I'm not certain why crypto is hugely important here. Can reddit not just ask people to link a paypal/some other banal payment provider if they would like to pay content creators?
Now if said badges were say NFTs and could be traded for something else easily, I would agree with you.
Edit: I can’t for the life of me find the link but I swear there was an article posted to HN in the last week or so about Reddit giving mods an exclusive NFT or token of some sort that the mods were then selling for significant sums.
IDK, but it's bound to happen eventually, one way or the other!
I think we're in the very early stages for something that will change the power dynamics in social media
how is the mode of sending money the problem here?
Giving people that's not money comes with fewer administrative burden - and even less if it's digital.