NEWS
Since Patreon began censoring members and participated in deplatforming, many of its users have been seeking alternatives. One option is the cryptocurrency-infused Bitbacker.io, a Patreon-like application that strongly advocates freedom of speech and censorship-resistant money.
Bitbacker.io: A Patreon Alternative That’s Powered by Cryptocurrencies
Over the past 12 months, censorship and deplatforming have become rampant, with abuse across major social media platforms, donation pages, and web forums. This has been particularly true of Patreon, a web portal that provides people with business tools and subscription service opportunities. Many well known crypto luminaries, developers, nonprofits, and Youtubers use Patreon to bolster their products and business models. But Patreon has been accused of purging ‘right-wing’ figures, atheists and religious podcasters, creators like Sargon, and other individuals such as former Rebel Media personality Lauren Southern. Bitbacker.io, like the BTC-powered Tallycoin, aims to deliver a solution to the censorship problem by providing “a crypto-fuelled Patreon alternative.”
Right now, the platform supports BCH, BTC, and Smartcash, while providing a slew of the same features Patreon supplies. For instance, Bitbacker offers a powerchat service and interactive streaming. Visitors can pledge recurring crypto donations to content providers and gain access to exclusive members-only feeds. Additionally, patrons of Bitbacker can donate anonymously to their favorite creator’s page. Bitbacker’s creators say that fiat-based platforms can take upwards of 10-30 percent from content creators’ donations but because they use digital assets like BCH and BTC, the startup is able to charge close to 1 percent.
‘Patreon is Expensive and Funds Regulatory Compliance’
Signing up for Bitbacker is easy as all it takes is a strong password and email address in order to customize your profile. Immediately after joining, the platform reminds you to tether a bitcoin address to your profile in order to receive donations for content. Bitbacker explains on its website that it was designed to help crypto novices and the team opine that they hope the platform can be “a gateway into cryptocurrencies.” There’s a feed people can explore which shows all of Bitbacker’s content creators and also a general chat feed.
Speaking with news.Bitcoin.com, the Bitbacker founder explained that he created the platform to provide a cheap crypto-based answer to donation sites like Patreon and Youtube’s Superchat.
“There is and has always been a huge ‘tipping culture’ in the crypto community,” the founder of Bitbacker noted. “However, despite the enthusiastic willingness of the community, many creators and builders still resort to using fiat-centered services like Patreon to support their work.”
Naomi Brockwell, for example, runs a crypto-focused show, but receives the overwhelming amount of her support through fiat sources like Patreon. This is embarrassingly true among crypto’s most prominent members: Andreas Antonopoulos, whose Youtube channel is practically an advertisement for Patreon.
The creator further emphasized that Patreon is “expensive” and takes 10 percent of the donations. He explains that half of those funds go to outsourcing the regulatory compliance of being a money transmitter to an external payment processor. “Youtube takes an even larger 30 percent of the Superchats,” Bitbacker’s creator detailed. “Our organization only takes 1 percent and we do this by leveraging the ability of cryptocurrencies to handle all transactions in the client’s browser — Bitbacker never touches a user’s private key and this provides security against hacks and avoids the large costs of regulatory compliance.”
Exploring the site’s content shows a wide variety of vloggers, authors, and other types of content creators. At the moment there is a decent portion of libertarians and cryptocurrency enthusiasts using the platform but the site seems to be gaining a wider audience. Alongside this, the cryptocurrency show host Naomi Brockwell is also using the Bitbacker platform.
What do you think about Bitbacker.io? Let us know what you think about this platform in the comments section below.