Kaito, trap the KOL in the Algorithm

Original author: Fairy, ChainCatcher

Original text edited by: TB, ChainCatcher

Is it 'Yap-to-Earn' or 'Earn-to-Leave'?

In the Crypto world, "attention" is gradually becoming an asset that can be priced. Kaito, a star InfoFi project, has risen in this context. Backed by top capital such as Dragonfly and Sequoia, Kaito was once regarded as an innovator of "information financialization."

However, in just a few months, more and more voices have begun to question its algorithmic mechanism and ecological impact. Kaito wants to capture users' attention with AI algorithms, but for now, the community seems to have lost patience.

Is the creator ecosystem being destroyed?

The hydrological issue has been controversial since Kaito launched the "Yap-to-Earn" mechanism. The X platform is filled with similarly styled "in-depth industry analysis" posts, which superficially seem to be full of professional jargon and structured analysis, but in reality, the content is hollow, the interactive content is merely formal, and it is inefficient, repetitive, and created solely for profit.

Community member @0x cryptoHowe once described Kaito's dissemination mechanism as "Crypto version elevator advertising." He pointed out: "The long-tail traffic effect of Kaito is essentially like elevator advertising, constantly repeating content in a closed space, streaming in rotation at different time periods." For the audience, this is indeed a method for quick memorization and exposure, but problems arise: when the platform is occupied by "homogeneous content," KOLs are algorithmically pushed to repeatedly produce, ultimately forming an information closed loop — just like being locked in a "sealed elevator" that plays advertisements non-stop, making it difficult to access genuinely valuable new content.

Meanwhile, Kaito's mechanism has been questioned by many for "freeloading" the traffic of mid-tier creators. Crypto KOL @connectfarm 1 has pointed out that some mid-tier accounts, which have a single piece of content valued at 500 U or more, are willing to accept rewards far below market value for the sake of Kaito. This strategy not only lowers the real value of content in reality but also allows some creators to express only 50% or even less of their potential.

Kaito may be making the criteria for content creation evaluation monotonous, tying creators into a system driven by "algorithms" and "scores." As community user @0x Believer stated, "There are many criteria for evaluating KOLs, but the emergence of Kaito has made it a bit uniform."

The team frequently makes mistakes

In addition to the mechanism controversy, the Kaito team has also experienced some minor incidents at the operational level recently.

On March 16, Kaito AI and its founder Yu Hu's X account was hacked. Team member Sandra posted on the X platform stating, "The attackers chose to launch the attack in the late night of Yu Hu's time zone, taking control of the account while he was asleep."

Immediately following that, on April 27, founder Yu Hu posted that the platform accidentally backfilled the new algorithm to the past 12 months, causing users to see a longer time window, while also resulting in incomplete front-end data.

Although the two incidents themselves did not cause serious consequences, the consecutive minor flaws have raised concerns about their stability.

The Algorithm Controversy of "Relationship First"

Kaito's core selling point lies in its AI-driven content scoring algorithm, which claims to be able to identify valuable Web3 content. However, as users delve deeper into its use, this algorithm has frequently sparked controversy.

User @Jessethecook 69 has climbed to the ninth position globally and first in the Chinese region on the Kaito Yapper leaderboard in just 24 hours, solely based on three pieces of "borderline" content. This raises the question: is such an algorithm really filtering valuable information?

Many users pointed out that Kaito has a lower weight on view counts, with the algorithm focusing more on interactions between high-influence accounts. Unfortunately, some in the ICT (Inner Crypto Twitter) have started to "band together," further amplifying this algorithm bias.

Crypto KOL @sky_gpt bluntly stated that Kaito's algorithm is essentially designed to seize the institutional and top KOL market, severely damaging the ecosystem for ordinary creators. He pointed out that an article he wrote with 300,000 words of valuable content received a rating almost identical to a $2,000 advertisement post that a project paid for to buy rankings, while non-Kaito related content is systematically suppressed in the algorithm. "The top 50 KOLs are reaping huge rewards, while others have almost no way to grow," he wrote. "Kaito is cutting off the path for newcomers to rise."

When newcomers are trapped by the invisible ceiling of algorithms, and creators are forced to cater to algorithmic preferences, we can't help but ask: Is an AI-driven content platform reshaping the information order, or is it replicating old power dynamics?