What is wrong with Kaito and InfoFi: engagement farming crowds out research
Quote487 words
Audits the Caldera Kaito leaderboard and argues InfoFi in its current form pays engagement farmers and timeline spam, not original research, letting projects show inflated vanity metrics. Warns this will hurt both CT and the projects.
Key claims
Many top non-team ranks are held by low-quality engagement farmers
One account posts 900+ replies per day
Incentives to write educational content are weak under the current design
Just spent 5min checking the @Calderaxyz leaderboard and it confirmed everything that is wrong with @KaitoAI and InfoFi rn.
@jimmyyy and @CrypticJay__ are team, so they dont rly count. But see screenshots for what kind of "content" puts many of the others on high ranks.
Was positively surprised to see @Vaz_Bav on there, who (especially given the small acc size) is rly pushing some decent, self-created visuals and stuff, which should definitely get rewarded (small accs matter, its not about the influencers that can monetize anyhow).
But that's exactly the point. I rly like InfoFi and I see potential in the narrative. Yet, in its current form, it's just incentivizing engagement farming and timeline spam.
There is very little original or let alone EV+ content on the any other accounts in that list, which is ultimately drowning out any valuable contribution, while allowing projects to parade around fake/inflated vanity metrics.
CT was so important for my personal journey in this space. It was where I discovered new concepts and ideas. Where i connected with like-minded ppl, and where most importantly, I learned so much.
But honestly, what is the incentive to write actually valuable, educational content on Caldera today?
Why should I spend time doing research, or creating visuals if 9/10 non-team ppl that top the leaderboard are low-quality engagement farmers that will outperform by 10x anyhow?
This is a serious problem and Caldera is just one example. But if we don't fix this, ALL of these projects will pay a high price when the day comes when ppl should actually understand (and care about) what they've built.
High mindshare is cool, but what rly matters is quality content, education and community. All of which this doesn't build or foster.
A guy who drops 900+ replies in a day is not an advocate for your tech or brand, its an extractor that wants to dump the tokens on day one to make money, just like the guys that post the engagement farming posts he is replying to.
Imo this is rly sad as there is so much to write about in the context of Caldera (and many other projects that have Kaito leaderboards). There are so many great memes that could be created, so many stories to be told. Stuff that can educate people, mobilize builders, and help to strengthen a REAL community.
This is a serious problem and Caldera is just one example. But if we don't fix this, it will 100% be a net negative at the end of the day, with many actually curious ppl being lost for artificial engagement farming hype.
Also linked more examples in the comments if my point still needs to be proven.
@Calderaxyz @KaitoAI @jimmyyy @CrypticJay__ More examples (not Caldera-specific):
x.com/zerokn0wledge_/status/1932940970057932922
@Calderaxyz @KaitoAI @jimmyyy @CrypticJay__ Wondering if @Punk9277 or @sandraleow have any inputs on how this can/will be fixed/improved?
@Calderaxyz @KaitoAI @jimmyyy @CrypticJay__ @Punk9277 @sandraleow Also linking this here:
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