Gab, a social network created as an alternative to Twitter, claims decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges are the future after the company’s merchant account and its founder, Andrew Torba, were banned by industry-leader Coinbase.

https://twitter.com/getongab/status/1081255271429681153

Gab’s troubles first began after it was banned from using PayPal (PYPL) as a payment processor following the shooting that took place last October at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The assailant had a history of racially-charged, anti-Semitic speech on Gab without repercussions from the platform.

Gab quickly turned to cryptocurrency as its main payment method but ran into similar hurdles when Coinbase slapped the social network with a surprise ban in November. The website responded by publicly blasting Coinbase as it looked for a new crypto payment processor.

“What we need now is the most user-friendly way for our users to obtain bitcoin. Coinbase is off the list because they are centralized Silicon Valley insider trash that banned us,” Gab said in a post.

Gab ultimately turned to BitPay, a blockchain payment processor that supports Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), in response to the Coinbase ban, but that did not last long either.

Now that the Coinbase ban has extended beyond Gab to include its founder, there are questions surrounding the implications of Coinbase’s outsized control. Unsurprisingly, Gab has come to the conclusion that decentralized exchanges, such as IDEX or Radar Relay, are the future of the industry.

Regardless of politics, it looks like Gab will be a point of interest within the cryptocurrency industry as the company traverses the intricacy of centralized platforms that currently act as the gatekeeper to the decentralized economy.

Disclaimer: This article’s author has cryptocurrency holdings that can be tracked here. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. Always conduct your own due diligence before making investments.