Luke Childs, an open source software developer, has come up with a novel approach to try to reduce the amount of fake news and jaded comments found on Twitter. He has created an extension for several web browsers that can identify the posters of comments about cryptocurrency on the social media platform and provide details regarding the posters’ affiliations.
Aptly titled Conflict of Interest, the extension is available for Chrome, Opera and Firefox. It reveals the political leanings of those who discuss crypto, allowing Twitter users to measure the legitimacy of the post’s content. If a tweet puts Bitcoin Core (BTC) in a negative light, for example, the extension will provide details about the tweet’s author so readers can determine whether the comments are legitimate or simply an effort to talk poorly of or discredit BTC.
Childs has created a Github repository for Conflict of Interest, which is available to everyone. He explains in the repository, “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.”
He continues, “The step I usually use to determine how seriously I should take a Tweet are:
· See a negative tweet about a certain currency.
· Check that person’s profile to see if they’re biased towards or against that currency.
· If they’re biased towards it and they’re saying something negative, it’s probably a valid criticism.
· If they’re biased against it and they’re saying something negative, it might just be FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt).
“However this can be time consuming and it isn’t always easy to tell someone’s biases just by glancing at their profile.”
The tool is a new creation and only has limited accuracy—similar to how many new tools act—and only works with BTC, Bitcoin Cash (BCHABC), Ripple (XRP) and Ether (ETH). However, it also has the ability to be developed and refined further and could ultimately become a highly useful tool in determining whether or not the user behind a Twitter post is nothing more than a shill for a particular project, or if his or her comments genuinely warrant attention. Most likely, the former will be discovered in the majority of the crypto-related tweets.
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