I think both of those things is true, though

Anyone can make a social network

See: Gab, Minds, more small ones

What we need to figure out is a way around payment processors

Just because it doesn't displace all at once doesn't mean it's not competing with it

gab may not last the night.

We can get around thinks like ISPs, but that requires a community effort.

Tor/VPN?

Minds is a step. Cryptos might be a way to get around the problem. But they are still too unstable

still requires hosting infrastructure and payment processors

Really why are payment processors even needed? Because we are too lazy to write monthly checks.

gab is being booted from its second host within hours

I thought Minds had some internal crypto?

Or ship hard cash

I think minds does

No, payment processors mitigate risk and volume

Or maybe that is steemit

and currently its only sources of income are shopify and startengine, both of which are likely to be lost as they rely on the same payment processors through a middleman

TBH I'm not gonna shed any tears over gab

mind's internal crypto is a failure

But there's nothing that really prevents it from operating

You could e.g. host it as a Tor service

network effects

the value of a cryptocurrency is directly dependent on the number of people using it, and the number of people using minds is directly dependent on having a means of making money using it.

Oh I agree, it's a problem

tor barely functions as is

To a degree, but there are also other factors

putting something like a major social media platform on it would cripple it

What we're seeing is the intensification of those other factors

Gab is not a major social media platform

We need to find the source of there not being a good alternative payment processor. Without identifing the roadblocks, you are not solving the problem.

Tor's capacity has also improved a lot over the past few years

Partly due to Snowden, likely

Meaning any regulation would be a bandaid

And that is very bad

The only solution I can see is some kind of cryptocurrency

Or at lest, something with most of the same properties

There's still likely a cash-out endpoint (for the near to medium future)

But at that point you're worried about e.g. banks stopping transfers because of your opinions

I can't say there's 0% chance of that, but they seem to be used to being hated

So probably are less susceptible to the sway of popular opinion