Twitter(now X) indubitably has the largest crypto community on the internet. Picture this: millions of crypto users and a vast market for crypto investors to tap into. But as Elon Musk once admitted, Twitter is currently plagued by a bot problem that needs a quick fix.
A study earlier this year found that many of the biggest crypto profiles have 100,000s of fake ‘bot’ followers inflating their communities. These same fake profiles are also used to promote projects with artificial and low-quality engagement on social posts. Elon Musk’s attempts to prevent this since he acquired the company have had limited results, and what is more, Twitter/X is predicted to lose 30 million users over the next two years - almost 10% of its active user base.
“/Reach,” a new social-fi company, is amping up efforts to improve the level of social engagement on Twitter posts and help fight against the countless fake profiles across the platform. I had the opportunity to sit down with 8an, co-founder of /Reach, for a discussion about /Reach’s mission to help fix Crypto Twitter.
Q1: Can you tell us about yourself and your route to web3?
My background started in consumer goods. I started my career at Rocket Internet as a Global Venture Developer, where we would launch day-one revenue-generating businesses in Europe and Emerging markets within 90 days from conception.
After having gone the entrepreneurial route, namely as a founding team member of Numan (which grew to be the largest digital men’s health clinic in Europe), I founded Particle, a real-world assets on-chain fractionalization protocol focused on fine art. We famously tokenised Banksy’s $13M Love is in the Air in January 2022.
I’ve been passively investing in Bitcoin since 2014, but I became more active in 2017 and then more ingrained in the community in 2021, like a lot of people.
Q2: When Elon Musk bought Twitter a year ago, he promised to fix its bot problem once and for all. Do you think it is a herculean task to beat Twitter bots?
It’s definitely not easy, but as with everything, recognising that there is a problem is a big first step. I think it's very much doable, especially with Musk's approach, which is to essentially make it economically deterrent for bots to exist - a similar approach to what /Reach is doing to those seeking to abuse or game the system. The goal, in the long run, is to make it unviable for a bot or exploiter ecosystem to exist.
Q3: You have rightly pointed out that Crypto Twitter has a massive bot problem. Can you tell us how serious this problem is?
Reportedly, up to 10% of X’s user base are bots. How deep this problem goes, we’ll only know once Musk reveals the extent of the issue as he has promised. What I can say is that within Crypto Twitter, it definitely is something everyone, from project owners, community leaders, artists, and individuals are seeing as detrimental to their efforts.
Q4: What can you tell us about the founding of /Reach, and how do you intend to tackle this problem?
Attention and reach is the greatest challenge for brands, community builders, artists, and projects to crack. The X algorithm is broken, and Musk’s Ads Revenue Sharing program has fallen short of properly remunerating accounts for their reach.
The “pay influencers” model is broken too - pseudo/low-value engagement doesn't help bring true visibility to comms that need to be promoted – with unfair and opaque pricing structures. Lastly, in an effort to maintain integrity on their profiles, even a brand’s greatest champions are reluctant to show support. Many aren’t even aware of which pieces of content would be most impactful for them to share.
To elaborate further: Modern online tribes and communities, from gaming servers to Web3 projects, have become advertising-resistant, disregarding messages even from Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs). Traditional advertising struggles to infiltrate these tight-knit digital circles authentically.
Reputable Web2 brands, despite having considerable media budgets, have yet to effectively access these communities and tribes in a manner that feels genuine and is welcomed. The outsider perception of brands is a significant barrier. Acceptance within these communities hinges on genuine endorsement from active, core tribe members.
We approach this problem by harnessing the very ethos of Web3 in having the participants in a network equally participate in its success.
The strategies we employ include the promotion of content, products, and services within active, fervent communities across diverse platforms – Web3, gaming, sports, and gambling, among others – organically and unobtrusively; overcoming the ‘Outsider Stigma’: Navigating through the walls of advertising resistance by enabling promotions through trusted, native voices within each tribe or community; and delivering a win-win scenario, allowing communities to monetize their user base while brands authentically connect with fresh, engaged audiences.
Q5: What role does Twitter play in keeping the crypto community active? Why is Twitter the platform with the most crypto users?
Twitter is our open forum and our playground, it is extremely important in the crypto community. It’s supported, of course, by Discord, Telegram, and WeChat, but Twitter’s model of short, bite-size news-esque delivered content is perfect for the fast-paced nature of Crypto.
Q6: What are some of the strategies employed by /Reach in combating Crypto’s Twitter bot problem?
We won’t be able to fully solve X’s bot problem alone, but we will be able to make sure it does not affect the spend creators put through the /Reach protocol.
The /Reach protocol incentivizes both quality engagement and volume of engagement –both necessary in the success of visibility and fostering high caliber conversations and reach. We’ve implemented purpose-built, AI-powered, dynamic algorithms to power this effort. It is this quality engagement involving real people with authentic opinions that is our greatest weapon against bots on Twitter.
Q7: From the information I have, you seem to have collected together a group of very impressive backers. Can you tell us a little bit about them and how you work with them?
All of them are users of the /Reach protocol throughout the beta phase. The product and its results spoke for itself and they wanted to get involved. Many of the big names we speak to regularly to get their advice and perspective within the realm of their expertise.
Q8: What are the next steps for /Reach after your launch?
Grow the /Reach audience. We have already signed two deals with major communities to start using the /Reach protocol and have a pipeline of over 20 conversations at varying degrees of the sales cycle. The goal is to grow to an audience of more than 1,000,000 users within three months of launch.