Nader Al-Naji

The ad business model is why platforms keep content locked up

Nader argues that because Facebook and Twitter monetize via ads, they're forced to monopolize content so they're the only ones aggregating eyeballs. Letting anyone else build apps on the content would split the audience and hurt ad revenue.

“So really the fact that their business model is driven by ads is what kind of forces them to say, say, okay, this content's under lock and key. We're the only ones who can build apps on it. We're the only ones who can curate it and show a feed. And we can't let anyone else aggregate eyeballs other than us. We're the only ones.”

DeSo raised 5,000 Bitcoin instead of dollars

Nader says the project raised 5,000 Bitcoin, which had appreciated significantly since the raise. People sent Bitcoin to a treasury wallet and the blockchain auto-issued DeSo coins in return.

“Yes, it was actually 5,000 Bitcoin, which, you know, has appreciated a bit.”

Raised 5,000 BTC with no corporate entity, just a treasury wallet

Nader describes how DeSo took in money before any company existed: the blockchain watched a treasury wallet and auto-issued coins to anyone who deposited Bitcoin. Over 44,000 purchases came in and he doesn't know who 99% of the buyers are.

“And so essentially the way it worked was the blockchain was running. And if you sent Bitcoin to this treasury wallet, the blockchain would basically watch that treasury wallet and give you Disso coins when it saw that there was a deposit there to like a corresponding key. And so it was all automatic. And so there were over 44,000 purchases. And I don't even know 99% of like, like them who they are because they could just send Bitcoin to that thing and they would get DeSo coins on the DeSo blockchain.”

Raised $140M for a stablecoin, then gave it all back

Before DeSo, Nader ran Basis, a stablecoin company where he raised $140 million. When it didn't work, he decided to return all the money to investors rather than keep going.

“So like Social Capital, Andreessen, Sequoia, all of them. And so what's funny about that is that I, you know, obviously I did— I talked to those people.”

Creator coins that pay dividends from the creator's cash flows

Nader pitches creator coins (social tokens) as the next wave after NFTs: each creator has a coin, and a percentage of their on-platform earnings (NFT royalties, paid reposts) flows back to coin holders as a dividend. This effectively unbundles a Facebook-like equity into each creator's fan-owned coin.

“And so what's interesting is that essentially you can have creators making money through these other features and then take a percentage of that cash flow and send it back to that creator's coin holders as a dividend long term.”

Steal thisLet early fans buy a creator's coin and route a slice of that creator's ongoing revenue back to holders as dividends.

Money makes social discourse positive because holders go long

Nader observes that BitClout discourse stayed unusually positive despite light moderation, because investing in someone biases you to support them. When you can buy into a person, you go long and become aligned with their success — money as an alignment tool, not a corrupting one.

“And the reason I think is basically you're investing in people, right? You're going long. And when you give people the ability to, like, move money around, right, people naturally go long. And when they go long, they actually get aligned and want to support you.”

Raised $140M, returned it, and ended up with less than he started

Nader recounts that after raising and returning $140M at Basis, he had less in his bank account than when he started, having burned through three years of Google and D.E. Shaw savings. He says he never thinks of himself as having made it until there are millions of real users.

“And by the way, you know, funny, funny fact with Basis, my last company where I raised $140 million and returned it, I actually had less money after that in my bank account than when I started it, which is basically about 3 years of runway from my like Google and DidiXia savings, right?”

Open content makes decentralized social asymmetric to win

Nader predicts decentralized platforms will beat centralized ones because open content lets 100+ outside teams build better apps, lets publishers like ESPN spin up niche feeds with one engineer, and lets local builders in India or Russia tailor apps — speed of iteration the centrally-planned model can't match.

“I won't say the word it's inevitable, but I think it's actually very asymmetric in favor of decentralized platforms actually winning. The main reason being that I think when all the content is open and anyone can build on it, I think that the speed of iteration that you can have and the caliber of product is just a lot higher.”

Hold your celebrity backers until the product is actually ready

Nader deliberately kept big-name investors (VCs and Hollywood) from bringing their audiences onto BitClout because the prototype wasn't good enough. Bringing them too early risks losing half their users at first impression, so he waited for Diamond and Polygram to mature before activating the whales.

“But it was mostly me, kind of, because I don't want them to join, bring all their users, and then people are kind of like, "This isn't good enough, this looks weird," and we lose like half of them right out the gate, right? So, you know, like I said, we're playing the long game here.”

Steal thisDon't fire your biggest distribution channels until the product can actually convert the traffic they'll send.