Direct from the desk of Dane Williams.
I have a laugh at the audacity of crypto influencers who complain when they're banned from Web2
I’m surely not the only one that finds it ironic, not to mention downright hilarious, when crypto influencers not only get banned from these platforms…
…but then HAVE THE AUDACITY to complain and cry how it’s so unfair they can no longer do business blah blah blah.
I mean what?
Now I don’t want this to come across as a hit piece on crypt0 because I love the bloke’s work.
I can honestly say he played a huge role in me falling down the crypto rabbit hole that I’m now firmly buried within, so thank you!!
But the way he handled his unceremonious ban hammering by YouTube is a prime example of what I’m talking about here.
YouTube bans crypt0
Just take a look at Omar’s Hive account which he normally uses for nothing more than sharing links to his YouTube videos:
So Omar shares a post that he’s published a YouTube video on Tornado Cash that talks about the importance of censorship-resistant money and cops the ban hammer from YouTube.
Being banned on YouTube, he then highlights the importance of onboarding his audience from Web2 to his Web3 Hive account because suddenly it becomes the only place to message them.
He follows this up with a 3Speak (Hive’s video dApp) video asking what he should do now that YouTube decided on a whim to rip away all his followers and thus his ability to do business.
Obviously the answer is that the risk of losing his ability to do business on Web2 platforms like YouTube has become too high and that it would be a sound decision to shift his focus to building an audience he owns.
You would think that seems like common sense for a crypto YouTuber who has seen his business literally snatched from underneath him.
But nope.
You then see there’s a day’s gap where he’s obviously talking to YouTube and there’s no post.
Then BAM.
Normal service resumes and Omar is back to using his Web3 Hive account to share links to his latest YouTube videos like nothing happened.
The audacity of crypto influencers who complain
I mean come on…
Wouldn’t common sense tell you that you just got a glimpse into the exact future of social media?
The future that you’re literally talking about on your channel every single day, mind you.
Yet Omar’s reaction is pretty much what we see every time a crypto influencer is banned from their Web2 account.
We saw it here, we saw it when Bitcoin Magazine were banned by YouTube and we will seemingly keep seeing it as more influencers get the chop.
Seriously though, explain to me how influencers can honestly be mad at YouTube for banning their channel?
They’re literally using another’s platform to tell a vast rented audience (no, Web2 followers are not yours) that there is alternative tech that offers freedom from data slavery.
The same data slavery that literally prints YouTube’s owners, Google, money!
Let's be honest.
The utter audacity from these guys, haha!
No matter what your favourite crypto influencer running a Web2 social media account like a business says…
They don’t actually care about reaching the goal of censorship-resistant money or speech.
I’m sorry, but they don’t.
All that they care about is their bottom line - in US dollar terms.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Now I’m not saying this is a bad thing, because it’s not.
Each to their own.
But there is certainly no room for decentralised ideals in the social media influencer game and you as a consumer of their media, would be wise to wake up to this fact.
The reality of crypto influencers
The reality is that crypto influencers don’t care about the decentralised parallel like they say.
Instead, they’re simply interested in using crypto to build a legacy business.
Again, I don’t want to make out like it’s a bad thing, because it’s totally not.
I like money too!
But let’s just be honest about what is really going on in the crypto influencer space and if we can’t even get those actively preaching to start shifting their business to Web3, then how can we expect regular businesses to give a fuck?
We still have a LONG way to go..
Best of probabilities to you.