With the suspension of President Trump’s Twitter account, many users are moving to other platforms. This week, Parler, a forum popular among conservative activists, went dark after Amazon Web Services severed links with it following the Capitol riot. As a result, social media network Gab.com and streaming service DLive – two platforms that use or accept cryptocurrencies – are moving into the spotlight as alternative social media spaces.

Why should we care?
Gab.com and DLive operate as “free speech” platforms with minimal moderation. DLive, a video streaming platform founded in 2017 that was acquired by BitTorrent in 2018, allows streamers to be rewarded with a digital currency called “lemons'' that can be converted to real money. Users can also receive rewards in BTT, a crypto asset associated with the BitTorrent ecosystem. Per the New York Times, on Jan. 6, more than 150,000 people watched DLive streams at the same time, and it’s estimated that one rioter streaming from inside the Capitol Building during the attack made more than $2,000 on that day. Meanwhile, Gab.com, which says it’s gained 1 million new signups in the last 48 hours, uses bitcoin – a currency the company calls “free speech money” – as a means of payment for its Gab PRO service following bans from Visa, Paypal, Stripe, Square, and others. The company also accepts payments via account and routing numbers and checks.