“Talking one’s bag” is common in crypto, and crypto proponents, many of whom were early investors in the cryptocurrencies they talk up, display an almost pavlovian fervour for their preferred coins.
But just in case it’s not obvious, developer Luke Childs has created a Chrome or Firefox extension called “Coinflict of Interest,” which the interested can use to shed light on their favourite “crypto Twitter” pundit’s coin leanings.
Though “Coinflict of Interest” is still in beta (“It’s just a proof-of-concept at this point, really,” Luke Childs told Hard Fork), once added to a browser, scrutinizing a prominent “coiner’s” Twitter profile now proves even more interesting.
For example:
Childs told Hard Fork that the extension incorporates data on user engagement to determine a pundit’s bias, but that, “…results shouldn’t be taken too seriously. I think, in general, the results are accurate enough to be helpful. But there are quite a few anomalies and there’s plenty of room for improvement.”
He added that more data is needed to make the results very accurate:
“I’m doing some post-processing on that data, running it through a simple algorithm to try and deduce bias from influence…There would need to be some sort of sentiment analysis of users’ tweet content to work out if they are engaging in a positive or negative manner. I would expect that to drastically improve the results.”
Text available where the extensions can be downloaded states:
“There are lots of people voicing their opinions on Crypto Twitter, however it’s often hard to work out if Tweets are genuinely informative, or if the person has an ulterior motive…This browser extension helps you get quick insights into user biases by injecting the data straight into Twitter. Bias information is displayed inside the users profile card that pops up when you hover over their avatar. It’s also displayed under a users bio on their profile.”
Until recently, social media promotions have been important for determining particular coins’ fates. Hopefully “Coinflict of Interest” will be welcomed by an industry that has advocated generally for transparency in finance.