🌊 YAPline: InfoFi creators VS traditional KOLs 🌶️

The Spaces centered on two threads: fast-moving market updates across InfoFi campaigns and a candid, nuanced debate about InfoFi creators versus traditional KOLs, algorithms, and quality controls. Host Chillpill and co-host Arthur (R2) opened with global DST chaos before Arthur’s rapid-fire recap: Mega is live with heavy allocations, Momentum presale (Asia) is active, ZKPass launched on Kaita, a problematic Dutch auction (valuation and site issues) drew red flags, and multiple reward distributions (Mitoshis delays; MetaWind increase; Alora pre-market; UX Link; Gold’s nine-month cadence; BTC5 pending; Hana monthly vesting claims). Martin (Arbitrum Foundation) outlined open roles in growth, social, and community; speakers debated creative resumes tailored to CT. Deeps framed a “spicy” topic: platforms slashing accounts overly focused on InfoFi. Vo clarified Z’s human-in-the-loop approach, and later Pons (Z) joined to confirm they target spammy behaviors (volume and context), not “InfoFi” per se, with diminishing returns and manual review of outliers. The room examined Solstice’s on-chain integration glitches (Twitter connect, flares) and the need for clear comms. Contributors highlighted retention strategies, disclosure ethics (Jobs flagged regulator crackdowns), and the risk of content fatigue. Consensus: quality, transparency, and diversified content—plus better product-click experiences—drive sustainable impact.

InfoFi vs Traditional KOLs — Full Twitter Spaces Recap and Notes

Opening context and scheduling quirks

• Daylight Saving Time change in Europe caused widespread scheduling mismatches with US/other regions. Crypto’s global coordination pain point was highlighted; many meetings were missed/shifted. Bandit (Portugal) noted devices auto-adjust; Chill (host) warned that UTC-based scheduling across continents creates annual chaos.

Market and campaign updates (Arthur/R2)

• MEGA sale: Opened and reportedly attracted >$2B in early pledges — a massive rush of capital; KYC required.
• Momentum presale: Live and heavily hyped in Asia.
• ZKPass (on Kaito): Live with ~$33M pledged vs a $2M target; significant oversubscription risk.
• “Multi-… (Dutch auction)”: A deal running a Dutch auction with confusion around a $3M entry vs a $70M valuation tier; website instability and user complaints. Key caution: read the fine print; outcome likely uneven (some profit, some disappointment).
• “Weird Kaito” sprint campaign: Ended; drove outsized noise for a few days (purpose-built for awareness surge).
• Monad: Anticipated drop review “tomorrow,” with likely TGE next month and an expected (opinion) mindshare bump around 20% around reveal; not guidance.
• Mitoshis: Rewards overdue (pending ~1.5 months). Community expectation: distributions within 5 days or reputational escalation.
• MetaWind: Distribution increased from 100k to 125k; distribution on Nov 1. Must register in-app or you won’t receive rewards.
• Alora (AI): Premarket trading around ~$0.5B FDV; tokenomics published; growing interest.
• Novastri: No comment.
• PlayAI: “Checker” live; link shared.
• AnyChest: New attention; an Abstract-combo path posted for those seeking chain exposure.
• Yappers Company via Kaito: Targeted for early December.
• Rewards/admin:
  • UX Link: Rewards announced; claim requires additional registration (common theme).
  • “Gold”: 9-month rewards cadence; monthly distributions for Yappers + Kaito ecosystem; watch long-run campaigns similar to Peak.
  • BTCFi DeFi app: Pending Kaito rewards several weeks; disappointment voiced.
  • Hannah: 12-month vested rewards; first month available to claim on Kaito (sign-in and claim monthly).

Arbitrum campaign and hiring

• Arbitrum InfoFi campaign
  • First monthly snapshot: Saturday (end of week). Campaign runs 3 months total.
  • Rewards (indicative): Top 10 creators reportedly receive ~15,000–36,000 ARB/month. Illustrative: top-ranked ≈ ~$4,000/month at current ARB prices (variable), totaling ~$12k across 3 months. Strong value for a post-TGE, established protocol.
• Community engagement: Martin (Arbitrum Foundation) was praised for hands-on support (e.g., 2-hour space with testers on a Polygon project) — projects that show up and engage meaningfully win mindshare.
• Job openings (Arbitrum Foundation)
  • Growth Marketer (own DeFi/social campaigns; reports closely to Martin).
  • Social Media Lead (city/CT-facing lead; formalized title as Social Media Lead.
  • Community Lead (managing a team of community managers; requires prior team leadership experience).
  • Regional roles: e.g., Korea and at least one more country; more roles under Marketing, BD, Ecosystem on the website.
  • CV policy: Traditional resume required. Crypto-native, creative portfolios are encouraged, but expect to submit a CV; LinkedIn still helps.
  • Resume creativity: Monica and others suggested crypto-native portfolios (ethos/gaps/leaderboard snapshots) to differentiate.

Main debate: InfoFi creators vs. traditional KOLs

• Framing (Deeps): Posted a provocative prompt to stimulate discussion about “signal vs noise” and how platforms should treat InfoFi-focused accounts vs traditional KOLs who also accept paid deals.
• Core claim questioned: The perception that “Z will slash InfoFi creators” if their timelines are predominantly InfoFi campaigns. Deeps asked how that can be fairly applied to traditional KOLs who also post mostly paid content (but less detectable by keyword).
• Pons (Z) clarifications and algo design
  • Z does not maintain an “InfoFi projects” keyword list to punish. The algo evaluates behavior and context (account-level quality, post-level quality, interaction graph, posting patterns); manual review handles outliers.
  • The target is spammy behavior — regardless of whether it’s InfoFi or traditional paid shilling. Example: Accounts posting 5–6 near-identical “use this” posts daily about a yield farm are likely to trigger de-ranking; likewise if someone only ever posts “buy this frog” every day.
  • Not using rigid caps on posts; diminishing returns apply. Arbitrary post caps can punish legitimate bursty moments (e.g., during major ecosystem launches) where multiple distinct, substantive posts are warranted.
  • Small/mid accounts: Can still win if they add context and substance around campaigns (what, why, how, user journey) rather than thin repetitions.
  • On-chain: Weighted per campaign (brand-configurable). Using the product can be strongly rewarded depending on brand goals.
  • Manual review: Exists to correct errors and teach the LLM; not intended to be permanent-only mechanism. A reporting system for suspicious accounts is rolling out.
  • Flash tournaments: Influence matters (large high-quality accounts will naturally have an edge), but medium/small accounts can compete via depth and originality. The aim is merit, not flattening influence.
• Platform comparisons and maturity
  • Kaito: Post-“Loudio” learnings; increasingly effective filters plus selective manual oversight; less public commentary on minor algo tweaks to avoid drama.
  • Z: Early, building in public with aggressive community feedback loops; strong presence by Pons/Vo; “human-in-the-loop” critical while LLMs mature; public leaderboards without curation can look like Cookie/Wallchain (easy to game) — curated/paid boards see tighter oversight.
  • Cookie and Wallchain: Currently easier to game via keyword/view spam.
• Solstice (Z campaign partner) integration concerns
  • Twitter connect has intermittently failed (some users a week+, others report a month) inhibiting on-chain crediting into Z scoring. Vo pinged Solstice; Pons said the team is working on it; announcements to come. Guidance: Depositing likely won’t hurt; on-chain weighting will be clarified when integration is live.
  • Flares (Solstice) are redeemable for 7.5% of SLX supply, but users reported update delays/inaccuracies. Large imbalances exist (e.g., some accounts hold millions of flares). Many creators prioritize Z leaderboard impact over flares.
  • Key ask: Better, faster communication from projects/platforms when basic connectors break; users are risking capital based on campaign promises.
• Community perspectives
  • Transparency: InfoFi is more transparent (leaderboards, visible criteria) than backroom KOL deals. Many “traditional KOLs” post predominantly paid content without disclosures.
  • Content fatigue: Insomniac/incense and others see “product shoved in your face” repetition; users are tuning out accounts with uniform, formulaic InfoFi posts.
  • Counterpoint (Ottosan): InfoFi has surfaced high-quality, up-and-coming writers who produce more substantive posts than many legacy KOLs with large followings.
  • Value to projects (Marian): InfoFi only “for money” posting muddies attribution; recommends pairing awareness with retention funnels and non-cash, ecosystem-native rewards (e.g., in-game items) to identify genuinely interested users.
  • Structural evolution (Jabs): Platforms will specialize by campaign type; the market will route certain projects to the platforms/algos that fit best. InfoFi’s transparency is a real net positive.
  • Ethics and law: Agencies often discourage disclosure; creators should push for it. Regulators (UAE, UK, AU, FR, others) are jointly cracking down on undisclosed financial promotions. China (separate regime) has introduced degree requirements for certain influencer commentary. Expect more scrutiny on Twitter/X over time.

“Human in the loop” explained

• Purpose: Human moderators correct LLM blind spots and systematically teach the model what is and isn’t quality/spam in early phases.
• Bias remains: It won’t eliminate bias, but it raises quality and closes obvious exploits; manual actions should be transparent, defensible, and accompanied by improvements to the model.
• Practical recommendation (Chill): Publish content guidelines per campaign (what’s valued, what isn’t), and communicate that top ranks will be manually audited; use tools like X Pro to quickly review an account’s last few weeks of campaign content.

Creator strategy and best practices

• Diversify content mix: Target at least ~50% non-farming content to avoid “mute fatigue.” Build durable authority in a niche (e.g., prediction markets, L2s) via public niche leaderboards (Kaito/Z). These boards drive inbound opportunities beyond short-lived campaigns.
• Stand out with substance: Add context, link to clickable product actions, and narrate user journeys. Avoid single-line listicles stuffed with identical keywords.
• Disclose deals: Push back on agencies that forbid disclosures; the legal/regulatory risk is rising. “Ad” tag or clear language helps; at minimum add a disclosure reply.
• Avoid “engagement sellers”: Paying for engagement risks botting and long-term account damage; not worth it.

Project and platform guidance

• Projects
  • Design for retention: Pair awareness with funnels (on-chain actions, utility, quests) so acquired attention converts into users/liquidity.
  • Reward design: Consider non-cash, ecosystem-native rewards to filter for genuine interest; match incentive to desired user action.
  • Communicate promptly: If connectors, claim pages, or metrics break (e.g., Solstice Twitter connect, flares), publish status updates and timelines.
• Platforms
  • Publish campaign-specific content guidance (signal definitions) and audit processes.
  • Maintain diminishing returns for post frequency; avoid one-size-fits-all post caps unless necessary.
  • Keep manual review for outliers; roll out reporting tools for the community to flag.
  • Expect segmentation: Some boards will emphasize pure awareness; others will weight on-chain conversion.

Miscellaneous issues and fixes

• Kaito “yaps” metric showed zero across many accounts over the weekend; likely platform/UI sync or upstream X issue; Elon Musk acknowledged algorithm issues on X that day; historically, data has been backfilled.
• Loudio retrospective: Stress-tested Kaito; postmortem improvements increased resilience; expect Z to undergo a similar pressure test in flash tournaments and to adapt.

Actionable dates and items (consolidated)

• Arbitrum — snapshot: Saturday (first month). Campaign continues two additional months; top tier rewards for top-10 creators.
• MetaWind — distribution: Nov 1; must register in-app.
• Mitoshis — deadline: Community expects rewards in ~5 days.
• Hannah — vesting: Claim month 1 now on Kaito; monthly for 12 months.
• UX Link — rewards: Live; requires registration to claim.
• Yappers Company (Kaito) — early December go-live.
• MEGA/Momentum/ZKPass/Multi-…/Alora — live or ongoing; read terms carefully (especially auctions, vesting, and claim mechanics).
• Z x Solstice — Twitter connect fix in progress; on-chain weighting announcements forthcoming. Z reporting tool rolling out.

Notable participants (mapped from the space)

• Host: Chill (aka Chill Pill)
• Co-host: Arthur (R2)
• Deeps (discussion lead on InfoFi vs KOLs)
• Pons (Z): Founder/operator; clarified Z’s algorithmic stance
• Vo (Z adviser): Context on human-in-the-loop, responsiveness, and ongoing fixes
• Bandit: Long-time creator; on algos and platform behavior
• Martin (Arbitrum Foundation): Campaign snapshot; hiring; community engagement
• Monica: Creative crypto-native resumes; campaign engagement best practices
• FS7: Brief appearance; favors InfoFi creators
• Jabs (lawyer): Legal clarity on disclosures; market specialization perspective
• Ants Academy, Dexter, Incense, Johnny, CryptoPatra, Marian, Ottosan, Insomniac, Youngsan, Toma: Community voices adding nuance on content fatigue, discovery, retention, and creator ethics

Bottom line

• The InfoFi vs Traditional KOL divide is more about format and transparency than substance. Most “traditional” marketing is also paid; InfoFi surfaces this in leaderboards and public metrics.
• Algorithms are converging toward penalizing spammy behavior, not “InfoFi per se.” Context, diversity, and on-chain conversion are increasingly weighted; human-in-the-loop remains essential.
• Projects that value retention and actionable on-chain journeys will get the most from InfoFi; creators who balance farming with substantive, differentiated content will grow the most durable influence.