Twitch explained the details on its blog:
Cheering shows your support for the partner just like subscriptions do, and as you Cheer in a channel, you earn Cheer Chat Badges for that channel so that your support is recognized.
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To be fair, other fans have pointed out that an alternate currency that is officially sanctioned by Twitch might actually encourage more people to donate money than would otherwise do so. Twitch officially getting behind donations could also potentially stop or lower PayPal chargeback attempts by troll viewers.
Overall, early feedback on the changes doesn’t seem especially positive but it may be a while until this all shakes out. Bits can only be purchased right now for a limited list of approved Twitch Partners. Twitch said on its blog that it hopes to roll the new system out to all Partners in the near future. No word yet on when or if non-partners will be able to get in on the action. If “Bits” does prove to be successful, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Google’s YouTube Gaming follow suit. In the meantime, Twitch will continue to work on other major projects, like developing a program to combat racism in its chat channels.
