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Crypto and Blockchain YouTube Channels Blocked: Should Users Move to Dtube?

Many cryptocurrency and blockchain promoters who make use of the famous YouTube platform witnessed their channel being blocked for more than a week during the Christmas holiday period in a move that was seen as a possibility to silence cryptocurrency. Among the Youtuber’s affected are Ivan on Tech, Mr. Kristoff is otherwise known as Crypto Crown and some others.

Although the initial crackdown by Youtube was carried out last year, according to recent reports, it seems the purge is set to make a comeback following a tweet on Feb. 23 by Ivan On Tech showing concerns of another round of clampdown on cryptocurrency-related content by Youtube.

The initial purge by Youtube started between Dec. 20 a few days before Christmas and lasted for about two weeks in some channels. Certain content was getting flagged and reported at an alarming rate which made YouTube act by suspending a high number of videos and channels in order to maintain a potential crisis from happening.

The majority of users affected got an email from YouTube stating that the videos removed have violated YouTube sales policies. Surprisingly, the majority of such videos were simply either news, technical contents or just about general cryptocurrency.

With another round of potential crackdown being speculated, many are of the opinion that YouTube is being overzealous with the measures it is taking to curtail the situation. Putting into perspective the fact that the platform is just a company with internal rules to follow and given that they might try to amend their internal terms and conditions, allowing measures to be taken against cryptocurrency contents.

Many crypto YouTubers are already on the lookout for alternatives to evade such outcomes. It is believed that podcast format or the use of a different video-streaming platform provider like Twitch or dtube could prove to be a welcome solution.

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Ripple Files Lawsuit Against YouTube Over Cryptocurrency Investment Scam

Cryptocurrency company Ripple filed a complaint lawsuit against Google’s YouTube at a US district court in Northern California. The crypto firm accused YouTube of failing to protect consumers from crypto “giveaway” scams, which use fake social media profiles to deceive victims into sending money.

YouTube Could Face Punitive Damages

Ripple runs an exchange network for the cryptocurrency XRP, which is targeting people who want to send money globally. The crypto company claims that fraudsters on the YouTube platform have been impersonating Ripple and its CEO Brad Garlinghouse to attract viewers into sending hundreds of thousands of dollars value of cryptocurrency XRP.

The lawsuit document says that the scammers used spear-phishing attacks to hack YouTube channels of content creators with legitimate ties to Ripple. The scammers hacked influential users’ accounts and posted videos offering huge XRP giveaways (rewards) in exchange for smaller initial payments, deceiving viewers who thought they were watching Ripple’s channel. Viewers of the videos in questions were then requested to send between 5,000 XRP – 1,000,000 XRP to a listed address that promises 5x return from the receiver.

Ripple provided the dates as from at least November last year, claiming that it has submitted almost 350 complaints about scamming or impersonation. However, the cryptocurrency firm reveals that YouTube has several times ignored its complaints or “failed to address” many of them and even awarded verification badges to channels that scammers have taken over. Ripple says that even after YouTube warned about the scam, it continued to accept paid ads associated with the scam. The crypto firm further states that victims have been conned millions of XRP worth of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The lawsuit says that YouTube deliberately profits from the scammers’ actions, despite having the capacity to stop them.

The crypto company mentions that the scam has caused “irreparable damage” to both Ripple’s brand and Brad Garlinghouse’s reputation as a direct consequence of YouTube‘s inexplicable and deliberate failure to address an injurious and persuasive fraud taking place on its platform. The damage has been worsened by YouTube’s alleged deliberate inaction.

The lawsuit calls for any punitive, compensatory, and statutory damages awarded to the plaintiff (Ripple).

Rising Risks of New Crypto Fraud Schemes

Fraudsters are making huge money from innocent victims who want the latest digital gold rush but don’t understand how the technology works. Various forms of scams involve blackmail scams, fake token sales, and fake services promising huge, bogus returns to clients. Millions of people have been conned through Ponzi schemes that attract uninformed people to invest in fake enterprises and then run away with the money. Scammers are not the only criminals employing such dirty tactics. Even rouge business brokers provide crypto exchange services that turn out to defraud innocent customers huge sums of money. Regulators should monitor how such scams function and understand how players like rouge brokers operate so that they can create more effective consumer protection laws.

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Dlive, a Controversial Blockchain-based Live Streaming Platform

What is Dlive?

Dlive (Dlive.tv or Dlive TV) is one of the largest and most controversial blockchain-based live streaming platforms. Dlive is powered by the Lino blockchain, on which you can build your own value-sharing content-based economy and promises that “content creators, viewers, and all other contributors are fully and fairly incentivized.”

Problems with Traditional Streaming Platforms

While traditional streaming platforms like YouTube and Vimeo have been popular over the years, content creators have been very public about their frustrations with these platforms and their administrators. These problems include:

(1) Higher restrictions and qualifiers placed on creators in order to monetize their content.

(2) Hidden algorithms that direct content recommendations to users are completely controlled by centralized platform administrators.

(3) Fewer rewards. The success and revenue of traditional video giants like Youtube are essentially built upon the content contribution of users and views of users. Although Youtube does reward content contributors with money, it is far from the value of what they have contributed and the centralized site takes the majority portion. And for the viewers, there are simply no rewards at all.

Dlive as an alternative?

DLive is “changing the whole game by putting platform ownership in the hands of the users through blockchain technology. The users of DLive are the ones that are rewarded for their contributions as the platform grows. It doesn’t matter if you are a content creator or viewer, your contributions are valued.” Dlive doesn’t take any of your earnings. Users get 75% of their earnings directly into their coin wallets and the leftover (25%) goes to a token pool for rewarding BTT Stakers.

At Dlive, the contributions of viewers are counted as a reward for viewer’s behaviors like watching, chatting, sharing content, etc.

As Dlive is a decentralized live streaming platform, users have total control over their accounts and are far less restricted in their scope of the content. Using sites such as Youtube means reliance on a “the third trusted party” that ultimately can reverse your decisions and have final control over your account and content.

The most famous example is the case of PewDiePie. PewDiePie is one of the most popular YouTube Channel created by Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg (aka PewDiePie) on Apr 29, 2010. It has more than 25 billion views and 104M subscribers. Felix Kjellberg was in the list of Time magazine’s “The 100 Most Influential People” of 2016. On Apr 09, 2019, Dlive announced “PewDiePie Forges First Exclusive Livestreaming Partnership with DLive”, partly due to frustrations at Youtube where it has unconstrained power over his content. In 2016, PewDiePie said that YouTube had contacted him over deleting his account.

Source: Youtube

Currently, the Dlive Pewdiepie account has more than 800k followers. Another notable Dlive account from a famous former Youtuber is that of political commentator Nick Fuentes(https://dlive.tv/nickjfuentes).

As more and more fake content makes its way onto the Internet, a major challenge of an unrestricted and decentralized platform like Dlive will be its ability to guarantee quality content and limit harmful or indecent content stemming from the dark side of human nature.

Dlive Tokens

The Dlive system leverages three basic tokens: Lemon, BTT, and BTT Stake.

Lemon is an internal token used within DLive platform for donations and paid subscriptions.

BTT (BitTorrent Token) is the basic token in the BitTorrent system. BTT is a TRC-10 utility token. typical Dapps that are powered by BTT are BitTorrent Speed, BitTorrent File System, DLive, etc.

BTT Stake – Like you deposit your money into a bank and earn the interest, BTT Stake is the “interest” of BTT for BTT holders as their staking rewards.

Competitors

Besides traditional competitors like Youtube, Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/), there are other blockchain-based streaming or video platforms like Dtube.

Other information about Dlive

The CEO of Dlive is Charles Wayn who founded Dlive in 2017 on the belief that all rewards belong to creators.

Official Website: https://dlive.tv/

Dlive has Dlive Apps for downloading.

Cardano Addresses Fake ADA Giveaway Claims on YouTube

Cardano CEO Charles Hoskinson has once again come forward to address the issue of cryptocurrency scams targeting his ADA empire and has been quick to refute any associations phishers made with the Cardano Foundation.

Phishing for Money

Recently, there have been cases where ads run by scammers on YouTube promoted fake ADA giveaways. A way cyber fraudsters operated was to reproduce the speeches of important crypto figures such as Vitalik Buterin, Charles Hoskinson, and Changpeng Zhao (respectively the co-creator of Ethereum, the CEO founder of Cardano, and the CEO of Binance Exchange). In the video, there was also an airdrop or a cashback link that was promoted. Scammers often would then link their own wallet address in order to collect the funds.

On July 12, Hoskinson tweeted that it has come to his attention that a scam floating around YouTube was using his conference keynote to promote a giveaway. He emphasized that it was indeed a scam, and to whoever came across it to report the fraudulent link to YouTube. Speaking on behalf of Cardano Foundation, he also added that his firm will take legal action if needed be, against the cyber phishers. The upload has since been removed by YouTube regulators.

How to Not Fall Prey to Money Launderers

In an official blog post by Cardano Foundation, the blockchain company addressed the issue of online scamming and fraudulent individuals who associated themselves with Cardano. This dilemma seems to be on the rise recently. The crypto company explained to their audience how to track fraudulent claims, and added that they would never ask someone to send one own’s funds to them. They also advised ADA investors to be careful:

“We strongly urge you not to send your ADA to any third-party entities which claim to have partnerships with Cardano or officials from the entities within the Cardano ecosystem.”

Cardano Foundation on the Rise

It appears as though Cardano has been hit with a lot of scams since their recent success with their altcoin ADA. The cryptocurrency skyrocketed this July, surprising crypto market experts. It is the highest price level the ADA has seen since its fluctuation in 2019. Currently, ADA is experiencing a 200% year-to-date gain, making it the biggest news on crypto markets. Cardano’s ADA cryptocurrency has been one of the top-performing tokens this year and has become the sixth-largest crypto according to CoinMarketCap.

YouTube and Ripple Intertwined In Lawsuit Battle For XRP Scam Videos

Blockchain company Ripple and CEO of the currency exchange network Brad Garlinghouse is suing YouTube for allegedly playing a part in the repeated Ripple (XRP) crypto giveaway scams that have been circulating on the video content platform.

Ripple Angered By YouTube

Ripple argued that the video sharing company benefitted from crypto scammer’s malicious channels, as revenue could be generated from the paid ads that played in between video streams.

YouTube Fights Back

YouTube’s legal team was quick to fight back, refuting the claims that the company should have been the one responsible for preventing crypto scammers from uploading content that impersonated Ripple. Furthermore, the circulating videos incited YouTube subscribers to send their crypto assets, impersonating Ripple CEO Garlinghouse and claiming that crypto enthusiasts would be awarded with Ripple tokens (XRP) in exchange for their efforts.

When countering the lawsuit filed by Brad Garlinghouse, YouTube brought up Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 is a bill that protects video content publishers from liability over content provided by third parties, and YouTube legal team said that it was applicable in this scenario. The video content platform said that it was not the one to be held responsible, as scam channels were not published by them, but by third-party entities. YouTube’s legal team countered the lawsuit by stating:

“The right of publicity law protects individuals’ names, images or voices from being used for commercial purposes without permission, but Ripple’s suit alleges that a third-party hacker employed Garlinghouse’s identity in its videos, not YouTube.”

Scammers Target YouTube, Twitter — What’s Next?

Scamming via social platforms is not an uncommon thing. In recent news, it was reported that Twitter suffered the hugest Bitcoin scam attack it has ever known. Crypto scammers seized the verified accounts of multiple celebrities and well-known figures such as Bill Gates and Elon Musk in order to line their crypto wallets with Bitcoin funds.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Apologizes for Bitcoin Hack, But Not Before Dutch Politician Was Compromised

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey came forward on Thursday to apologize thoroughly for his social network company’s failure to prohibit and shut down Bitcoin scam artists’ digital heist of important verified accounts, that ranged from that of tech moguls Elon Musk and Bill Gates to political figure Joe Biden.

The hack was reported to be the biggest one that Twitter has suffered in all of its history, resulting in the seizure of at least 130 accounts on the social platform. All pertained to prominent figures and celebrities, and hackers tweeted out the same message through at least 45 of those accounts, demanding for Bitcoin (BTC) funds. The message that appeared on Elon Musk’s verified account was formulated as so:

“I am giving back to the community. All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000. Only doing this for 30 minutes.”

Other accounts, such as that of coin exchange Binance, depicted that the coin exchange had partnered with “CryptoForHealth” and was looking to give back 5000 BTC to the community.

Did Hackers Have a Political Agenda?

Of all the accounts, hackers accessed the private messages of 36 verified accounts. CEO Dorsey revealed that one of those accounts belonged to an elected political official in the Netherlands. Twitter however does not believe any other former or current elected political figures’ direct messages were accessed. This may come as a bit of reassurance to former President of the United States, Barack Obama, and political runner-up, Joe Biden, who also had compromised social media accounts.

Identity of Hacked Political Account Comes to Light

Though Twitter has not disclosed the identity behind the Netherlands elected official’s hacked account, recent information has come to light that may suggest that it belonged to no other but Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

The far-right politician told BBC news recently that Twitter was referring to his verified account when it mentioned that one of the 36 accounts that had their direct private messages snooped through belonged to an elected political official.

Political Figure Spills the Beans

During the Twitter Bitcoin scam attack last week, Wilders’ profile picture was replaced with a cartoon of a black man, and his account’s background picture was switched to the Moroccan flag. The far-right Dutch politician is quite a figure in the Netherlands, as his Freedom Party is the second biggest part in the Netherlands’ House of Representatives.

Wilders told BBC that he had been using Twitter’s direct message tool for about 10 years now. He went on to say that he was informed by Twitter following the fraudulent hack that not only had his Twitter account been hacked for some days, but the hackers also posted tweets on his account and sent DMs in his name. He confirmed that the hackers indeed got full access to his DMS, which “is totally unacceptable in many ways.”

The Dutch politician is extremely concerned with the Twitter security breach, as his Freedom Party had campaigned to ban Muslim immigration and shut down mosques. He expressed his view:

“People critical of Islam or regimes in the Middle East [including those] from within countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria [have sent me DMs over 10 years] and I do hope they will not be in danger if their identity would be exposed because of this hack. I had deleted most of them but maybe some were left there for the hacker to see and copy.”

CEO Jack Dorsey and Twitter Apologizes

Twitter took matters into their own hands and commented on the incident, saying that they have recently implemented safeguards to improve the firewall security of their internal systems. They went on to add that they were working in collaboration with law enforcement to further the investigations of the infamous Twitter BTC scam. Twitter also apologetically said that they are committed to regaining “the trust of all their stakeholders with their every action, including how they address the security issue.”

Twitter Not The Only Victim of Bitcoin Schemes

Bitcoin scams are becoming increasingly common on social media networks, as Twitter is not the only platform that has been targeted in such fraudulent attacks. YouTube has also recently been faced with a lot of backlash, resulting in lawsuits, due to the volume of cryptocurrency scam videos streaming through their platform.

Apple Sues YouTube

In recent news, co-founder of Apple Steve Wozniak filed a lawsuit against YouTube for the video content platform’s failure to take down fraudulent videos that impersonated Wozniak in an effort to extort XRP funds from YouTube subscribers. Google is also implicated in the lawsuit, as they are the parent company of YouTube.

Ripple and YouTube Agree on Settling for Lawsuit over XRP Scam Videos

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has revealed that the lawsuit Ripple has served Youtube with has been settled.

Ripple sued YouTube last April over streams of running rampant on the social media platform that impersonated Garlinghouse. Fake XRP giveaway scams were promoted through the impersonation of the Ripple CEO. Per the official complaint, Ripple alleged that YouTube benefitted from crypto scammers’ videos, as revenue could be generated from the paid ads that played in between videos. Currently, Garlinghouse has addressed the lawsuit and revealed that both parties have agreed on settling. Per his official announcement:

Garlinghouse explained that with the rise in popularity of crypto, many social platforms have increasingly come to “acknowledge their role in allowing crypto scams to persist and recognize the need to be part of the solution.” He hinted that collaborations between different entities were crucial, as government bodies have increasingly been drawn towards the crypto industry and scrutinizing it for misdoings.

The exact terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but according to sources familiar with the talks, both parties have reached an agreement where they will collaborate to further the cause of cybercrime prevention.

Twitter suffers the biggest hack in its history

Garlinghouse is not the only one to have fallen victim to cryptocurrency scams. Last year, numerous social media accounts were compromised on Twitter in what was deemed the biggest hack the social platform had ever suffered in its entire history. A Bitcoin scam overtook Twitter. As a result, the social media accounts of numerous high profile-figures such as Elon Musk and Joe Biden were compromised, as hackers leveraged celebrity accounts to demand Bitcoin funds.

Russian Hackers Hijack YouTube Channels to Broadcast Crypto Scams: Google

Search engine giant Google has made a series of claims, accusing Russian hackers of hijacking YouTube channels for malicious purposes.

Per a recent blog post shared by the Threat Analysis Group (TAG) of the American multinational company, hackers usually deploy a Cookie Theft Malware, which through the YouTuber’s password and cookie data, can be downloaded to the hacker’s servers.

The entire compromise begins with email correspondence for advertisement collaboration. Google said these hackers often impersonate an existing and established business, which offers a high level of legitimacy to the sender. Unsuspecting YouTubers who click and visit the embedded cloned websites with fake domains risk giving up their data to the hacker.

With access to a channel, the hackers can either auction it out to the highest bidder or use it to broadcast live cryptocurrency-related scams.

“The actors behind this campaign, which we attribute to a group of hackers recruited in a Russian-speaking forum, lure their target with fake collaboration opportunities (typically a demo for anti-virus software, VPN, music players, photo editing, or online games), hijack their channel, then either sell it to the highest bidder or use it to broadcast cryptocurrency scams,” the TAG report detailed.

The easy adoption of digital currencies in fraud and cyber thefts has caused massive friction in platforms like YouTube to allow crypto-related contents, which was a source of uproar for a while. However, with the recent upsurge in phishing scams, Google said it had decreased the volume of related phishing emails on Gmail by 99.6% since May 2021.

“We blocked 1.6M messages to targets, displayed ~62K Safe Browsing phishing page warnings, blocked 2.4K files, and successfully restored ~4K accounts. With increased detection efforts, we’ve observed attackers shifting away from Gmail to other email providers (mostly email.cz, seznam.cz, post.cz, and aol.com),”

The search engine added that in order “to protect our users, we have referred the below activity to the FBI for further investigation.”

YouTube to Explore NFTs, Head of Gaming Quits to Join Polygon

YouTube’s Chief Executive Officer Susan Wojcicki has announced that the online video sharing and social media platform will add nonfungible token (NFT) features for its video creators.

The NFT initiative marks the first time Alphabet Inc.’s Google, YouTube’s owner, is becoming involved with the cryptocurrency collectables. However, details about Wojcicki’s plans are not out yet, Bloomberg reported.

Prior to YouTube’s announcement, several of the platform’s competitors have already jumped in on the trend. Twitter Inc. began letting users post NFTs as profile photos, and Instagram is reportedly working on a similar offering, according to the Financial Times.

NFTs are digital assets like art that people can buy or sell. These assets exist on the record-keeping technology blockchain.

NFTs have seen a surge in popularity over the last year, and sales of NFTs reached some $25 billion in 2021, according to data from market tracker DappRadar.

Although YouTube has been late into the NFT game, the home to the largest creator economy has already spent many years building ways for its video stars to earn money beyond advertising, adding tools like fan payments and e-commerce.

“We’re always focused on expanding the YouTube ecosystem to help creators capitalize on emerging technologies, including things like NFTs, while continuing to strengthen and enhance the experiences creators and fans have on YouTube,” Wojcicki wrote in her annual letter to creators this week.

YouTube’s gaming head to join Polygon

Meanwhile, YouTube’s head of gaming, Ryan Wyatt, is departing from the video platform for seven years before joining Polygon Technology – a company that provides developers with a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks.

Wyatt announced he will be leaving next month.

“I will miss YouTube dearly, but it is time for me to pursue other endeavours in life and where my passions are taking me,” Wyatt wrote. “I am fascinated by blockchain app development and am beyond thrilled to enter the web3 space. I am elated to announce that I will be joining Polygon Technology as their CEO of Polygon Technology Studios.”

At Polygon Studios, Wyatt will be focusing on growing the developer ecosystem through investment, marketing and developer support and on “bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3.”