The year 2018 has not been all that positive for Bitcoin just yet. With the Bitcoin price in a slow and steady decline, it is evident something will need to change. Moreover, early adopters of Bitcoin as a payment option are rethinking their decision. Reddit is the latest company to remove BTC as a payment method altogether.
No More Bitcoin Support for Reddit Gold
A lot of people were surprised when Reddit made it possible to purchase its “Gold” membership program with Bitcoin. At the same time, that decision made a lot of sense. With Bitcoin becoming more popular and transaction fees not being an issue, it showed Reddit was willing to take a gamble and see how things went. Over the years, many people used Bitcoin to purchase Reddit Gold, and there was never any indication that the “partnership” would come to an end eventually.
As of this week, it seems Bitcoin can no longer be used to obtain Reddit Gold. It is unclear why the company made this decision or when the Bitcoin option was removed. To some people, this is a worrisome situation, as the number of merchants accepting Bitcoin appears to be shrinking rather than growing. Using Bitcoin as a currency has always been difficult, and things haven’t been improving as of late.
Unfortunately, this decision appears to be final, and Reddit has no plans of reinstating Bitcoin as a payment option in the future. An official communication on this front would have been ideal, but the site’s stance against cryptocurrency is rather clear. Losing one of the early adopters of Bitcoin is painful, yet it seems likely other platforms will take its place eventually.
The big question is whether or not Reddit will enable other cryptocurrency payment options in the future. With so many companies taking a strong liking to Bitcoin Cash as of late, it would not be all that surprising to see this alternative currency being implemented. For now, Reddit has not made its future plans clear by any means, as the company may be done with cryptocurrency altogether, for all we know.
According to sources, Reddit allegedly removed Bitcoin due to upcoming changes affecting the Coinbase platform. As Reddit has Bitcoin payments directly tied to Coinbase as a payment processor, it suddenly seems there may be a lot more to this story than meets the eye. Specifically, the shift to Coinbase Commerce may prove to be an area of concern. Additionally, it seems some users have experienced troublesome bugs when buying Reddit Gold with Bitcoin.
For now, we will have to wait and see how things unfold. Depending on how Coinbase Commerce performs, the Bitcoin option may be reinstated. Assuming that happens, support for Bitcoin Cash will not be too far away either. Both of those options would certainly bring positive attention to Reddit Gold.
