Comment by smileybarry

That post is very outdated and was in the pre-alpha stage. At the time you paid (once) to join a sort of staging ground where they also discussed features with users, and asking what they'd prefer. And that buy-in pre-alpha period also ended when the alpha app launched.

They didn't really "sell usernames", unless you also call buying a paid app with social features "buying a username".

And as far as "Gems", looks like bragging rights. This is what clicking (?) currently says:

> Gems are earned by being amongst the very first to Digg a post that trends across the platform. The earlier you are to discovering and Digging the post, the more Gems you’ll earn.