligned with what the Lintz brothers advocate for; the value of personal branding and decentralized platforms allow for a more egalitarian way of gaining a digital presence. Using that philosophy for the last few years has made HighKey a frontrunner in influencer marketing, especially on Instagram. This is exactly why the Lintz brothers say they jumped on the opportunity to invest heavily in BitClout when it first presented itself.
“The potential of BitClout interests us the most because there are literally endless possibilities of what it can lead into as a social media platform and as the first digital currency to enter in the social media realm,” says Luke.
Since its launch in March 2021, BitClout has provided the foundational cryptocurrency that developers can now take in any direction they wish to. Without any centralized entities controlling what media is delivered to audiences on the platform, BitClout removes the censorship and over-regulation that traditionally limits how far a celebrity can push their digital branding on other platforms.
Admittedly, the brothers still have their doubts and speculations with BitClout, as would anyone getting into a platform during its inception. Still, they believe in the platform’s ability to pave the way for decentralization in cryptocurrency and social media.
“In about two to three years, we will see centralized platforms like Twitter almost entirely taken over by BitClout,” says Jordan. “Prior to that, we foresee the majority of A-list celebrities and top creators claiming their BitClout profiles or making new ones where they would post content as they would on Twitter.”
In any case, it’s about time for content creators and celebrities to gain credit for everything they’ve worked for, specifically their reputation, say the Lintz brothers. By bringing in the same principles that made HighKey Enterprises LLC a massive success, the Lintz brothers are betting big on BitClout, while advising their clients to follow suit.
“We are not gambling with money we can’t lose,” says Luke. “We are simply investing money into a concept that we are very educated in, with the potential of a 10,000x return.”
