Where Are All The Bitcoin Vtubers?
If you’re someone in the Bitcoin space there’s a very likely possibility you have a passion or skill that has value to others that is relevant to the internet. Perhaps you’re an artist, a producer, hell, even a gamer with an entertaining personality. You may even have skills and talents related to Bitcoin like our distinguished hosts on Simply Bitcoin. You may want to create content and see if there’s a market for it, there certainly is, but it’s very niche. Bitcoin content breaking out into the Normie-Verse is usually a non-reality unless it’s a scandal in the crypto space (Bored Ape Yacht Club, FTX, Crypto Zoo). Most normies or nerds in other spaces may not break through the esoteric nature of Bitcoiner culture or not see the appeal from our angle, we need to hit it from their angle instead. So what would you do to potentially break into new markets? What if you want to remain pseudonymous while doing it? The answer may be in another community.
Vtubers.
If you know about Vtubers already you may know where I’m going with this. For the uninitiated, Vtubers are content creators that use a virtual avatar to act as their persona while producing content. This usually takes that form of an anime character but exceptions certainly exist. This is done with either 3D models or in the more common case, 2D models that are rigged with multiple layers of assets to simulate a moving picture. Though there was technically a Vtuber previous to her, Kizuna AI is considered the first Vtuber to break out into the public eye when she debuted in 2016 producing short form content and also hosting a music career, though she has since retired many speak of her with great respect. Since then, Vtubers have become an international phenomena with both large corporations with talents in multiple countries such as Hololive and Nijisanji, and very successful independent creators such as Ironmouse, Saruei, and Shylily. To the point previously mentioned Ironmouse is considered one of the largest streamers on Twitch and Hololive’s talents regularly having successful music careers. This is a trend that has shown longevity and perhaps a paradigm shift to how people present themselves on the internet in the modern age. Due to the nature of Vtubing this allows creators of various fields to be able to take advantage of the format.
Vtuber models have two distinct advantages to content creators. First this allows an individual to present themselves to an audience that they have personally crafted to suit their wants and needs. Do you want to be a cute anime girl with white hair, red eyes and is also a vampire? Go for it! I don’t judge, I’m just here to be saved by the money. Want to be a yellow muppet that is known as a shitpost extraordinaire? I’d say go for it but that has been covered by a certain Greek shitposter so you may want to try another direction. There are near infinite possibilities for Vtuber models, The second advantage plays into the first advantage, you can be completely pseudonymous. Some Vtubers prefer to not have their identities revealed, whether it be due to the content of their work, their personal safety, or simply not wanting their physical appearance on the internet. This can be a very attractive prospect to those who would rather not have their personal identities revealed to the world. With this very brief explanation I’m sure you have some very reasonable questions, the first and most important being:
What the hell does this have to do with Bitcoin?
Bitcoiners have had a lot of fortune with adoption in recent years from both the public company front with Saylor and the nation-state front with Bukele along with many other names bringing signal to the public but the space does have a tendency to be an echo chamber which somewhat harms our reach. We need a way to be able to break out into other spaces and potentially educate the public on Bitcoin and do it while being entertaining or at the very least palatable for other communities. Vtuber fans in particular have a penchant for giving a bump in popularity to something a Vtuber does whether it be a video game or reacting to certain content. With the right Bitcoiner reaching a new audience as a Vtuber you may very well bring more people into the space and properly educate them to not become shitcoiners. This could be as simple as being a content creator that is sponsored by a particular Bitcoin company and occasionally having demos on their channel of the sponsor’s products through the use of hand cams, but can be as far as devoting the entire Vtuber persona to Bitcoin education and news coverage (Not to take the spotlight away from Simply Bitcoin of course.) In addition to the possibilities for content, we have the previously mentioned bonus of having pseudonymity for whoever chooses to become a Bitcoin Vtuber. In the space we have personalities such as Gigi and Yellow that are perfect examples of this pseudonymity. But Vtubers are not without their problems.
A problem for Vtubing is the same as getting into content creation in general, the initial cost of entry. On top of the usual costs for AV equipment, the added cost of the model (which includes the art itself and the rigging of the model) can be as small as a couple hundred to as large as 9000 cuckbucks. That’s certainly not cheap by any means. One way to look at this is paying more for quality and what you want in the expressiveness of the model. There is another solution as well, PNGtubers are Vtubers that have a “model” that consists of one or two drawings, the second one being for when the talent speaks. This allows an individual to engage the space as a Vtuber without giving up too many Sats. Another problem which is also universal to content creation, visibility and taking off. There is a good chance as this is experimental and has risk, that this endeavor may not pan out. There’s a chance that the Vtuber community will want nothing to do with Bitcoin. Is it worth the investment for something that might potentially fail? I’d like to think so.
We as Bitcoiners should be looking at all angles of possible attack in the Peaceful Bitcoin Revolution. In asymmetric warfare you can’t afford to think conventionally, you have to think outside of the box. Bitcoiners thankfully have a tendency when needed to have a wide variety of interesting and sometimes strange ideas. Vtubers are an angle of attack that fulfills many needs that a Bitcoiner may have if they wish to create content and also have a hidden identity. It may seem strange for sure, but this is a community with millions of people, there’s so many eyeballs on individual streamers alone that if one mentioned Bitcoin in a positive light, adoption would see an instant spike.
If you could present yourself as a Vtuber, what would you like to look like? Let us know in the comments. And remember, you are the signal.